Learning to Shift in San Francisco
Sometimes I think that my travel bug is closely associated with my masochistic side. I have only truly ever thought that I was going to die when I was traveling. Not that that is a bad thing, if I don’t live to be 97 like my grandmother and die peacefully in bed one night, I hope I die while traveling.
Sitting at the top of some hill in San Francisco, behind the wheel of my brand new car, I truly thought that I would be dying in the next few minutes. My front wheels were a good 4 feet above my back wheels and I sat there, my hands and feet and heart griping every piece of the car that I thought would give me a better control over it, cursing my cocky self that thought it would be ‘fun’ to drive up to San Francisco for the night. It would have been, I suppose, if my new Mitsubuishi Lancer didn’t have a manual transmission.
Here’s the thing. I love my stick shift. I also love San Francisco, especially on Sunday nights during the off-season when the streets get all quiet and it’s just the locals out and about. It seemed natural , when I got back to San Jose from winter break with my new car, to drive up and wander around the city. I wouldn’t go up any big hills, I thought. I forgot to take into account that I have NO sense of direction in San Francisco because of its streets being oriented strangely due to the peninsula’s shape.
Which is how I ended up nearly vertical on some road in the Presidio. I think I was in the Presidio, but to this day I’m still not sure. Taking a deep breath, glancing in my rear view mirror at the three cars lined up and honking behind me, I shoved the transmission into first and pulled up the emergency break with my now-free hand. Using the emergency instead of the pedal break I was able to release and accelerate at the same time. The car gods had intervened. I was going to be ok!!!
And then I stalled…
I cursed. And slammed every break I could get my hands and feet on and prayed that the Saturn behind me wouldn’t run into my rear.
They didn’t. I took another breath, and performed the maneuver again, gunning the gas as I slowly released the parking break. The car shot over the hilltop and I was free! I did it! I conquered the hills of San Francisco in a manual!!
It was, unfortunately, all downhill from there…
