Complex Numbers

Going South

A Monday update about my Sunday travels:

The weather didn't hold out for me as I drove south into North Carolina yesterday morning, and I discovered, or rather, confirmed what I already knew about certain modern car features: rain can confuse the hell out of them.

When I was looking for a new-to-me car last fall, I had a few requirements: I knew I wanted a Subaru Crosstrek with a decent sound system and a sunroof. Most everything else was negotiable. Well, it turned out that the one they had on the lot fit the bill; though the system wasn't as high-end as the one in my previous Subaru, it's good enough.

I wasn't looking for smart features specifically, but they came with the car. For instance, Android Auto for connecting my phone's Maps to the car's screen. But also things like lane sensing and adaptive cruise control. Well, that's what I call it; I don't know what the official name is. It's like, if you set the cruise control but the car in front of you insists on plodding along at 2 mph below your cruise speed, it senses this and slows down.

A lot of people don't like new things, so I've heard all the hand-wringing about it, but it works. The car doesn't force you to use it. What I wasn't sure of was how it would handle real rain. Yesterday, I found out. No, not the hard way; turns out that when the sensors are blocked, it warns you. Okay, cool. Fair enough. Something to consider if we manage to get real autonomous vehicles before civilization collapses: how it'll handle reduced visibility. Probably by using something other than visual sensors. Or maybe by giving up and waiting for the rain to slow down. I don't know; I'm not that kind of engineer.

The sunroof is mostly useless in the rain, too, but that's as expected. Hence the name. It's not a rainroof. I've heard it called a moonroof, too, and I always thought that the difference was one can be opened and the other is fixed like a windshield, but apparently not. Whatever. Or maybe one of them is for baring your butt at other drivers? That seems dangerous.

The weather cleared up around midday, and I ended up in a small town I'd never even heard of, let alone been to (Kinston, NC) which turns out to have a couple of good breweries, so I stayed. One of the breweries is affiliated with the motel downtown, which, really, I don't know why more people don't pursue that business model. "Can't drive? Stay safe in one of our rooms!" Maybe they're afraid of the cleaning that might be necessary.

Today (Monday) is my last full day on the road; I expect to return home on Tuesday, after which I'll return to my usual kinds of blog entries.

But so far, I'm calling the trip a success: I had some new experiences, mostly positive, though even the negatives, such as the annoying push-button hotel from a few days ago and the occasional lower-quality beer, were worth the inconvenience, as they gave me stories to tell.

That could, of course, turn around ("go south," as it were), and if I were a writer, I'd be able to come up with sixty different plot twists to ruin the trip. Oh, wait. I am a writer. Well, bad things can happen at any time, road trip or not, so I'll just keep enjoying the journey for as long as it lasts.