Another Adventure With Sam
A few days after my foray with Sam into the electronics world of Guadalajara, my car died. It appeared that a wheel bearing was going out and that had affected the brakes. Whatever had happened, I managed to drive the car home with a horrible grinding noise coming from under the hood. Since Mary was in the US, I was up the virtual creek without the figurative paddle (is that a mixed metaphor?). So I called on Sam. After a day or two he arranged to have my car taken to a mechanic.
Arranging anything in Mexico requires a hands-on approach, so I was not surprised to see Sam riding in the cab of the tow-truck when it came. He, of course, knew the owner of the towing service, as well as the owner of the mechanic’s shop where we were going to take the car.
Sam had arranged to get a flatbed tow truck so that my car would not be damaged. The bed of the truck was tipped, and a cable pulled it up onto the bed. Then the bed was tilted back down and everything was fine. I had a doctor appointment and was running late, so Sam said to get in the tow truck because the mechanic’s shop was near the doctor.
One of the tow truck operators climbed into my car so that there was room in the truck cab for me. It was interesting watching the driver pilot his way through the 7:00 pm rush hour traffic - especially through "the glorietta from hell".
We were way late for my appointment with the doctor, so I started fretting about the possibility that the doctor would just close up shop because of my lateness. Sam whipped out a cell phone and called the doctor office for me. Then he showed me that he could surf the Internet from his cell phone. He explained that Mexico’s cell phone network is more advanced than the US’s because it is totally digital. Mexico waited until things stabilized, and then did it right. Backward Mexico is on the cutting edge of one of the technologies that will probably change everyone’s life worldwide.
When we got to the garage I caught a taxi to the doctor’s office. After seeing the doctor I was quite surprised to see Sam sitting in the waiting room. It seemed that I had forgotten to pay for the tow truck. We debated on whether we should return to pay the tow truck immediately or if I should just give Sam the money and he could pay it the next day. Being hungry, we opted for the next day and decided to go eat at a restaurant. Sam said he knew of a great Brazilian one, so we hopped on his motorcycle and cruised through the streets of Guadalajara with the wind whipping in our hair.
I hadn’t been on a motorcycle in years. Sam’s had small wheels and a two-cycle engine that provided plenty of torque. The small wheels meant we felt every single bump in the road, and there were plenty of them. The high torque engine meant I had to hang on tightly at traffic lights when they turned green.
Sam had an interesting way of driving. To him, traffic lights were only a suggestion. When he wanted to turn left and the light was about to turn, he would turn right, head-on to traffic on the cross street. Then he would do a U-turn so that he’d be at the head of the line of cars waiting for the light to change. I was surprised that no one seemed to mind this unorthodox way of driving. No one beeped their horn, no one yelled or flashed their lights. Hey, we were in Mexico.
When we got to the restaurant, Sam drove up onto the sidewalk to talk to one of the waiters standing outside. Too bad, but the restaurant was closing. We quickly changed plans and headed off for a Mexican restaurant that served something called 'meat in its own juice'. Sam told me that that particular food had been served at that location for two hundred years. He also told me about a nearby restaurant that was in the Guinness book of world records for having the fastest service in the world you get your food in thirty seconds or less or something like that.
We arrived at the restaurant and had our meal. The food was some of the best I’ve ever tasted. The meat was shaved into very thin slices while the juice had a slightly acid tang to it. After our meal Sam talked me into drinking a cup of the juice that had some extra chile pepper in it. My recommendation? Don’t do it. It doesn’t taste all that hot while you drink it, but it will come back to haunt you. Trust me on this.
After eating, I caught a cab back home a safe and sane method of transportation. Sam is trying to talk me into buying a motorcycle, but Mary has firmly come down against that. She says I’m too old to heal up fast. Maybe maybe not.