I guess we should have left earlier? I guess we should have paid the balance on the car rental? I guess we should have not let our E Z Pass lapse?!

Driving to Portland Maine, from Baltimore, seemed like an easy trip to accomplish! I had done it before, but I had never left late on a Saturday morning!

Two cups of coffee, a chocolate dough-nut and off we went! Calculations, put us in Portland around 8:00 pm, just in time for a birthday dinner with our friends.

Interstate 95 was clear! 65 miles per hour and we were off!

An hour later, things got hairy! The toll booth came up, as we expected, but as we drove through, the little sign said, Low Balance' and as we drove off, we heard an annoying, but familiar sound; It was like we had given a wrong answer in a Quiz Show!

Off we went again! Traffic slowed down as we turned the bend and approached the Delaware line. The coffee and Dough-nuts were starting to percolate! There were road works everywhere, no where to pull over, missed the only exit before the Delaware Memorial Bridge and there we were; In a Mid-day, Saturday Traffic Jam!

It was probably ninety degrees, if not more! The air-conditioning labored, but kept us cool, in certain areas of our bodies. I turned to my girl friend and she turned to me; Looks were desperate! We had to find a bathroom; Quickly!

To cut a very arduous story short; We arrived at the Delaware Memorial Bridge, sweating and holding on for dear life! It had taken three hours to complete a one hour circuit of out nine hour journey! Thanks to Mr. Orange cone, with the white stripes, we had bladders, the size of Beach-Balls!

Maine was nice! Our friends, re-did their Birthday celebration, just for us, the following day and it was as if, all was not lost!

The next day, we decided to take a drive in the countryside and admire some of nature's delights. We got up not so bright, but early, got into our sparkling, rented-vehicle, turned the ignition key and nothing happened!

I tried to think of all the things that could go wrong with a practically brand-new Dodge-Grand-Caravan, but nothing came to mind! Instead, I pulled out my Triple A' card and looked at it for about two minutes! Then I whipped out my cell phone, and called the rental company.

After establishing my identity, I had the following conversation:-

"I am sorry!" I said. "But the vehicle we are renting, will not start!"

The gentleman on the other end of the line, all the way back in Baltimore, said, "Well that's because you didn't pay the balance that was due, before you left!"

"Huh!" I replied. "B-but how can that.........................? "

It hit me, like walking into a very large spider's web! Global Positioning Systems! Global Immobilization! "Wow!" I thought!

They had immobilized our rental vehicle from a satellite system, which was probably orbiting over Australia at the time?

I had to find a fax and copy service, fax a copy of my credit card, with a written statement and then wait five minutes, with the ignition turned on, so that they could hook us up again! It took ten minutes, but hey!

Learn more about this author, Jon Coe.
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