An Immersive Transport Experience - San Francisco, CA (Part 2)

In tandem with the unique character of the neighborhoods, San Francisco also carries the undertones of a technological hub. Along with the rest of the tech echelon, Uber and Lyft headquarters are both located in San Francisco, which is something I wish I knew before my unsuccessful attempt to coordinate recovery of a peacoat left in an Uber. (Frankly, it's almost a given that I forget about the coat all weekend because I didn't need it in the warmth of San Francisco February.)

At any rate, while rider apps and the SF public transportation system are generally convenient, my friend and I wanted to rent a car for Saturday to cross the Golden Gate and Bay bridges (the view was totally worth it). And thus so, we chanced upon a bright red Mustang rental car, costing me a minimal upgrade fee because the rental service had no other available cars left on the lot.

Perfectly honestly and probably predictably, this "fortuitous" change of events tripped my instinctive risk averseness and instantly induced a wariness towards assuming responsibility for this next-level, very-valuable species of car. Not your stock rental Ford Focus.

The investigative questions to the counter agent and the ensuing cost-benefit analysis went like this: No, it doesn’t use substantially more gas. No, it’s not manual. Yes, sports cars are not as fully covered under insurance as regular cars. Yes, I’ve read studies on flashy cars being pulled over more often. However, this would make a great story to my coworkers next week and I'll take every opportunity to reinforce my identity as a cautiously adventurous person.

Thus I came to rent a sportscar in sunny California and was pleasantly surprised to find that driving it doesn't take much of an adjustment curve. The acceleration is impressively effortless. Turn radius is a little poor, exacerbating my fear of scratching it against parking garage polse, coupled with the fact that its gigantically wide in general. On the other hand, not only are there seat warmers but also seat coolers. After some curious inspection, we also realized that the Mustang logo light projection on the ground aside the car was coming from under the side mirrors which lit up every time we entered and exited this machine of modern invention.

I do think that I’m more wary now of driving nicer cars, after taking a good spin and realizing correspondingly that you pay for Amazing in dollars and also in elevated stress levels. I felt that throughout the rental period, I half loved the drive and half held my breath with paranoia over the possibility of damage or trouble. This is a particularly counterintuitive state of mind for me given my inherent flippancy towards caring for belongs, which after all, exist to serve me and not the other way around.

Even so, it was pretty cool and I find that San Francisco is an undeniable force of a metropolis: encompassing the intersections of aggressive variety, creative flourish, technological genius, active outdoors haven, and West Coast city feel. I've already started a going checklist of unexplored activities for the next time I return, which come to think of it, I’ve also compiled for every other location I've visited lately.