Craziest Adventure with Sophia- Part 1

It is safe to say that I am a big fan of adventuring and having crazy experiences, but this past one may have gone past anything I’ve ever done before. Before I get into the meat of this storytelling, let me first set the stage. So my best friend from when I lived in China came and visited me in the United States. Her name is Sophia and she is from Antigua and Barbuda and an all-around amazing human. So thankful for her. This entire adventure starts (in some ways) when I picked her up from the airport. I drive all the way up to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago from my friend’s house about an hour and a half to two hours away. I naturally am running a little late, but it all ends up working out well since it is taking her a while to get through customs and such. I stand in the arrival area, we see each other, and we squeal and get so excited. This is the first moment that we have seen one another in person in over a year. We were ecstatic. Sophia, her stuff, and I get into the car, pay the two dollars for parking, then head over to grab some food. I decided to introduce her to the awe-inspiring food that is Giordano’s deep dish pizza. Good life decision.

After stuffing our stomaches with bread, cheese, and tomato sauce, we began the drive back down to my friend’s house. Traffic was crazy, so we were cutting through the city streets to attempt to save time. As we were driving through the city, I start to point out that we are in a less nice part of the city. Sophia says how happy she is that we are in the car because Chicago is made out to be so dangerous. A few moments later, the gas pedal won’t allow me to go anymore. Thankfully, we weren’t on the highway or anything so it was safer. I pull off on a side street, park, and begin to slightly panic. Since I’ve been home, I’ve been driving my dad’s 2004 Suburban, the vehicle I learned to drive in. It’s gone well over 200,000 miles so it can be persnickety after 15 years of use. I google where the nearest auto store is and thankfully there is one about 4 blocks away from where we were. I turn off the car and let it sit for a second then restart it and slowly drive to the store. Once we arrive, I turn off the car and call my dad in hopes that he can somehow magically fix the problem from several hours away. It’s had a few issues in the past so we both think it might be one of those. After letting the car sit for a bit, I open the hood optimistic that my dad’s mechanical knowledge has been somehow transmitted through a sort of cell phone osmosis. It hadn’t, as my brother later pointed out that I know about nothing about looking at an engine. I checked everything I had some sort of general knowledge about, the level of the antifreeze coolant that was shown through clear plastic container and didn’t see any fires or smoke or anything that was actively leaking.

We went inside the auto store and were both overwhelmed with our collective knowledge of mechanical skills being proven to be severely lacking (aka almost nonexistent). We got a rag to check the oil like my dad said to do, and some antifreeze because that was what had had previous problems. We go back out to the car with Sophia locking the doors the second we get into the car. I go back outside and check the oil level since that is about the only thing I know how to do. It looks perfectly fine. So I get back into the car and call my dad back. He tells me that he is not back at the farm, but further north visiting a friend so he can help me if I absolutely need it. He also tells me that I should turn it on and let it run for a minute and get the RPM up while I’m parked for a minute or two. We end the call and I do what he told me. It seems to work, so I leave the parking lot and go fill up the gas tank in case that my fuel was either stolen or there was some sort of gunk in the fuel line. I paid way too much for the gas, but it seems to work. I call my dad back again and let him know that it seems to be working fine now. I carefully drive the two hours back to my friend’s house and we didn’t have any more problems. Once we got there, Mariah and Sophia ended up being able to meet, then Sophia promptly crashed on the couch and slept because jet lag and traveling is exhausting.

This story (which is much longer than I realized it would be) was just the start of the craziness of the adventures that Sophia and I would get up to during the two weeks she was here. I’ll turn this into a couple of posts so I can share a few more details of the insane adventures we went on while we were traveling and spending time together.