Before exploring the adventure, I would like to state three important things. First, I remembered clearly that it was on Saturday, March 13, 1999 that the adventure took place. Second, I had two reasons why I rented a car.

One was that I wanted to practice my driving. Since August of 1997, I had not ever been in a driver’s seat. The other was on the request of my friend Mille, who wanted to take the present of a TV set for his mother. She lived in Zhouzhi, eighty kilometers away from Xian in which I lived. Xi’an is one of famous historic cities in China whereas Zhouzhi is a very small county in China. Third, the stories happened on the way between Xi’an and Zhouzhi. Let’s begin the first story of how I have got the car on the way to the gas station. My home phone was ringing at 7:40AM. The guy, who is my friend Lynn’s brother, told me that he was waiting for me in front of the store, which was not far from my home. I rushed through the door and went downstairs. After I turned a corner, I saw the four-door blue car parked beside the guy. He accepted a rental fee after he verified my driver’s license. He showed me the car very briefly. Before he left, he said the gas tank was almost empty. That meant that I had to go to the gas station, which is situated downtown, to fill the car. But, how would I get the car on the way to the station even though I didn’t get the car to move any more? It was the first time that I rented a car to drive. Also, this was the first time that I sat behind the Santana‘s wheel. What I should do first was to familiarize myself with the car. I opened the door, sat in the seat and looked at the dashboard so carefully that I could recite where all switches and buttons were in a short time. I tried to adjust the mirrors and my seat, to move the gearshift lever, and to step on the brake pedal. After getting some ideas about the car, I recalled the driving procedures that I learned from books. You know, I had only been driving for five hours and less than fifty kilometers. I almost forgot how to drive. Fortunately, the procedures came into my mind little by little. I managed to apply those. I started the engine, stepped on the clutch pedal thoroughly, and moved the lever to the first speed. Then, I watched out well and released the brake. The car moved as soon as I depressed the accelerator gradually, and relaxed the clutch slowly. I was delighted that I was able to have the car move. Before that, I was not sure if I could be able to drive a car though I rented a car. I practiced a few times until I was certain that I could let the car go. Next, in case I would need help, I called my friend Tom to come over, who told me that he had been a driving school before. After I had showed Tom the car, I told him that the tank was empty. I requested Tom to drive the car to the gas station because I was lack of confidence. The other reason was that I thought he might have had more experience than I did. Unexpectedly, he replied that he was overwhelmed by heavy traffic on city ways. Driving on real roads would be the big challenge that I had to face. I moved the car according to the procedures, and got on the way to the gas station finally.

Let’s move to the small uphill where the second story, called the engine died, happened. The hill was located on the way to the gas station. It was a slope ten meters long and five meters wide. There were many bikes, trikes, and cars there. Unlike Canada, China has much more bikes as transit rather than exercise. I had the car slow down when the slope caught my eyes. Even there were almost one hundred meters to go. I managed to go as slowly as possible so that I could avoid traffic jam. It happened that there were fewer bikes on the slope when I got there. I made a right turn and began to climb the hill. Unfortunately, the engine died in the middle of the slope. I applied the brakes as quickly as I could almost at the same time. I did not know what had happened. Maybe I was scared by veterans’ words, which it is hard for inexperienced drivers to resume to go on a slope. Maybe I droved too slowly, or even there was anything wrong with the engine. While I sat there to wait to be calm down, I heard that some taxicab drivers shouted to go. I was not sure whether I would be able to resume. I asked Tom to persuade taxicabs behind me to keep away in case my car would slid backwards to hit them. After everything had been down, I turned the key. The engine started to run easily. As a result, I knew the engine OK. I held the clutch down thoroughly, and shifted into the lowest gear. Then, I stepped on the accelerator slowly until the tachometer's hand pointed 2500 rpm. I released the manual brake as soon as I loosed the clutch. After my car moved abruptly, I calmed down. I depressed the accelerator till the gas station although I knew Tom was outside the car. Later, I requested Tom to forgive me for his walking about 400 meters.

I’ll tell the last story, the small accident. The accident happened at 12:30pm at the corner where it only took two minutes to our destination by walking. The cause was that I made a right turn and a sudden stop. The effect was the engine stopped running. Without steering back, I started the engine, released the clutch, and stepped on the accelerator deeply. The tachometer said 3000 rpm. But the car didn’t moved at all. I checked out for a while to see if anything was wrong. Finally, the red brake icon on the dash caught my eyes. I naturally relaxed the brake without any thinking of at all. As a consequence, I heard noise aloud and saw a cloud of smoke coming from the right front of me immediately. The car steadily stopped. I jumped out of the car anxiously to see what had happened. The blow-out tire rushed deeply against the large cube beside the road. Fortunately, none of five was wounded and nothing was damaged except the wheel. After the mechanic who was asked from a vehicle shop by Mille got the blow-out off, and installed the spare, we reached our destination Zhouzhi county at 1:30PM.

In this paragraph, I’ll tell you the conclusion that I had made from the adventure. When reminded of this experience, I questioned myself, "Should I have experienced the adventure without a veteran?" What would have happened if the car had made someone wounded or dead? How would I prevent an accident from happening again? I have not found exact answers yet. However, I have definitively known that I must take into account thoroughly before making any decision.

May 16, 2000