NYC, The Batmobile, and Thanksgiving

    First, disclaimers to all those who have read Lisa’s thread, parts of which will give her an extra 5 years in Purgatory.

    1. I never fall asleep while driving. I am always alert, awake, and attentive. Although sometimes I have to rest my eyes. Going from 65 to 50 to 70 is just a good way to test your accelerator.

    2. Hearing The Gift while driving inspired me to take a side trip to Philadelphia, but there wasn’t quite enough time. That explains why we spent an hour on I-76 instead of I-80.

    3. It has always been on my wish list to drive for the first time in New York City at rush hour in the dark. My wish was granted. Oh what a perfect day!

    4. I would always treat New York’s finest with the utmost respect. When the officer asked me a question, I had to shout as loud as possible to be heard over all those horns honking behind me.

    5. Susan recently bequeathed to me some of her more colorful vocabulary when she decided she didn’t need it anymore. To show my gratitude, I thought I would use some of it, with enough volume for her to hear it wherever she stayed in New York.

    Now that I’ve made those disclaimers, if I were Pinocchio, my nose would reach from here in Illinois all the way back to Rockefeller Plaza.

    Let me tell you a little bit about the vehicle in which we made our trip. It is a shiny black hatchback which looks like someone took the original Batmobile through a car wash and shrank it, hence the name. Into this car we piled 800 of Tweek’s buttons, 12 pieces of luggage, 3 excited fans, a wheelchair, a breathing machine, (and a partridge in a pear tree?—no, that’s next month). My fellow passengers set some kind of speed record for unloading all of this while double-parked in Manhattan during the above rush hour.

    But that’s not the most important story about the Batmobile. The real story is how I got it.

    Last summer my little dog Sunny died in my lap of heat exhaustion as we were driving home in my old car which no longer had air conditioning. I wrote about it here to express my grief , because you folks here are friends with whom I could share it. Then something incredible happened.

    3 fans from different websites set up another website to raise funds to get me a car with air conditioning. When they had enough pledges, they let me know the money was being sent. It was like an Easter egg hunt, where I would find money in my home mailbox or my post office box or Paypal or my bank. They raised thousands of dollars, enough for me to buy a good used car. I found the Batmobile for sale in Chicago. It had been rebuilt from a car totaled by Illinois police, who have stricter standards than almost any other state. It had to pass 2 safety inspections. It passed the second one with flying colors 2 days before we left for New York.

    And that brings us to the final topic of Thanksgiving. My heart is full of thanks today. I’m thankful not only for those wonderful people who gave me the Batmobile, but also those who, at the same time helped bajaraquel get to the hospital for medical care and helped justfan with his wife’s funeral. I am thankful for the fans who made Lisa’s trip to NYC possible, and those who helped others get there. I am thankful for the more than 100 fans who pledged over $21,000 to help buy this site. And for those whose whose contributions to the site are not financial—those who bring us news and videos, and pictures of Susan. And those who click their thanks to the contributors.

    I feel gratitude for all the many good and generous people on this site. And most of all for Susan, who brought us all together. Happy Thanksgiving!

reprinted from Dyebat's Ride on Susan's Bus