Taken in General

Whew. Just watched the Liam Neeson movie “Taken.”

Not for the feint of heart, at least if you are a parent. Pretty badass movie, but I had to check my blood pressure, because I was adrenalized.

Trip down to pick up the folks at the Portland Jetport was uneventful. Other than their flight being delayed an hour for maintenance issues.

FlightAware is a remarkable tool. I knew their flight was delayed before I got the text from Dad.

I drove up to ‘Salem’s lot and swapped my Fusion for their Ford Edge.

The instrument panel and center MFD are the same as my car. But I hit the start button and the sound of the engine startled me.

My Fusion is a hybrid. The motor doesn’t kick on immediately. It only kicks on when the system senses the battery needs some juice.

I sync’d my phone to the MFD, turned on my book and headed for Portland.

The Edge doesn’t have intelligent cruise control. A lesson I learned over and over. In my car, I turn on the cruise control and set the distance – one, two, three car lengths.

Then the car automatically slows when the asshole in front of you slows, or the asshole in front of him slows.

Yeah. The Edge doesn’t do that.

I was back to old school foot on the throttle driving, because people!

Parked in the “Cell Lot” at the airport. I must have arrived just as their plane touched down.

Ten minutes later I got a text “We’re in Portland.”

I responded, “I’m in the cell lot.”

Loaded up their luggage and Dad asked if I wanted to drive.

Nope. All yours.

He took the Freeport detour, down some roads I road on a bike starting at 16, when I worked as a lifeguard at White’s beach. 7 Miles each way, every day.

We all remarked how high the Androscoggin was as we crossed from Durham back into Lisbon Falls.

Charlie, my parent’s little rat-dog was overjoyed they were home and proceeded to run around in a fury.

I begged off to get home before it got too dark, and to prep my grill.

I’m on Spanish time. I’ll be lucky to get the grill lit by 10PM.