Drivinghomesim

This is "Driving Home Simulator 2022" by Bayden Moon Trocki The hour is 2:00am and you've finished hanging out with your girlfriend on a Thursday night. You have school in the morning so that's why you're leaving kind of early. As you're leaving her apartment, you hug her, say goodbye to her cat, then close the door behind you. [[Check Phone]]

You start walking down the outside hallway in your girlfriends apartment, counting down the numbers as you walk towards the set of stairs that leads to the parking lot. As you strut your legs down the steep set of stairs you start to cock your head around and realize that you have a choice to make, would you like to cruise back to your house in style or nostalgia? [[Cute and Vintage 1950 Volkswagen Beetle]] [[Stylish and Retro 2003 Honda S2000 Sports Car.]]

You waddle your way over, past a couple SUVs and just next to a few sports cars sat a cream colored, admidittly a little rusty, but charming Volkswagen Beetle. You smile thinking about what people actually did with these things in the early 50s as you swing open the door and sit in the car. you [[turn the key into the ignition]] and start the car.

You hear a sudden BEEP MEEP, and you recognize your car. As you walk past some vintage cars and luxury ones, there sits the beauty. You have a 2003 Honda S2000. It's a manual, in all black with relativley low milage. You've had it since your 16th birthday Sophmore year in High School. You unlock the car, [[twist the key in the ignition]], look out the rearview mirror and begin to back out of the car spot.

You change the gear into reverse and back out the beetle into the parking lot, your girlfriend texts you "look up at the banister" you do, and she's there waving at you in a happy manner. You wave back at her as you leave the parking lot. The GPS tells you to turn right down Amethyst St. It's essentially a four lane highway that has a lot of stop and go traffic usually. Today was different, you check the phone "2:00am" and back at the road, there's no traffic. [[Speed Up]]

"Oh man" you say as you but the foot to the floor in your 1950 Volkswagen Beetle and surprisingly the engine accelerates, not fast but you move faster. You hit 70mph and feel like the car might fall apart so you take your foot off the gas. A couple cars come up in the rearview and that doesn't mean much to you, they pass you and look at your car, you feel happy. You check the GPS and it gives a suggestion [["Save 5 minutes with quicker route?"]] do you take it or continue on the road originally suggested. [[Amethyst St.]]

You grin and click the quicker route button, the phone re-routes and says "take a right in the next half mile onto Ophelia Ln. After the half mile you slow down, shift into the right lane and make the turn. As you see the old farm road initially goosebumps set in. You speed up but can't get past 55mph due to the speed limit, hour of the day, potholes and year of your car. It wouldn't be smart. You look around as your cruising, on your right there's acres of corn. Each ear as tall as you are, if not more. As your driving your realize the line of corn virtually goes forever, the night reinforces this observation. On your left you occasionally see a barn or ranch, some small building with its roof caved or a field where animals should graze, but they don't. You get an uneasy feeling, you're tempted to [[speed up]], but at the same time you're already tweaked enough with the small road and circumstance. You [[continue cruising]]

Against your gut you decide not to press the quicker route and start cruising down the narrow section of Amethyst St. There really isnt that many people but you maintain your easy 70mph that you were previously doing. You look down at your GPS and it says that there's A good two miles before the next turn onto Pearl Rd. But a quick sideglance to your right makes you realize that your gas meter is low. Lower than a fourth of a tank, so it's time to start looking for a station. A couple moments later a [[Kwik Trip]] comes into view.

As you speed up, your mind state eases but your car doesn't. The potholes start impacting your already small tires and the ride becomes bumpy. The GPS says 2.5 miles before you turn left onto "Pearl Rd" but before you could get there... [[Shmack]]

You're too tweaked to speed up, so you just cruise at 55mph. The GPS says 2.5miles before you turn left onto Pearl Rd. and you can't help be feel excited to get onto a road you remember. As you approach the left hand turn lane you spot the familiar Kwik Trip that lights your safety back home, you make the left onto Pearl Rd. The road is well lit and has a direct connection to the street you live on. Familiar shops like Meijer, Walmart and even the Local Famous Daves pops up on your left. [[continue]]

Before you reacted, a mighty deer walked out from the corn. A large stag with massive horns and A lot of deer muscle (if you know). Your 1950 Volkswagen Beetle going 75 mph on Ophelia Ln. at approximately 9:50pm killed the stag instantly, as well as your car. The mighty stag weighed about the same as your Beetle so the impact gutted your car. You get the feeling that you're going to be stuck for a while... YOU LOSE. [[Driving Home Simulator 2022]]

Your home street "Hydrangea Dr." pops up. You close the GPS, turn onto the street and pull into your driveway. You take your phone out and text your girlfriend "I made it home", after you turn off the car, gather your things and close your door a feeling of relief washes over you when you comfortably open the front door and walk inside your home. YOU WIN. [[Driving Home Simulator 2022]]

As you're backing out the car, you let a car pass in the lot as you back out. When you pull away your girlfriend is standing on the balcony looking towards you, making a heart with her hands. You caught her from afar so as you approach you wave bye until she isn't noticible. You make your first right turn onto Amethyst St., power on your Phone, enter in your address and begin the journey home. [[Put the pedal to the metal!]]

You have free reign of the four lane highway. It's 2:00am when you check the GPS, which doesn't really concern you. You see there isn't cars or even lights down the road for miles. You speed up. Your food goes from a 45 degree angle to the floor, even with the pressure of the accelerator you got the foot down quick. You push the clutch in several times and shift gears from 1st, to 2nd, then 3rd and top out at a cool 70mph before you settle midway through 3rd gear. The digital speedometer looks like a wave about to curl over the number under it. It's a bar rather than a hemisphere, which made you feel like you're driving a faster car than you actually were. The road winds and zips and entangles almost indefinitley. Your cars lights really don't have the lumens to go past a couple meters or so. Sure there's an occasional streetlight but you can't help but feel [[alone]] tonight.

By the time it's 2:15am, you're still on Amethyst St. but the surronding area has changed, there's a dense wooded area on either side of where you're driving. The original four lane is still there but the width has narrowed. Your GPS begins to scramble a little and posts a new suggestion... "[[Save 5 minutes]] with a quicker route?, or continue down [[Amethyst St.]]"

You feel secure in your 2003 sports car, so you turn onto Ophelia Ln. Immidietly on entry you notice the lack of care for this lane. There are potholes everywhere, littered randomly on the street. The road hadn't been paved probably since the day the street was made. You slow down to a modest 50mph. The suspension on your car isn't doing much, since you're so close to the ground you feel every bump you ride over. As you look on your right you see miles and acres of corn. Every stalk and ear is taller than you are. In the night time you get an uneasy feeling from the vastness and wall of corn. To your left there is a farm, house or abandoned shack every few miles or so. Very much few and far between, not much to say besides the homes look quaint and comfy. You're dodging and swerving around potholes almost every second, but you hatch an idea. If you go a little faster, there's a possibility that you might jump some of the holes instead of having to dodge every one. [[Do you continue at 50mph]] or [[speed up to 70mph again]]?

You continue to swerve and dodge potholes. Every bump reminds you that you're awake and alert while cruising down this street. You come across a massive pothole in the distance, prematurley you slow down, roll into someones front yard, pass the downright dangerous hole and effectivley speed back into the street. The mighty 2003 Honda S2000 purrs as you accelerate and change gears back up to 50mph. A swift check at the GPS lets you know that in half a mile you're going to keep left and turn onto Pearl Rd. So, you slow down, get into the left hand turn lane and make your [[turn onto Pearl Rd]] at about 2:30am

You put your feet on the accelerator and clutch, both feet go down, you shift from 1st, to 2nd and then 3rd and level out somewhere in third gear. You're coasting down Ophelia Ln, doing 70mph, virtually flying over potholes, you check the GPS and it says one mile before you turn left onto Pearl Rd. which you recognize. You look back at the street and see a MASSIVE pothole, bigger than the rest and before you had time to react, SHMACK! The front two tires clip the end of the pothole and manually turn the tires inward at a 180 degree angle, mounting your car like a statue in the middle of the street for all to see. But you're too trapped in an airbag, in shock from the situation to notice. YOU LOSE. [[Driving Home Simulator 2022]]

A weight is lifted from your soul as you finally see a streetlight again, even though the span of Ophelia was only 15 minutes you felt like it went longer. Shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear felt correct, and the car rumbles through the night as you speed back up to 70mph. Pearl Rd is like that highway connecting road that every city probably has. You take it to and from work because its one of the roads in town that lets you drive at 70mph uncontested. There are plenty of Gas stations, larger stores like Ikea, Target, Walmart, Costco etc... They are scattered with long driveways away from the road. You are impressed by the lights and amount of cars, trucks and SUVs you see at this hour. looks like everyone is [[on their way home.]]

There are so many different types of vehicles, you don't care enough to spot any because you're tired from your night with your girlfriend. The Honda swerves around slower cars, there's no one telling you that it's not possible. Pearl Rd is one of those streets that is super wide in the center but shrinks and gets narrow the farther you go, there are residential streets that attatch to Pearl. Your street Hydrangea Dr. is one of those lanes. As the road narrows and all the vehicles allign you check the GPS, a mile before you turn right onto Hydrangea Dr. You ready the car, downshift and make the right into the turn lane. [[Hydrangea awaits.]]

You make it into your street at around 3:00am. There's no need for the GPS anymore so you turn off the app and power off your phone. Your house is the black and white one with the basketball hoop in the driveway. Three houses in from the turn on the left. Happiness overwhelmes you as you pull into the driveway, downshift, put the car in park, press the e-brake, turn off the ignition and open the Honda car door. You take a breathe of fresh air and begin to walk to the front door. You lock the car, crack your phone out and tell your girlfriend that you're happy with how tonight went and want to see her again soon. Your hand is on the door handle, you twist the handle and walk inside your house. YOU WIN. [[Driving Home Simulator 2022]]

You frantically turn into the Kwik Trip, the sign says $3.05 a gallon for unleaded, that's all you needed to see before you slow down and stop into pump one and begin the process of fueling your car. You get out, open your wallet, grab your debt card and put it into the machine. It takes a minute before the machine tells you to grab your card, enter your pin and begin pumping. You oblige and do as your told, grabbing the fuel hose you select "Unleaded" for $3.05, push the fuel protecter and unscrew the cap before placing the fuel hose into your car and begin fueling. From the shadows. an old man comes up to you and asks for money, do you give him some? [[give old man money]] The gas meter explains to you that "gas prices are on an incline due to foriegn relations between our president and the president of Saudi Arabia" it sounded complicated when you heard it so you lose attention. Before long the meter dings and you screw on the cap, close the protector, put the hose away, hop into the car and cruise out of Kwik Trip with a full tank of gas. [[Exit Kwik Trip]]

You continue right down Amethyst, but not for long because the GPS almost immidietly tells you to take a right down Pearl Rd. You downshift and make the swerve into the right hand turn lane onto Pearl Rd, you make the turn and start to shift and accelerate down Pearl Rd. Pearl Rd is a vast highway that thickens and thins out depending on the area you're in. You are no stranger to how at one moment you could be next to dirt and cranes building a shopping mall at one point and another you could be in your grandmas neighborhood. Your house is off of Pearl Rd, when you check the GPS there's still five milles before you make it to your street. So you [[continue to cruise.]]

Your mind can't sway from all the bright lights and boutique shops that line the street. You've lived in this city almost your whole life but haven't been to every shop on the street. It feels like some of them you're seeing for the first time. You get annoyed that there is traffic on a relatively open road at 2:00am. Why would people be out this late? Are they going home? Do they have jobs to go to? Why am I being punished for going home late? The pressure from traffic and general annoyance gets you frustrated. You wonder if you can drive on the bank of the road to save time? [[Speed on bank of road.]] or, you could start to focus on the road more, banking on the idea that everyone could be [[on their way home.]]

You check your phone and realize that it's been hours since the last time you checked your phone. What awaited you was a multitude of texts and missed phone calls from your angry parents. You were supposed to leave your girlfriends house around 11:00pm, but time flew by and it's 2:00am You decide not to crack open "that" can of worms until you get home. [[Close Door]]

You turn the wheel of your car all the way to the right and start speeding down the immidiete bank/curb of the main road. Cars start honking and you as you drive past carefully and quickly. You were only driving about a mile and a half before you saw on your right, a parked patrol car, scanning car speeds as you zoom right in front of him on the curb of the road. [[Sirens]]

Almost immidietly the driver of the squad car flicks his switch and the sounds of the siren hit your ear drum. You check the rierview mirror and the officer is on your tail already. You think long and hard about what you want to do, but it's probably safer to just pull over and deal with the consequences. You slow down and put your car into park and the police officer does the same. He gets out of the squad car and... YOU LOSE [[Driving Home Simulator 2022]]

You stick both hands in your pockets, pull out your wallet and check to see if you have cash. You grab the seven dollars in loose bills you have and give it to the man, just as quickly as you gave him the money, he fled into the night. [[Exit Kwik Trip]]