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Driving Profile: J. Stamatelos
(sneak peek)
J: Were on our way up to Boston and were driving up the road and it’s like five lanes of traffic on both sides. We just see a car entirely on fire in the oncoming lane and no one cares.
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BHAVNEET: Welcome back to Drive With Us, a podcast where we bring on a new guest each episode to talk about the crazy things they’ve experienced on the road, who they are as drivers, and how they became the driver they are today. I’m Bhavneet.
TARANJIT: And I’m Taranjit. And today’s driver is J. Stamatelos, a writer, coach, and researcher who has traveled all over the world. And he has seen some truly crazy drivers like the taxi race he had in Cairo, the Bison he locked eyes with in Yellowstone National Park, and driving through liquid manure.
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BHAVNEET: Welcome. Thanks for joining us today.
J:Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here.
BHAVNEET: We’re super excited to talk to you about all your driving experiences, especially since you have quite a bit of international experience as well. But before we get started, let’s have you introduce yourself to our listeners.
J: My name is J. Stamatelos. I’m a writer, researcher, and a coach. And part of the benefits of having a job like mine is I can do it remotely. Sso my fiancé and I have been traveling around the country around the U.S. and a bit of Canada for about 2 and 1/2 years now. Looking for a place to settle down. We haven’t really found it yet. Done everything from going to national parks and camping to working on farms to going to places we never thought we would go and learning about the people there and you know about drivers there. But I’m a big traveler. I have constantly through my whole life just constantly saved up money and then spent it by going abroad. And you know have some interesting stories from that, too. So if anyone wants to find out more about me, I’ll give my you know website and my link, you know, they can check it out. But otherwise, I’m really just here to talk about driving and travel and all these fun things because there is so much that we see that we didn’t expect to see and experience that we did not expect to experience. And it’s a really cool world out there.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I’m like super excited to hear your experiences because we’ve had a lot of U.S. stories of which I’m sure you have some U.S. stories too, but also hearing other countries would be fun to listen to.
J: Yeah. Absolutely. I’m thrilled to be here.
TARANJIT: One of the questions we love starting with right off of bat is what is one of the wildest or craziest things that you have seen while either driving yourself or being driven somewhere?
J: So if we’re going to look at the definition of just seeing something and not being part of said experience, I think the thing that I would pick is we are on our way up to Boston. And what you know it was a long day of we did Connecticut and Rhode Island and we are just pushing the Boston during rush hour. And we were talking in the car about you know how Boston has this like especially south Boston has this like, you know, like just tough attitude about it. And it’s just a tough city. Kind of like how Philly does but in a different way. And we’re driving up the road and it’s like five lanes of traffic on both sides, and we just see a car entirely on fire in the oncoming lane just off to the side and no one cares. Everyone is standing around and someone is on their phone, like obviously the police have been called. The fire trucks have been called. We can hear the sirens getting on. But no one’s giving room. No one’s really making space. It’s just a look of inconvenience on everyone’s face. And we burst out laughing. You know obviously everyone seems like they’re okay. There’s no pain and you know nothing wild or crazy is happening. And we were like, what are we talking about here?
Like what? Just there is a car on fire. Welcome to Boston. Here You go.
TARANJIT: What a great welcome.
J: I know. I loved it.
BHAVNEET: That. Wow. That says a lot about the people of Boston that an entire car fire is like more of an inconvenience than like, Oh my God, there is an emergency situation. Maybe I should see what’s going on.
J: I mean in a way you almost have to appreciate it a little bit to be like these people just do not care. They have bigger fish to fry. There’s more going on. I had a little bit of respect for it.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I can say that I have not seen a car on fire, which I’m glad and I hope I don’t have to.
J: Hopefully not. But if I had to if I had to share the, you know, one of the weirdest things that happened to us where I was part of it has to be just it happened in Yellowstone National Park
and so to frame why it happened you have to understand that we were traveling out west and I did not know that Yellowstone was kind of like the New York City of national parks. And so we have a tent and we really value tent camping and being able to not be around generators and have it be quiet and have it be nice. So there’s really only two places you can get a tent at and you kind of have to be there early in the morning before you know, 9 or 9:30 cuz it’s going to get full. So we woke up at 4 a.m. in Montana, sprinted down, got into the park. Like my hearts racing. I’m like, are we going to get it? Are we going to go there? And we get to the first camping site and we find out it’s already full. I’m just like, oh no. This is not good. This is terrible. So there’s only one more place we can go. It’s it’s in a different part of the park. We’re going to have to you know speed is really maintained so we have to immediately turn around and go at it. And we’re sleep-deprived. We’re worried about a spot. And I’m driving back out to the main road and I see a bison on the road. And in my sleep deprived simple mind, I look at it and I say, wow. That thing is like just it’s bigger than a car. but it’s mainly vertically bigger. It’s in the right lane. I can pass that on the left. So like a simpleton I go up and I’m just treating it as if it’s like an Amish buggy or something and I’m trying to pass the road just in the left lane. And we gawk at it like, oh. Look at this bison. How about this? And it was the oddest thing because you know, I’m driving. Janelle, you know my fiancé is in the passenger seat and she is looking at the bison. And you know, we’re going by slow because we don’t want to spook it. and we see it’s eyes turn and it meets her eyes. And as soon as that happens, it pulls back its entire head and then swings it’s head at the car trying to hit us with its horns. And I just gripped the wheel. Floored go you know swerving off in the opposite direction. Floor it and the bison’s charging after. And those things have speed. And you know, we get maybe I don’t know 60 yards down the road before it decides that it’s just annoyed with us and it’s not going to chase us anymore. And I just instantly start apologizing. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. That was the dumbest thing I think I have ever done on the road. I should have just you know, given it room. Given it space. But we came very close to having, you know being on the news, which is something I’ve always wanted to avoid.
TARANJIT: Yeah. You don’t want to be on the news for that either.
J: No. Not at all.
BHAVNEET: Man chased by bison.
J: Exactly. I mean our car it would not have survived, you know from windows or just getting bashed. Those things have strength. You know, when people die every year because they don’t take it seriously. They walk right up to the bison. And you know, I have prided myself in not being that the person but in my like I just have to get past it to get to the campsite state. I just just blew right through.
TARANJIT: I wonder if bison are kind of like deer in a way where they’re like if you see one you’d expect to see more or is it just like, oh you see one, it’s it would just be that one there?
J: I don’t know. But I don’t know that this one was seemed to be riding solo which I’m very grateful for. Because when when they are in mass we we actually spent time on a bison ranch where they had about 400 head of bison and they would drive four wheelers to to simulate the bison being chased by predators. And it was meant to help turn up the ground to to bring air into the ground. Aerate the grass so that it grows better so that it’s better for them to eat. And when you see 400 bison moving it’s it’s a force of nature and you do not want to be on the receiving end of that.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I would not have. I don’t know what to say. I’ve been in numerous deer accidents and I feel like getting an accident with a bison, I don’t know what I what would have what would have happened.
J: I don’t know either. Don’t want to find out. it’s like there’s a bucket list and then there’s the anti-bucket list. And that goes on that one.
TARANJIT: Yeah. Agreed. Speaking of animals, I know you have mentioned that you had an incident in Quebec I think.
J: Oh yes.
TARANJIT: With manure.
J: Yeah. You know. Yes. So we we were it was another like it was just a nice sunny day. We were in Montreal and we said, you know, let’s let’s just leave Montreal a little bit early. We plan on staying the night. We were already there for one night. We said let’s let’s just go to Quebec City. We’ll just get there early and we’ll get some place there an Airbnb or something up there instead. So we’re on the highway. It’s rush hour. And we just were making good time. We’re making good movement. It’s very nice. And then we just hit this wall of cars. And there’s not much information of any sort I can get. We’re bouncing around the radio. It’s all in French anyway. I’ve no idea what’s happening. And you know, we’re just slowly moving. And then all of a sudden we kind of come over this crust and we see it’s maybe like a three or four lane highway. I can’t remember exactly. But there’s there’s a semi-trailer or what looks like a semi-trailer laying on its side. It’s not on fire. It seems like everything’s safe. The load must something must have happened to it. And then there’s but there’s these open lanes. There’s these two open lanes on the left that no one’s going through. And we’re thinking, why would you not drive down the open road? And obviously, there’s something happening, but we can’t see what it is. And then there was just apparently a group of cars that were like, we’re done.
They were just done with it. They said, we’re not waiting for whatever it is. And there was like this snake of like, you know, almost like when you’re at a bar and a train of people just decide we’re going to move through this way. That’s what happened on the road. And you know, I’m like, well. Hey. We have to get to Quebec. Again me in a rush. And we drive through. What what is wrong with these people? Why are they waiting? There’s no debris. There’s no pipes. There’s no nothing. And then we don’t realize it till we get on it, but we have we were driving through about one to two hundred yards of pure liquid manure. It is splattering. It’s splashing.
TARANJIT: Uh. That’s sounds so gross.
J: It’s getting up in everything. We could hear it. And we start laughing. We’re like ha ha ha ha.
This is so funny. Oh, you know what a story we were going to have. And it was one of those things where it was like it was funny until it suddenly wasn’t funny. But you know something that has always happened for us in our travels and you know knock on wood it stays happening this way is things things have consistently we have had problems just like everyone else with driving, but when we have problems they tend to happen in the best way possible. So as an example of that, you know, I take the first exit and I said, we have to clean off the car. This isn’t you know, we’re driving. We can’t be covered in manure. And we go to one of the automatic car wash stations. We pay $9. We go through with all the jets and the high-tech stuff. It does nothing. It does absolutely nothing. It’s all still there. Like oh boy. So we get back to the car and we start driving again. And I come across a gas station and I go in and I just want to tell the woman who’s behind the counter. Hey, I need a wand. Like one of those spray, you know, like $5 to wash your car whatever things. She is this young girl who kind of speaks some English and it turns into this beautiful across cultural moment of sharing where it’s me, making all my gestures, he’s behind the counter trying to understand me, there’s these 4 people in line. And it was this guy in the back buying a 4 pack of Miller Lite who was like, I think was kind of putting together what was happening. And he was telling her what he thought. And she was translating it to me basically saying okay, if you need to like spray your car with a hose go, you know 5 minutes in the other direction look for this thing. And so we go there and it was one of those, you know a normal coin car wash slots where you get a wand and you spray it off. We spent maybe 30 to $40 over the course of two and a half hours trying to spray everything off that car. From under it. All around it. It was caked on because of how hot the car was. It just instantly turned from liquid to just some sticky solid. That would not budge.
BHAVNEET: Wow.
J: And you had to nozzle right up against it to get it off. And it turned into something that took weeks. We we sprayed it with bleach. We went after it with different cleaning products. We bought toilet wands and would go after it. You know, we remain at Acadia and we knew you know, like we were the smelly car. For all of our work, we just couldn’t get it all off. So that was you know still to this day it’s almost like telling a ghost story where they’re like, you know still to this day where the ghost is still seen in the woods. It’s like still to this day, we’ll catch a whiff every now and then and I’m like, oh, yes. Quebec.
TARANJIT: That’s a great souvenir I guess. Not really great, but that’s…
J: Memorable for sure.
TARANJIT: An unwanted souvenir.
J: Yes.
TARANJIT: Well good thing you went to go clean it off right away as opposed to waiting a little bit. Imagine what would have happened if you waited.
J: I can’t I just wonder what all the rest of the other people did because we were hundreds of cars did this. And we were just all of the stampede of of the unknowing. We were just on our mission to get wherever we were going to go and but we were the only people that stopped to wash off. So very curious to know what happens to the rest of those households.
TARANJIT: Well it seems like when you’re in a rush, something happens to you all the time.
J: Yeah. You know I noticed that one of the questions you gave in in the preliminary email you sent was like kind of alluded to what type of a driver are you and I realized that for so much of my life I’ve been at a terrible speeder. I love speed. I like driving fast. When I was younger, like I think the fastest I’ve driven a car is in the low 130s. The fastest I’ve been mile per hour of course and the I have been as a passenger is maybe 140 some. But now I’m speed limit. I’m trying to save gas. I’m trying to save money. I’m so boring compared to how I was.
TARANJIT: I can never say I’ve been in a car that’s gone over a 100.
J: Yeah. In high school a friend of mine who would sometimes drive me to school, he said, you know, it wasn’t a good day unless it was a triple digit day. So it was just we hit a hundred every morning before making it to high school. And that was also the car where I was a passenger whenever he was able to take it up to 1:40. So yeah. Good times.
TARANJIT: If you say so. Now that we had some U.s or like North American crazy stories, do you have a crazy driving story for abroad?
J: Yeah. So you know most of the time I’m abroad, I’m backpacking. I’m doing it on a budget. And so I’m doing a lot of either budget airlines, you know or finding a cheap train or something like that. But probably the best of foreign driving story I have was I was in Egypt and we were it was a group of us that had to get back to the airport and we were leaving Egypt. This is I was doing to study abroad in Greece and we were flying back to Athens. And the flight was at something like at 1 a.m. in the morning for some insane reason. So we have to get back to the airport in Cairo. And the the driver who was assigned to us or whoever the hotel got for us said, you’re a guy. You’re strong. You get in the front with me. And I’m like, okay. And the two girls were in the back and we’re all having a good time. And he’s this really nice guy. Really chatty. Really gregarious. Has great English. And he told me that his dream in life has been to become a stunt driver for Hollywood. And I said, I love that. And we talked about how we both enjoy speeding in cars and things like this. Then he about, you know, maybe 5-10 minutes into the driving, it’s like I think normally like maybe a 40-minute drive. He says, I don’t know if he recognized someone on the road with him or if he just recognized a signal that someone was giving him, and he said do you mind if I race? And keep in mind we’re on we’re on a proper highway filled with cars. This is right out of the movie. It was terribly dangerous, but I just looked at him and said, hey man. I trust you. And he’s like, alright. So we turned a maybe let’s say if it was 3 lanes, we turned it into 5 because we’re driving on the shoulders. We’re doing this. The other driver’s doing the same thing. And you know, it’s this light-hearted thing. He turns up the music. He’s laughing. Our competitor car seems to be thoroughly enjoying it as well. And I’m just I’m just cool. I’m just breathing. Staying relaxed. But we were weaving in and out. It wasn’t heavy traffic, but it was enough. Enough that like you’re on edge a little bit. And the pinnacle of this was when I think we were passing a merge of some sort and both of us had to adapt in order to make sure we didn’t hit anyone. So we just both cars racing hit each other. It wasn’t like a terrible crash. It was just like love tap. Like you just heard the metal. You heard a little bit of scrape. And they bounced off each other and they waved to each other. It was all in good fun. And he turned to me and said, eh. Sometimes this happens. And that was it. And then you know it kind of calmed down from there. He waved to the guy. The guy waved to him. And everyone just calmed back down. Normal speeds and the stuff. And it ended great because what was it? What was the song? What’s the song that goes like, da na na na naaa. Na na nan nan naaan. Came on the radio. And he thought it was a great song. So we just lapped the airport in Cairo. Just lapped the airport in Cairo a few times to finish the song before getting out. So that was a very memorable experience abroad.
TARANJIT: I would have been terrified in that car.
BHAVNEET: Your taxi driver just randomly like, hey, can I race? All right.
J: Yeah. I mean he was polite about it.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. At least he asked.
J: At least he asked. He was gentlemen about it. You know the girls didn’t really protest. So it was it was all in good fun.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I think at least he asked because we’ve been to India and they probably wouldn’t even asked that. They would have just done their own thing.
J: Like this is what’s happening. Embrace it. That’s it. No option.
TARANJIT: Yeah, get ready for the crazy.
J: What was the craziest thing you’ve experienced in India just out of curiosity?
TARANJIT: We did take one trip to a like a Sikh church that was in the mountains
and the road the mountain road was not really a road. I felt like we are going to fall off at any moment
BHAVNEET: No guardrails. No nothing. And our driver was just like, yeah. I know this road like the back of my hand. It only is large enough for one vehicle, but cars are whipping the corners. I was like, this is where I die. I am going to be off that cliff.
J: Very nice. Very nice. Yeah, you don’t realize that it’s so easy to forget how much we take for granted like things like guardrails. You know, where you’re just like, oh. There’s that 3 feet away for me. But you know, otherwise outside of Egypt most of the time I’ve been abroad at least around driving has been in Greece. And it’s kind of like a similar thing. They have lots of mountains cuz there’s not really a ton of flat land in Greece. And they don’t really invest in guardrails. They’re not really worried about it. The roads are usually have enough width. The only odd thing that I see there is people drive if you are someone who wants to drive slow and safe, you don’t drive in the slow lane. You drive half on the shoulder and half on the slow lane so people can pass you a lot easier if they want to.
TARANJIT: What? I can’t even. I’m just processing that. Like…
J: Yeah. And I saw the same thing in Ecuador too when people when trucks would be driving up the mountain, they would do the same thing. They would drive half-on half-off. And they would put their blinker on, you know, the left blinker or left signal. I don’t know if that’s Pittsburghese or not. But they put their left signal on to say like, hey. just pass. Just pass me on the left. It’s safe. There’s room. So the Greeks, the Ecuadorians, apparently some people decided that this is a proper way to use a road.
BHAVNEET: That’s interesting. I didn’t know about the signal thing. But I know in India what truck drivers would do is like they would honk and then like wave their hand like, okay, you’re good. You can go. There’s no one in front of me.
J: Got it. Nice. At least some signal to show that we are working together towards a common goal. All living to our destination.
TARANJIT: Yeah. But then there’s also those people in India who are like they would like flash your headlights at you if you’re like coming, and they would be like, no. no. I’m going first. And they are just like flashing their headlights.
J: You know it’s funny you bring that up because so in Pittsburgh flashing headlights is meant as a sign of hey. You go ahead. Like it’s come on. So we have this thing in Pittsburgh called the Pittsburgh left, which you may or may not be aware of. And it’s if you’re at a stoplight and you’re making a left turn and you have all these people behind you that want to go straight, it’s considered courteous if the person who’s facing you just lets you go first. Even though you don’t have the right away. If they just wave you on through that way both lanes of traffic move quicker. Aand it’s illegal. And it causes accidents all the time, but people do it. And one of the ways to say hey you go ahead is just to flash your lights. Well, I was doing that in much of the rest of the country which apparently no one takes as a friendly gesture. So yeah, it’s it’s been a learning experience for me. I was in Toronto. I was doing that and then I go to for a a conference I was at for work years ago. And I went to the hotel, and I’m like, every time I flash my lights at someone, they seem to really slow down and give me this like stink eye. He was like well, why were you why were you aggravating them? I’m like, I was trying to be nice man. This just did not work well.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. It’s the same here. You flash to be like, yeah. Go ahead. Go first. I didn’t know that other places are like take that as a sign of like aggression.
J: Yeah. I don’t know it’s one of these things even within our own country, there’s all these little pockets of driving styles or driving etiquette and it it just seems so odd when you’re when you are when you’re somewhere that is such a clash for what you’re used to.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. It’s really interesting that you say you’re from Pittsburgh because our next question is about stereotypes of different areas. And since we’re in Maryland at least we’re close to the border, so there is a lot of Pennsylvania drivers that come into Maryland and there’s like I guess I wouldn’t say love hate. Like a hate hate relationship between Maryland and Pennsylvania drivers cuz we have a very particular opinions about the other. So are there any specific like stereotypes of the different areas where you’ve been or like Pittsburgh about the different drivers of that area?
J: So Pittsburgh Pittsburgh people like to complain about Pittsburgh drivers. And to be honest compared to the a lot of the rest of country, I don’t have a lot to complain about for Pittsburgh drivers, but that’s probably cuz it’s what I’m used to. So I judge drivers on how well I can predict how they will behave. And the way that I because that to me is how I measure safety if I can predict everyone on the road. So let’s say for example, Los Angeles. Los Angeles is one of my least favorite places to drive, but it’s not it’s not as stressful as other parts of the country because I know everyone’s going to rush. And if I know everyone’s going to rush I can predict what everyone’s going to do and I can give proper space proper distancing, and avoid accidents. And I have avoided accidents because of that. But to your point, the only time I have ever been hit by a car or the only accident I’ve ever been in, knock on wood, has been in Maryland where I was hit by another Pennsylvania driver.
BHAVNEET: It’s just something about when Pennsylvania drivers get into Maryland. They go crazy. I don’t know.
J: Yeah. Well he was he was from Central PA and Pennsylvania is this very fractured state where you have West, Central and East or really you have West and the East. And so I’ve just said, well he’s he’s from out East. He’s a different breed. But you know my least interestingly enough the place in a country that I have detested driving the most has been Connecticut.
I cannot stand driving in Connecticut because you have these picturesque roads where you have a lot of turns that everyone is flying. And there is no way to see to like predict what’s happening in a really good way. And I don’t know if it’s people coming back from New York or you know people in some crazy commute or something. But Connecticut was the most aggravating place for me to drive followed there after my Portland. Where Portland has an issue again where I can predict because you have what seems like I would assume people that are from Oregon and people that are transplants. Now the people from Oregon, they are Sunday drivers. They’re taking their time. They’re at the speed limit or under for whatever reason. And then you have these just missiles coming up the road and that they will fly. It’s just like Southern California where they’ll be in the slow lane and they will pass you going 15 over. And you know, the highways aren’t built for the volume of people they have up there and it just makes it really stressful to drive.
TARANJIT: So out of the states that you have been to, which state would you say has the worst drivers and which state has the better drivers?
J: You know it’s hard to go somewhere and say that a place really has good drivers because all that really turns into is I didn’t feel like I would die here and that’s nice. The places that have the best drivers for just the places that there wasn’t a lot of population. Probably the only place that has a lot of population that I never felt concerned about driving was around the Seattle area. For being high density, it was pretty calm. And I am trying to think right now if I’m going to regret saying this, but I don’t think so. San Francisco was also fairly calm, but that might have just been because there were so many people that it had to be. But the place where it was the worst, well those are easy to remember cuz you’re gripping your wheel tight.
Like, what is happening? And besides Connecticut and you know the little part of Oregon, because otherwise Oregon was great, was Southern California, of course living up to its stereotypes and Florida. My God. I mean Nascar is just in their veins there. We got we were decide to you know, we were going to go for the wind. We had a breakdown in Georgia or I’m sorry, in South Carolina and we were planning on staying in Savannah on our way down to this little town called Haines City, which is down past Orlando and in kind of the middle of nowhere. And we’re just like, let’s just go for it. Let’s just go for it. Do the whole drive in one night and we’ll get there around like, you know, 1:30 a.m. So we get into Orlando at maybe 12:30. And it was just like out of Fast and the Furious. There is no cars on the road except for these guys had like the lights under the cars. They had them all modded up. Flames were shooting out of the exhaust sometimes and they were racing each other on these huge empty highways. It was again like driving from like nice rural Georgia where the only thing you have to deal with is the smell of the swamps to just bam. Here you are. Welcome to Orlando. Good luck. You know and Florida was another state where its just people drive exceptionally fast. And it has this odd I’ve never seen this in any other state where the road will just make a 90-degree turn for seemingly no apparent reason. They dont they dont curve it like they do in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic in Pennsylvania and stuff where you have a nice curve over distance. It’s like bam. 90-degrees. Just an arrow saying make a left. And you can just see that this arrow has been wrecked multiple times. It’s just an odd state. It really is.
TARANJIT: That would I don’t even know what to say to that.
BHAVNEET: Like who thought that making a 90-degree left turn. Like who thought that was a great idea?
J: Yeah, like there’s no intersection. There’s no it’s just a 90-degree turn in the road because that’s what’s happening right now. And you know when you’re driving for hours on end you start to kind of get in this not daze, but you’re on autopilot. And I could not afford ever to be on autopilot driving on country roads or on the rural roads in Florida because these things would just pop up.
TARANJIT: I feel like that about some Pennsylvania roads we’ve driven through. I think we go through eastern Pennsylvania. And when we drive in the dark, I feel like I’m just going to run off the road cuz I can’t see or like never know when the turns coming or anything.
J: Right. Yeah. I can see that. I mean there’s not a lot of really good lighting. And if you don’t have to good headlights especially because all the trees we have and all the hills even if the moons out, you’re not going to get a lot good lighting on the road. So I can definitely see where you’re coming from with that.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I just felt like I was going to end up in the middle of nowhere and no ones going to find me.
J: Comforting, right?
TARANJIT: Yeah. So now that we’ve heard some of your crazier driving stories, we want to get to know what kind of driver you are. I know we’ve got to know some aspects of your driving. So if you had the option, would you rather be the driver or the passenger?
J: Absolutely the driver. Absolutely. It’s the only time I regret driving is when we’re going through a really picturesque area and I cant I cant take the time to savor it. So we’ll pull over once in a while so I can see it or we’ll switch driving if it’s like not too bad. But you know, she’s not really keen on driving in hectic situation. I like it. I dont I dont mind it. I would rather have my mind have something to do. So, I like driving. It’s not a pain to me. But the downside is, you know, we’ll drive through a really beautiful place and sometimes I feel like I’m missing it.
BHAVNEET: So how would you describe the type of driver that you are and would you say that your family and friends would describe it your driving the same way?
J: Well. She’ll enjoy this. My there is a perception of me of not I do know that my parents are not thrilled with how I drive and for a few reasons. But I know in part because when my brother my younger brother was learning how to drive, he told me point-blank that my mom forbade him from taking lessons for me or letting me teach him anything like that. And the funny thing is I have the best record of anyone in the family. So take from that what you will. But you know, I wasn’t, you know, our driver’s ed was kind of a joke. I’ve been driving I drove as soon as I could. I got the permit as soon as I could. My girlfriend at the time was older than me. So she had a car and she had her license and stuff and I would just drive. Technically it was illegal, but I was driving on the road that I was supposed to not go on. But I wanted to. I wanted to make sure that I could do it and that I could do it right. And I took it seriously. I’m not you know, I said I’d like speed and stuff. I don’t like danger. Which is why I was kind of ashamed a little bit of the bison story. I will ride the edge on something, but I never want to feel like I’m at risk. Because if I feel like I’m out of control then I’ve taken it too far. And I don’t like doing that. That is irresponsible to me. I need to be in full control of the vehicle. I need to be responsible for this vehicle. I need to be responsible for myself and everyone around me and then any other drivers on the road. So, you know when I was young and I was a lot more daring, I still took that very seriously. So my whole point is I got practice in. And I I tried to make sure that I was a good driver where if I would speed a lot which I did or I would take my car out on country roads, which I love doing. Especially when I got my first car which was a stick shift. If I was going to take risks. I did them in a very calculated way. Like when I say, you know, we hit high speeds or I drove around 130 miles an hour that was in a very controlled condition. I had a long stretch of highway. There were no cars around me. I had about half a mile to really lay it in. The road curves at the end and provides a natural break. I would not do that, you know in any other part of the road.
TARANJIT: Well it’s great to hear that you are a safe driver and not…
J: I would say.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I feel like when you’re younger or when like younger guys are driving, I feel like they do love that speed aspect.
J: Yeah.
TARANJIT: It’s just part of what they go through when they are starting driving.
J: Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s intoxicating and you know, you don’t have to be you for it. Just a couple years ago my buddy my buddy bought a really nice BMW and before he even got home with it, he called me and say and said hey, do you want to take us for a spin? I was like, yes! So we took it to a park in Pittsburgh where we drove around and I do not know how fast we were going, but we were going so fast that neither of us were comfortable looking away from the the road. It was in the hundreds for sure. But again, it was like a control thing. It’s a one-way roads. There weren’t any other cars. We did a lap. You know, we made sure it was clear beforehand. But you know, we’ll still do stupid things from now and then. Maybe that’s just part of being a guy. I don’t know.
TARANJIT: Yeah, I don’t think I would have ever got in my car.
J: It’s it’s a thing. There is something about speed that when it’s done in a controlled way, it’s very it’s almost soothing. And maybe that’s a personality quirk or something, but there’s like there’s like a love meditation. I love I love finding those moments of stillness. It’s a big part of my life. It’s a big part of my practice as a coach. And when I do extreme things where like I like white water rafting or if I’m driving fast or you know the time I went para parachuting or whatever. Skydiving. It’s there’s a there’s a stillness in this because you have to be present. And I don’t know. It it slows time down in this way that’s that’s it’s very pleasant. And it probably makes no sense to hear that, but its that’s how it feels.
TARANJIT: So this next question that we have it comes from a personal experience of ours. We’ve been in numerous situations where we should have honked at people, but our first reaction is to save ourselves as opposed to honking or give that warning. Have you ever been in a situation where you honked at someone and would you say that you’re more of a person who would honk at someone?
J: I don’t know if I started as a Honker but I certainly became one. Especially after I spent some time in New York City. And I don’t know if that was just like they have given me permission to do the things I want to do now where I was back in Pittsburgh, and I was like, nope. You’re taking too long. Honk. No, but it’s normally it’s a love tap. It’s just a little like, hey. It’s more like a buddy honk. You know, like, hey buddy. LIghts green. Come on. But you know laying in a honk in anger, I do that very infrequently because I’m not usually in a situation that needs it. But if it’s if it’s needed, I am not shy from the horn. I am perfectly okay with it
and it’s to make the point of how cultural honking is I was with my brother. We were taking a trip abroad together. We were in London. We were in this double decker bus. We’re all excited cuz you know, we’re doing the tourist thing. We’re up in the second deck. Up in the very front so we can see the road. Where it’s night and we’re coming up to Piccadilly Circus and in that area and some some just dingbat decided that he was going to make a U-turn in the middle of the road where you can’t make a U-turn. And in doing so because he timed it incorrectly, he plugged all of the traffic that was coming into this intersection up and not a single person honked. I was like what? What’s happening? Where is the anger? Like this is a major city. This is one of the biggest cities in the world and everyone is just sitting here stewing and they’re all like well, you know, I’m going to tut this from afar, but I’m not going to race, you know rise up to the level of honking. And I was like, if this was New York or even Pittsburgh, you would be hearing some grief at this point.
TARANJIT: Yeah. I feel like when you think of cities you typically do think of all the noise and honking and traffic. It’s shocking to hear that they didn’t partake in like typical city stereotypes.
J: No. Which makes me I would be very interested to go somewhere like Japan where I’ve never been
where you have, you know, there is a seemingly High premium on politeness or courtesy.
I wonder what it would be like, you know, do they honk?
What what’s what’s the etiquette there? I’d be really I’d be very interested to experience that.
BHAVNEET: Yeah, that seems like the exact opposite of again India where honking seems like if you don’t do it, you’re not driving, right?
J: Yeah. It’s like this should be an expression an expressive experience.
BHAVNEET: Exactly. So speaking of honking and annoying drivers, what would you say is your biggest driving pet peeve?
J: Oh my God. Cell phones. I wasn’t even driving at this point. I was taking a bus actually from New York City back to Maryland and because our car was there And we were we were on the bus and I’m just looking out the window and where it’s right outside of Newark at this point. So still, you know, like heavily pretty heavily dense and its kind of rush hour leaving the city, and I’m looking down and a guy is driving his car by himself while watching the NFL live on his phone. And I just I’m like, this is why we need driverless cars. This is why we need it because this guy is going to kill himself and everyone around him because he cannot wait half an hour to get home to watch this. Why do you need to be on your phone right now? You don’t. You don’t.
TARANJIT: Yeah. That is something we see a lot down here in Maryland. I had a professor in college who came from New York and he rode a motorcycle one time and he felt like he was in a death trap in a way because everyone around them was on the phone.
J: Appsolutely. It’s just it’s everyone’s on it. Everyone’s doing something else. And it’s terrifying. It’s absolutely terrifying. And when you’re in a place as high-density like Chicago or LA, it’s the it’s it’s nerve-wracking. I mean the girl I was in LA. We were in the diamond lane, you know, like the HOV lane and the we’re we’re just getting through the city. We’re not exiting. We just need to get through LA to get to Orange County. And luckily, I was driving how I normally do in cities like that. We’re giving tons of room. Tons of space. It was getting way packed and I just see this girl behind me is just not slowing down. And so I have to you know speed up and I’m just praying look up. Look up. Look up. Look up. And she finally looks up from her phone, slams on the brakes, I hear her wheels squeak and we just stared at each other in my rearview mirror. And she had to have come within inches. It’s just that would’ve been such a disaster.
TARANJIT: Yeah. That’s very scary. I just always am worried when I see people on their phones around me, its like I just wants stay back and away for them in case they do something stupid and I’m not in their line.
J: Yeah. Exactly. You have to. And it’s you know, it used to be that you just had to watch for hazards on the road, and now you have to ask yourself, can I trust the driver next to me? Are they paying attention? Are they are they here with us in this collective experience of us trying to get home alive? You know it’s it’s horrible and it can be nerve-racking. It really can be. Especially if you’re driving in a place where you’re not familiar, you don’t know what the drivers are like and you’re trying to you know make sure you’re getting off the right exit and all of that stuff. It’s too many things to watch.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. In Maryland, I think it’s just safe to assume that no one is actually paying attention to the road. You should you would be surprised if you see someone who’s not on their phone or not like I don’t know doing their makeup or something crazy like that
J: Yeah. Absolutely. I believe it.
TARANJIT: So going off of crazy drivers and annoying drivers on the road, have you ever experienced an instance where you had road rage or someone had road rage towards you?
J: I’ve definitely gotten the stare. The only road rage the only road rage I experienced was at Old Faithful in Yellowstone where everyone was fighting for a parking spot. And in 1 ½ years well maybe at this point it was 6 months.In 6 months of traveling across the country and all different circumstances, this was the first negative experience we had with someone else. Which was great. And that was I think the biggest thing that traveling has taught me, especially on this trip is people are good. Generally speaking people are good. People go out of their way to help. They will try to do good things for each other. You just have a few knuckleheads now and then who come along and ruin it for everyone. And unfortunately, they’re the ones that get the attention. So were trying we were waiting for 5 minutes for this parking space. And the way the driver pulled out, they blocked us in the way they exited, and this other guy just came in and just swiped it. Just took the spot from us. We put down our window and I’m like, you know, like, hey buddy. We’ve been waiting. And we get this he basically told us to go screw ourselves. And I was getting all huffy. And then Janelle, you know, leaned out the window and just said, you know, like I hope you have a great day, sir. And meaning it in a very genuine way. And that’s the type of person she is. And I just commended her on that cuz I said, you know, I had a few choice words. But then what happened afterwards was a parking spot right in front of the geiser opened up and we got the perfect spot. So road rage on the road very infrequently I’ll get a look sometimes because I do drive the speed limit
If I’m on a 4-Hour drive. I’m not looking to burn an extra 15-20-30 dollars in gas because if I do that every single day, that’s going to add up very quickly. So I do drive the speed limit. I do give a lot of room. I don’t know what’s controlled and what’s not, so I’m always going to be risk-averse. And people be like, you know, why are you driving 35 miles an hour when we’re all going 50? I’m like, well cuz it’s 35 miles an hour. So I’ll get the look like that sometimes where people are like, whos this dingbat driving? But otherwise luckily road rage isn’t something I’ve experienced a lot
TARANJIT: Yeah. In those situations I am like when I’m driving the speed limit, I’m like, if you want to go fast,just go around me. Like I have no problem. Just go around.
J: Exactly. Yeah. I’m in the slow lane. I’m doing my job. You do yours.
BHAVNEET: Now that we kind of know the kind of driver you are and it’s great to hear that you are not like some crazy speed demon, I guess, let’s go back to how it started with your driving first. So how would you describe your first time driving experience and who was it with?
J: Oh well. My first time ever driving was with my dad and we had his high top conversion van, which was great. And I don’t know if this still to this day, I don’t know if this was genuinely him wanting to give good knowledge to me or just him really having fun as a father
where we went out to a parking lot in the middle of the night. Not the middle of the night. It was like 10 p.m. or something. But it’s an empty big parking lot and he had me reverse the van into whatever parking spot he was standing in. I didnt even drive forward. It was just like he would go in different places behind me. He is like, okay. Now come to here. And he was you know, like making sure that I could to learn to put the wheel in the reverse way and stuff. And that was the first time ever I had driving. And I was like, what is this? But you know I I tried to catch on pretty quickly. It was a bit stressful for me. I would I would just miss stop signs sometimes cuz I was so worried about like am I in the middle of the road. That used to be my biggest concern. Am I in the middle of the road? I would be so focused on that, I would forget literally all the rest of the rules. And there was like these two stop signs I would just blow through constantly cuz I just wasn’t alert and I had to constantly remind myself to stop at them. But my driver’s ed was a joke. Our high school put ballistic missiles on the road by the dozen every year. And our teacher was our gym teacher who was a great guy, but you never knew if he was being serious or if he was not. We did the bare minimum you could have done in regards to it like actual driving time with him. We did parallel parking one time at the going to the cones at the DMV and as soon as you did it right, you were passed. Cuz I guess they thought you know where I’m from which is actually north where we ended up living north of Pittsburgh you rarely if ever parallel park. So it was just a formality. But my driving test was literally four lefts. I got out of my high school, made a left. Drove down the road a squirrel ran in the road and he told me that he would pass me or give me extra points if I hit the squirrel. I don’t know if he was joking.
BHAVNEET: What?
J: I was like, no. Is this some sort of like reverse psychology trick. Like you’re going to see why I do it and then like, you know fail me for the test. I don’t know. But I just was like I’m going to default to the rules of the road. I’m going to slow down. I’m going to let the squirrel go. I’m just not going to respond to him at all. And made another last, made another left, made another left. I passed. That was it. 5 minutes. Four lefts. No right turns. And that was that was the driver side at my high school. It was great.
BHAVNEET: So you didn’t have to like parallel park or reverse park or anything?
J: No reverse parking. We the parallel parking was just the one time going to the DMV to test it. But as soon as you did it right, I think he may he might have made us do it right 2 or 3 times in a row. But if you could just prove that you had the mental capacity to parallel park, he was like, we’re just going to count this for your test and you just moved on.
BHAVNEET: Wait. What?
J: Yeah. And then like my brother who you know well he went to a different high school and he well ended up going a different route when learning to drive. It was proper, you know, he went through the whole 9 yards. It was and I just said, you know, its amazing cuz you went through the whole thing and I just was part of this group of people that just we get thrown on the road with vehicles that weigh thousands of pounds and they were just like good luck to you and everyone around you. And you would drive around north of Pittsburgh and we would see classmates do idiot things. And we’re like, ha. There is another proud graduate. Luckily, I’m not aware of anyone from my school who’s caused any fatalities or anything like that. One of the kids from our school hit into a school bus, but outside of that, you know, no one got hurt. He just wrecked his car. That’s all we really have to deal with.
BHAVNEET: Now it makes me wonder all the Pennsylvania driver’s that we see in Maryland, is that the kind of test that they had to take?
J: Maybe. Maybe they all just went through my high school. It’s a funnel.
BHAVNEET: Exactly.
TARANJIT: When I was in driver’s ed, a lot of of my classmates that were in the class with me, they would always mention how they were just going to go to Pennsylvania and take their test because it’s easier than it is in Maryland.
J: Really? I never heard that.
BHAVNEET: So do you think that you could if you had to take the test today, would do you think you’d be able to pass it?
J: Oh yeah. I mean I’ve think I have enough driving under my belt to pass it now. And I just it’s amazing because as as I’ve gotten older, it’s as I became more responsible for my actions and I realized the consequences of my actions, my behavior changed. And I think that’s how it works for everyone. When I drove my own car, I drove it slower than when I was driving my parents, or I was, you know, nicer on it. I still took it up. But I was never going to go I think when I had my own car, I had a Honda Accord. A stick shift. 5-speed. And it was only 4 cylinders, so I couldn’t do that much. And I got I would take it up to a 100 for fun. But I never pushed it. I have no idea how fast I could take that car and I didn’t want to find out. Being older now driving around especially driving around the country, if we get in an accident because I’m doing something stupid, there’s so many problems that brings up. Where do we get parts from? Where are we going to be? Are we going to have cell service? It’’s the consequences are so high that there is I don’t want us to take any risk. I don’t want us to do anything dangerous because there is 0 benefit to doing that.
TARANJIT: So many of the driver’s well in Maryland they are getting rid of the parallel parking as a requirement on the driver’s test. Do you think that should be a requirement that’s kept or it’s fine that they’re getting rid of it?
J: I would probably say that should be I guess for the state to decide because which I guess is it already is. Because like maybe even the municipality almost because like if you’re in Western Pennsylvania, if you’re not in Pittsburgh, I don’t even know if you need to parallel park in Erie, which is the next biggest city, maybe Washington. Washington you will. You know, like there is there’s a few cities that you will have to parallel park in but if you don’t know how to do it, you could just easily drive a few more blocks and be fine. So should it be in it? I don’t think it has to be. But I think it should be at least taught. Like maybe the way I dealt with it where it might not need to be part of the test, but it should be part of the curriculum.
BHAVNEET: That’s a very interesting point. Yeah, I think it is an important requirement. But especially in our area we know that there’s a lot of places that you have to be able to parallel park. So I feel like it definitely should be here. But yeah, I guess depending on where you are, it might not be necessary.
J: Well, you know, as a funny anecdote, one of the a girl from my high school on Facebook a couple years ago posted a video that like showed a really easy way to parallel park with how to line things up and how to cut your wheel. And everyone that responded to the post and we’re like, oh my God, this is so great. Were all people from our high school. Clearly, you know, there was a niche and it needed this this filled so yeah clearly there’s if you don’t master it, you want to know it. And it apparently it’s useful enough for people that that this should be part of your experience as a driver to learn how to do this.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. Definitely. I couldn’t agree more. You should at least know how to do it. But before we let you know, we have a final question for you. If you could make one new driving law, what would it be?
J: Oh that’s a good question. I feel like there’s a lot that what comes to mind in theory, I think would be very bad in practice or would be difficult to practice. And it’s like if you move across States, you should know what the new laws are. And it’s a really basic thing but I’ve been with drivers where we we’ve made simple mistakes and we’ve gotten tickets for things in other states that you wouldn’t get in Pennsylvania and things like that. And all that could have been avoided if we would have known. So maybe it shouldn’t be a law, but if there was like some sort of a website or something where if you’re moving from x state to y state that you can just see a bullet points like, oh. You know, here are the things that you should be aware of and just to make sure that it’s that you’re up to speed. Because I would appreciate that too even for my traveling, if I know what’s like in San in Seattle. We weren’t sure if our electronic E-ZPass would work for going across the toll bridge and by the time we realized It was a toll, it was too late for us to safely change into the non-toll lane. And I had the thought in my head do I just cut do I just cut across into the non-toll line, but I could have avoided all that stress if I knew beforehand all of the electronic stuff will work itself out. It would just deduct from it.
You’re going to be fine. Which it did end up being, but we only found that out later on. So I guess I don’t have a law, but that would be nice feature I would like to have.
TARANJIT: Yeah, that would be very helpful. I feel like whenever we go to visit another state, I’m always like on the internet and be like, is this something you can do or can you not do this here?
J: Well, good on you for doing that cuz I’ve traveled across the country and I have never done that for anywhere I’ve gone. I just show up and figure it out as I go.
TARANJIT: I guess I just worry more. I’m just like, I don’t want to get a ticket or anything. So I’m just like is this allowed?
J: Yeah. Yeah, it’s a it’s a good thing and it would it would avoid situations where you might put yourself in danger, put other people around you in danger because you’re trying to do the right thing, but you don’t know what the right thing is.
TARANJIT: Do you have any final thoughts or any tips you would like to give other drivers?
J: I guess the only thing I would like to say to other drivers is and I say it to myself is just realized we’re all in this together. Like this this is a shared experience. We’re on the road together. We’re all trying to get home. If we work together, it will go so much easier. You know a great example of this is you can look online on YouTube. I don’t know what the title of it would be but it would essentially be if you are trying to avoid creating a shockwave on the road where like the worst thing you can do on a highway is come to a stop. The absolute worst thing you can do because that stop is going to last for a good amount of time. Cuz you’re going to brake and the person behind you has to brake and the person behind them and it causes this ripple. But if everyone would just slow down just slow down a bit together, you avoid the stop. You all go faster, you all get to the point and it’s by this kind of like lets just all slow down a little bit and collectively work towards a single outcome. It works so much better in the end.
TARANJIT: That’s well said.
J: Thank you.
TARANJIT: Thank you so much for joining us today. If our listeners want to connect with you, where can they find you?
J: Sure. So they can find me on my website at www.JamesJStamatelos.com and that’s a ridiculously long name so I’m sure we’ll just throw a link up or something like that. And you can find me there. I’ve recently written a book called titled Enough which is it’s all about trying to ask a question why do so many of us, you know, especially those of us under 40 feel like were chronically not enough? No matter how much we achieve were never enough and what actually works in helping us break out of this. You know, what what does everything from personal experience to the research say on this And it’s what I spent the last couple years picking apart as we traveled around the country and found all of these new experiences. So if anyone wants to check those things out or get in touch with me, just go to my website. There’s plenty of ways you can get in touch with me there and I’m always happy to chat and connect.
BHAVNEET: Thank you so much for coming on. We had a blast talking about all your crazy driving experiences.
J: Thank you. It’s been a real pleasure having them as well. This is such a nice format. It’s such a nice topic that you have to take something that’s such a simple part of life and kind of put it under the microscope to see, you know, how interesting and unique of an experience everyone can have with it. So this has been a real pleasure. Thank you so much.
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TARANJIT: When he shared his one and only accident story and then when he mentioned where it was and who it was with.
BHAVNEET: Validation.
TARANJIT: I was like, oh my gosh, this is what we always talked about. But for someone else.
BHAVNEET: Okay. So now we totally know that it’s not just us. It Is actually true because the only time he got in the accident is where we’ve been saying is the place that you always get an accident.
TARANJIT: In Maryland and with
BHAVNEET: With a Pennsylvania driver.
TARANJIT: Yes. By a Pennsylvania driver. So I was just like, of course. But this is proof that we are actually like
BHAVNEET: That’s a thing.
TARANJIT: Yeah.
BHAVNEET: It’s a thing.
TARANJIT: We’re not making this up. It’s true.
BHAVNEET: But he had a lot of crazy stories. Like he’s traveled all across the country and experienced all these crazy things. And even like other countries.
TARANJIT: Yes. When he was talking about getting in that taxi in Cairo, and then the driver’s just like, Hey, man, can I race? And then he’s just like, yeah, its cool man.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. Who would be like, yeah. That’s cool.
TARANJIT: I would be like,, are you crazy?
BHAVNEET: Be in the back and be like, nope. Let me out. I’ll walk. I’ll walk.
TARANJIT: I’ll find another taxi.
BHAVNEET: I’ll meet you down there.
TARANJIT: But then the thing is like when you’re in another country, I feel like a lot of those drivers do tend to drive fast.
BHAVNEET: Yeah.
TARANJIT: Less controlled as it is here in the U.S.
BHAVNEET: A lot more chaos on the roads.
TARANJIT: Yes, for sure. And so even if youre like, I’m getting another taxi. What are the odds that you’ll get in another taxi driver that is the same way?
BHAVNEET: Exactly.
TARANJIT: And this driver wanted to be a stunt driver or like a stunt person or something, right? So he just like I’m just fulfilling my dreams right now cuz you know.
BHAVNEET: Yeah I mean at least he got out of that and then in Canada, they drove through liquid. Yeah.
TARANJIT: Liquid manure. Oh my gosh. Yes. His stories were crazy. I just wanted to sit there and just listen. Like just have him just keep sharing all of them because they were just…
BHAVNEET: They were astounding. Like that really happened.
TARANJIT: Yeah. First of all, I never really thought that you would encounter liquid manure like that.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. Like being transported like that. Which I mean they have to transport it somehow, right? But like who would have thought?
TARANJIT: I just never would have expected it. And then they’re just like, this lane’s empty. Why are people not going through it? And then…
BHAVNEET: It reminded me of when he said that it reminded me again of Pennsylvania drivers where they don’t like to go in the overtaking lanes if the lane is going to end and they all just wait in a really long line. And we’re just like you can just go in this lane and like bypass like 50 cars. Like when we went to Pennsylvania and we were only the Maryland cars were doing that. And all the Pennsylvania cars were just sitting in this really long line. And we’re just like, why?
TARANJIT: I bet they were so mad. They’re like, hello. I was here first
BHAVNEET: Then take the empty road.
TARANJIT: Yeah.
BHAVNEET: Well, I’m so glad we didn’t encounter something like that to be like, oh, that’s why people were doing that.
TARANJIT: Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. Imagine if there was something actually in that lane.
BHAVNEET: Aww.
TARANJIT: And you were driving.
BHAVNEET: Yeah.
TARANJIT: That would have been your car.
BHAVNEET: Yeah. I would have been so upset. To smell like poop forever.
TARANJIT: Yeah. The fact that that smell would be in that car forever.
BHAVNEET: Is that worse if they were like like a skunk sprayed them? You know that stays forever?
TARANJIT: How? Okay I want to know like how long does a skunk smell stay for and then how long cuz he still he said he still gets a whiff of it every so often.
BHAVNEET: But that’s like reminiscence. Like, oh. Oh. That happened.
TARANJIT: Yeah, so its like is it just because you’re remembering the smell of it or is it still like lingering there?
BHAVNEET: Uggh. Well we hope you enjoyed listening to J.’s stories as much as we did and if you or anyone, you know has any interesting stories and would love to be a guest, fill out the interest form on our website at drivewithuspodcast.com.
TARANJIT: And be sure to stay tuned until the end for a sneak peek of next week’s episode where we were joined by Adrian and he shares his experiences of driving in Japan versus driving in the U.S. and also his steep hill disaster. Thanks for driving with us.
BHAVNEET: Bye.
(outro music)
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(next week’s sneak peek)
ADIRAN: I’ve experienced being a contortionist. I’ve been standing like literally for 30 minutes. I remember standing with my arm over my head, but then my one hand behind my back in like a weird way.