She Flushed Rental Keys Down the Toilet – Terry McDougall (Transcript – S5E5)

(sneak peek)

TERRY: we stopped at this
McDonald’s, in the middle of nowhere. , The car keys for the rental car. They
actually had two sets of keys, wired together, it was so bulky and I like
tucked part of it into the pocket. It was too big to fit the whole thing into
the pocket, but I go into McDonald’s and go to the bathroom. And of course, , I
don’t want to touch. So I, I flush the toilet with my foot. And when I did,
when I lift my leg, it knocked the keys out of the pocket. This was the most
industrial flushing toilet ever. It was just like, Wow. And. They were gone,
the keys were gone

(intro music)

BHAVNEET: Welcome back to
another episode of drive at this podcast. I’m Bhavneet.

TARANJIT: And I’m
Taranjit and we’re super excited to have you ride with us as our drivers. Take
us on some adventurous drives around the world. We have another wonderful
driver for you today. Terry McDougall from Chicago.

She is a mom of three and as an
executive and career coach living in suburban Chicago author of winning the
game of work career happiness and success on your own terms, she is also the
host of the marketing Mambo podcasts. Here’s Terry.

(transition music) 

BHAVNEET: Welcome Terry
to drive with us podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today.

TERRY: so good to be
here. Thanks for having me on.

BHAVNEET: I’m super
excited to talk to you about your crazy driving experiences. , we got a little
preview of it when we chatted before, but before we dive into your crazy
stories, let’s get to know a little bit about your driving background. What are
some of the places that you’ve driven and where are you currently?

TERRY: I’m in suburban
Chicago now and I grew up in Delaware and have driven all up and down the east
coast. , I’ve driven back and forth between the east coast and here multiple
times. , one time I went on. , cross country trip with a bunch of friends to go
skiing for spring break.

We went from DC to Colorado by way
of Chicago. It’s not really on the way, , so yeah, I’ve driven a lot, , and, ,
my husband and family and I went to, we’ve been to Arizona and Colorado and
done big loops around, , both of those states. So I like driving,

BHAVNEET: That’s really
cool that you’ve been to so many different places. have you ever been in a
situation where you were like a passenger in a car and you’re like, oh my God,
this is not a great idea.

TERRY: Yeah, many times
actually. I mean, whenever I was a teenager, I grew up in a rural area and ,
what we did for fun was like drive around. And this was back in the, seventies
and early eighties. there’s a lot of drinking and pot smoking. I mean, I
actually never really liked that kind of stuff, but unfortunately I’ve been in
cars with people that were definitely intoxicated and, as too young and dumb to
be like don’t or let me out.

 I remember one time riding around with some people
and we ended up taking a bit of a unplanned detour into a cornfield. nobody was
hurt.

BHAVNEET: You think
that’s what sparked you loving driving and being like, I want to be the driver.

TERRY: Well, I really
think that the thing that sparked me wanting to drive was the fact that I grew
up in a rural area , I actually grew up in Sussex county, Delaware. It’s like
over near Rehobeth beach and when I was growing up there, it was very rural and
there, the talent I grew up in there wasn’t much going on.

So we would always want to drive to
Rehobeth, which was about, 10 miles away. And so, being able to drive and
having a car was really important, that symbolized freedom to me. and I also,
I’m just, I love travel and I love seeing new places. And so, driving is one
way to get there.

BHAVNEET: And totally
relate to that. Cause we also live kind of. Oh the way. So like, if we want to
get anywhere, it’s like, you’re going to drive at least an hour.

TERRY: yeah, exactly.

TARANJIT: Oh, this is a
great way to segue into your crazy driving experiences. What would you say is
one of your most craziest driving experiences that you’ve had?

TERRY: this one’s like a
two-parter when I was in high school. Now, my dad is a car guy. He actually,
when he was like in his late teens, early twenties, he actually served on a pit
crew for like, I think it was like a stock car racing team or something like
that. And he knows how to work on cars and, he would buy old cars and fix them
up and that kind of thing.

So he bought me a 1966 Mustang,
when I got my driver’s license when I was 16 and that was in the early
eighties. And, one day it had snowed and I actually parked my car in this
church parking lot. That was like one house away from, from our house. , and so
I’ve just kinda cut across this backyard to go to school.

 I went out and I was trying to. Go to school
that day but, , there was snow and I, was backing up and every time that I
would back up the car, wouldn’t go forward. And I thought it was because of the
snow. It was kind of funny cause the minister came out and he’s bringing these
like, the things, the rugs that you wipe your feet on, he’s bringing them out
and putting them under the back.

Cause he thought that my car wasn’t
going because there wasn’t enough traction. actually what it was was that I had
the, , parking brake on and we realized that it would back up, but it wouldn’t
go forward. And so I finally realized it and I let the parking break down and
he’s like, go, go, go.

 You falling, you got some momentum, but that
made me late for school. And so when I got out to the highway, they had only
cleared one of the two lanes on the highway and I got behind this car. Going,
you know, I was like 16 or 17 years old and I thought they were going slow.

. And I was like, I got to get to
school. So I pulled into the other lane that was still covered with snow.
Mustangs are real rear wheel drive cars, which do not do well in snow. So when
I pulled into the other lane to pass them, the car spun out and I hit the
guardrail head on.

And also because this car was a
1966 Mustang, it only had a lap belt. It did not have a shoulder belt. So my
head went forward and it hit the steering wheel and I broke my nose. the people
that I passed stopped, thankfully, and. They went and called the ambulance and
the police and I actually had to, go to the hospital in the back of an
ambulance.

I was fine, except for, I was
shaken up from the accident and I’d broken my nose. That was the first part of
the story. So crashed my car heartbroken, et cetera. But I still needed a car.
My dad, as I said, he’s a car guy. , , he had all these old cars, he would buy
cars at like sealed bid auctions.

I don’t know. It’s just. People
like my dad do, but he had this one car, I think it was like an old 98. It was
something that I I’m sure, some 90 year old died and then the family sold the
car at this auction or something. And my dad bought it for probably some cheap
price, but the thing was like 20 feet long.

And he was like, well, you can
drive this car. It wasn’t as cool as my Mustang, but at least I had a car and
one time it must not have been that long. Maybe, maybe it was like within a
month I was driving home from school. And once again, it had snowed, which is
weird because it doesn’t snow in Delaware that much.

And once again, I hit a snowy patch
on the highway and this big car spun out. And it went into the median strip. It
actually went across the median strip and it was facing the, lanes on the other
side of the highway, facing the wrong direction. And so I was like, I don’t
know if I want to , have to do a U-turn on that side to go and turn around.

So I was like, I’m just gonna try
to drive across the median strip , the median strip is in a shape of like a
ditch or like a V cause it’s for drainage and, This giant car as I’m driving
across it, it got stuck. It got wedged in between two sides of the median
strip.

And so I’m stuck. I was like, okay.
And this is long before cell phones. So I had to get out of the car, had to run
across the highway. Thankfully again, it’s rural, so there’s not that much
traffic, but I had to find a house there weren’t a lot of houses along the
highway. And I found one and I asked him if I could use the phone.

And I called my mom, she worked at
the post office and I was like, mom, the car got stuck. I spun out. And the car
stuck, , in the highway, can you call the local gas station and tell them to
send a tow truck out? And she yelled at me. She’s like, I’m busy. I’m at work.
What are you doing?

Calling me? And she’s like, when I
get a break I’ll, call them with. I don’t know if she didn’t understand that
her teenage daughter was on the side of the road, but anyway, I’m out there
waiting and I don’t know how long it was, maybe 15, 20 minutes. I don’t know. ,
but this, pickup truck is driving on the highway and they just zoomed over to
the side of the road where I was standing and the guy gets out and he had?

like a big, tow rope on the front
of his pickup.

It was not a tow truck, but I
thought, oh, well, maybe this is what the local guy has. , he hooked it up to
the front of my car and he pulled the car out and, after he pulls it out, , I
was like, okay, well, thanks. I talked to him about how much money I owed him
or that my mom would pay him or whatever.

And he comes up to me and he’s like,
would you be interested in going out with me? I was like, no, I have a
boyfriend. And plus I don’t know who you are. And he was like, okay. And I was
like, okay, well, thanks for pulling me out. I get home and I talked to my mom
and she’s like, oh, I never had a chance to call the, service station.

And so this was just some guy that,
, saw a damsel in distress, stopped and, pulled me out, which that was nice.
Cause it didn’t cost me anything and I didn’t actually have to go on a date
with them.

TARANJIT: when you
mentioned the Mustangs and rear wheel drive, that works really hard to say,
what are you say it fast? But I’ve noticed that at one time too, I was driving
to work and there was a Mustang in the right lane and it was snowing there’s
snow on the road. And he tried to hit the gas and I just saw him swerve and he
couldn’t go straight.

And I just picked her that when
you’re

TERRY: Yeah, exactly. And
I mean, I had no idea about any of that stuff at the time, but of course now I
understand front wheel drive does a lot better or all wheel drive obviously
does better in the, in the snow, but I had no clue I just remember spinning
that was scary, spinning on the highway.

And I was trying to counter steer
and so forth. But it’s a very helpless feeling when you’re just spinning. And
you don’t know when you’re going to say.

TARANJIT: Lessons did you
learn from this earth? What tips would you give to other drivers? If they were
in the situation?

TERRY: Well, a few, if
your car won’t go forward, make sure that you don’t have the parking brake on
number one. , number two, take your time when it’s snowing. I was really so
much more concerned about making it to school in time for my exam, , which
obviously I did not make it to school at all for my exam.

I had to do a makeup later. , but
being a little bit late is, is much preferable to getting in a car accident. ,
And then I guess the third lesson is don’t try to drive across the median
strip.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, that’s a
good one, especially in

a

big

TERRY: Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.

BHAVNEET: What would you
say is your second craziest driving experience?

TERRY: This second one
that I’m going to talk to you about is one that when it was happening, I was
like, Am I in a movie, what’s going on here? , again, if this has another
Delaware connection, , I lived here in Chicago when that happened, but, , my
husband was doing something for the week.

I can’t even remember what it was,
but I, I have three kids and I decided to take the week off and take my kids to
Delaware to visit my sister. Cause she lives in Rehoboth beach. so we flew
into, , national airport and I rented a car and we drove across the Chesapeake
bay bridge to the Eastern shore, to my sisters.

And we spent a few days there going
to the beach, hanging out with my sister and her kids, my, my kids cousins. And
when. When we had to go back to the airport, it’s pretty rural over there on
the Eastern shore. , it’s funny. Cause my sister had gotten up and she’d gone
to this fancy donut place and she’d gotten these gourmet donuts for us to eat
for breakfast.

And everybody loved them except for
my daughter. She does not like donuts. She’s weird. And so she did not want to
eat anything. She didn’t want to eat the donuts. So we’re on our way back to DC
and it’s about maybe two, two and a half hours from where my sister lives to
the airport.

And we’re like an hour into the
trip and she’s like, mom, I’m hungry, I’m hungry. And so we stopped at this
McDonald’s, in the middle of nowhere. , I parked the car and The car keys for
the rental car. They actually had two sets of keys, wired together, which to me
defeats the purpose of having two sets of keys.

But it was so bulky that I had a
Jean skirt on and I like tucked part of it into the pocket. It was too big to
fit into the whole thing into the pocket, but I go into McDonald’s and go to
the bathroom. And of course, , I don’t want to touch. So I, I flush the toilet
with my foot. And when I did, when I lift my leg, it knocked the keys out of
the pocket.

But this all happened all at once,
where I’m hitting the, , thing to flush the toilet, the keys fly out into the
toilet bowl. This was the most industrial flushing toilet ever. It was just
like, Wow. And. They were gone, the keys were gone. I hate to say it, but I
stuck my hand down there to see if they were still stuck.

They were gone. They were
absolutely gone. And I was like, oh my God, what do I do? Thankfully I had a
Blackberry. I mean, this is, I don’t know how long ago it was. I didn’t have
like, and this was like before super smart phones, maybe I’m going to estimate
it was like 2013.

I had some internet connectivity on
my Blackberry, but it wasn’t smart. Like the smartphones are now. And I was
like, thank God I brought my purse and my phone in, because I almost was just
going to run in and get my daughter something, go to the bathroom and get back
in the car. But, I was like, What are we doing?

I remember that on the car, it was
a Hyundai that it had a little sticker on the window that was Hyundai roadside
assistance. Cause I did not want to call the rental car company. Cause I knew
that they would probably tow the car two hours to the closest rental car place.
Cause there were none close to there and they would charge me a ton of money.

 I called Hyundai roadside assistance and they
said, okay, we’ll send a tow truck and it should be there, in 30 to 45 minutes.
It’s August or something. And luckily the McDonald’s had a play area. My
youngest daughter was, she was probably, eight or nine years old.

And then my sons were like, 1314,
something like that. So we’re sitting outside, we’re going back and forth,
like, okay, here’s some money, go buy an ice cream cone. Okay. You want to play
in the playground for awhile, 30 to 45 minutes goes by and the tow truck is
still not there.

And I’m like, okay, well I’ll wait
another 30 minutes or so. And just see maybe there’s traffic or whatever. And I
finally called them back. Cause the tow truck hadn’t shown up and they’re like,
oh, well I just called him. And they said that they’re they’re closed. They’ll
be there soon.

 I keep waiting and it gets to a point where
it’s like a couple hours since I called and I’m getting frustrated. Cause it’s
like, 90 degrees outside and we’re in the middle of nowhere. I’m concerned
about, Give them to the airport, , missing the flight, that kind of stuff.

and luckily we actually were going
to visit my, husband’s brother for a little while. So we had planned some extra
time into the, into the trip.

So I had a little bit of time, but
anyway, I finally get to a point where I’m like, this is way too long and I
called the place and I was like, you need to call another tow truck.

Cause this is ridiculous. , I can’t
just be out here with my kids in the middle of nowhere and I’m locked out of
the car. so they said, okay, well, we’re going to call another tow truck. And
within, 15 minutes, this tow truck shows up and the tow truck looked like it
had gotten pulled out of a junkyard.

The cab of the tow truck was rusty
and had multiple colors of paint on it. And I just assumed this was the. Tow
truck that they called second. Cause it came right after the guy had called. So
I go up and I start talking to the guy I’m showing him where the car is and the
next thing I know, five minutes later, another tow truck shows up and the
second tow truck is beautiful.

, It’s got this custom paint job on
it. It’s got racing Stripe. It’s amazing. , beautiful. And I’m looking at these
two and I was like, okay, now I see what’s happening. The second tow truck is
actually the second tow truck that got called. And, , I look at them too.

And I’m like, which one of these do
I want towing? . Do I want the, one that looks like it’s going to break down at
any second on the side of the road? Or do I want the beautiful tow truck?
That’s super fancy. And I actually I had talked to the roadside assistance
people and they had told me that they trust the tow truck companies to be able
to say that they can get to the location within an hour.

And the reality was that this tow
truck company was legitimately further away than an hour away. so they lied.
Once I figured this whole thing out, I went to that guy and I was like, I don’t
want you telling me, I want this other company telling me. And he was like,
well, I have to call my boss.

So I was on the phone with his boss
and we talked about this, that this is a family friendly show and I do not,
cuss people out or anything like that. But I totally told this guy off. I was
like, you have left me and my children out here for hours. You know, you lied.

I absolutely do not want you taking
me. there was a little bit of a standoff between the tow truck driver of the
other tow truck and this new tow truck But the first guy finally left and it
was funny because with the second tow truck, it was a driver and this lady that
came along, she was like, the helper, like customer service person.

, she was like, well, we can’t
leave your children out here obviously. And I was like, no, of course we can’t.
And she’s like, okay, well, we’re gonna all pile into the cab of the tow truck.
So it was the driver, the lady that came with it, me and my three kids all got
into the cab of this tow truck.

And it was multiple people sitting
on laps and that kind of stuff. And they drove us. It was probably like 15
miles to a Hyundai dealership. And at the Hyundai dealership, I mean, gosh, I
know this is a long story, but at the Hyundai dealership, they were like, okay,
we’re going to see if we can get the code off of this car and make you a
duplicate set of keys.

And they did it within their
dealership and it didn’t work. And this was like a Saturday and they were like,
we can probably drive to Eastern, Maryland to a locksmith cause they’ve got
better equipment and see if they can do it. And I was like, okay, please do. it
took them probably about 40 minutes.

and they came back and The keywords
and it costs me, I don’t know, a hundred bucks or something. And the roadside
assistance paid for, , the tow. And so I got my key. I put my kids in the car
and I had to call my brother-in-law and say, we’re not going to be able to make
it.

We had some issues, but we went to
the airport. I turned in the key that I had made at the Hyundai dealership. And
we got on a plane and we came back.

TARANJIT: Wow. What a
trip.

TERRY: And the middle of
that, I was like, this is, I think that there used to be a show called tow
truck wars. And I was like, I am in the middle of an episode of the tow truck
wars

BHAVNEET: It’s like this
actually happens.

TERRY: Oh my gosh. It was
crazy. It was totally crazy.

BHAVNEET: And you’re also
so lucky that you already had so much extra time built in to get what airport
you want to flight.

TERRY: No. Well, we would
have been spending the night at my brother-in-law’s house, I think, and, and
trying to rebook,

TARANJIT: yeah, it’s
interesting that they did put both keys together. It’s like, what were they
thinking? Like if we lose one, you lose both.

TERRY: doesn’t I don’t, I
think that maybe they put them together just so they keep them for when they
sell the car, cause they usually sell them when they get to Like,

30 or 40,000 miles. But yeah. it
just didn’t, it didn’t make any sense, you know? And then plus, cause they were
so bulky, I couldn’t fit it in my pocket.

So I blame, , I think it was Hertz.
I’m gonna blame Hertz.

TARANJIT: yeah. I’ve had
to call a tow truck, I think twice now. Both times they say an estimate of like
maybe an hour or so. It took almost all day before they ever came. So luckily I
had someone else to come pick me up and then they can take the car. But like in
your situation, there was no one to go to since you were so out of the way,

TERRY: And it would have
been, very expensive for them to tow because, , the rental car companies, they
they’ll charge. You they’ll charge you for everything. I have one more story.
If they’re all in Delaware, Maine, I just need to stay away from Delaware.

BHAVNEET: keeps it
interesting.

TERRY: Uh, Yeah, that the
third story is it’s also involves a rental car and I, I was visiting my sister
again. So again, maybe it’s my sister in Delaware, but, , she had moved and I
wasn’t familiar with the neighborhood that she moved to. And so as driving on
this, dark a little bit back road, that was, it was, the road was a long, , a
golf course.

And , I’m driving along looking to
see like where the turn is. Cause I wasn’t familiar. And next thing I know,
there’s a deer on my hood. , I hit a deer and the weird thing was that, ,
again, this was like, when I was spinning, Time stood still for a second,

because, I’m just driving along and
all of a sudden this animals on the car. And I saw this thing that like pop up
off of the car and in my mind, I thought it was the deer’s eyeball. Cause it
was like a round thing, like popping up in the air. And I was like, oh my God.
, and I had to pull over and I realized what happened, I hit the steer.

 But it got up and it ran off. There were, like
a bunch of them coming across the golf course and that one just ran right in
front of me. But. The car was still drivable. I drove down and I turned around
and I had missed the turn actually. And I came back and I went to my sister’s
house and I was like, ah, I, I hit a deer.

What I found out though, was
thankfully it wasn’t the deer’s eyeball. , it was the, I think I had a Kia that
time. It was the emblem on the hood, , when the, the impact with the deer, it
popped off and it flew up in the air. But then what happened was because the,
hood was, mangled and bent.

 My dad actually came and took a look at the
car and when we, when I tried to start it the night before I had to go back to
the airport, it would be. Start. And, , my dad said, he thought something
inside got cracked and that the moisture got into it.

And so it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t
start. , the rental car company had to send a tow truck to take the car. But,
the rental car companies, boy, they, I mean, I had, , insurance through my
credit card, but it still , ended up costing us like $900 because they’ll make
you pay for the time that the car is not earning income.

So it’s, kind of a racket.

TARANJIT: Yeah, they’ll
charge you for

TERRY: Yes, they
absolutely will. They absolutely.

TARANJIT: Yeah. Well,
luckily it wasn’t eyeball. Like I can’t imagine if a dude actually plop out.

TERRY: Yeah, I know, but
, in that moment it’s so shocking, , I mean, you’re just driving route and it
was so dark that I could not, the golf course was just there and it was all
dark. There’s no lights on it, and they were, I guess we were just running
across the golf course and across the road.

And it was just on the hood before
I even knew is like a really surreal experience, for something to happen. So
suddenly.

TARANJIT: Yeah, I can
relate. I’ve had two deer encounters and most of the time they just I’ve heard
that they ended up just walking away and they don’t really get, they don’t get
killed most of the time. They are able to just like they had the

TERRY: Yeah. Yeah. I
mean, I would imagine that. Maybe they dilate or they’ve definitely got some
injuries, but my sister told me that like a week after I hit that deer on that
road, that her daughter hit a deer on that same road. So they do not learn.

TARANJIT: The first one
that I had was a mailed here. So it was huge. He had huge antlers and he, he
got thrown across the roadway and I wasn’t like going 30 miles an hour. So it
wasn’t even that fast. He got straight across the road and then he got up and
he just stood in front of the car and just stared at me like how,

TERRY: yeah.

Are we going to fight? Yeah, that’s

funny. Yeah. That’s about how fast
I was going to,

TARANJIT: so since you
have driven so many places and you’ve been to so many different states, how
would you describe drivers in different states? Have you noticed any
differences?

TERRY: I lived in the DC
area for a long time and, people are, on the beltway, they’re driving fast,
driving crazy, not very patient, the thing that was really interesting is my
husband and I, we moved to North Carolina about a year after we got married
from the DC area.

And the thing that I noticed about
North Carolina is that people were a lot more patient, , like in, in DC, if you
were at a stoplight and you didn’t go immediately, , people are going to be
beeping the horn at you and stuff like that. And there it’s like. I almost felt
the people would let a whole light cycle go by.

They, whatever hit the horn, people
are just little more friendly and more patient there. , although one of the
things that I did notice was about merging, , say for example, if you’re on the
highway and there’s a sign that says down to one lane and it in a mile, , we’re
doing construction and there’s, it’s going down to one lane.

People would just get in one lane
before you had to merge. And my husband and I were used to driving in DC and
we’re like, you just stay in the lane until the lane closes. . Because you’re
just, you’re making the traffic slower if you get into one lane quicker. But
Nan people used to get so upset.

Like if you kept going in the lane,
Until it merged, people would move over and try to block you. That I thought
was really crazy. I was like, you guys need to learn how to drive here. You
just keep driving until the lane ends and then you merge you don’t just get in
one lane, a mile ahead of the lane closure.

BHAVNEET: I feel exactly
the same way. Maybe it’s just us Marilyn driving versus everywhere else,
because , I will do the same exact thing, when we would go into Pennsylvania,
People would do that. Like they were merge so far in advance and I would just
stay in the open lanes. Like it’s not cool.

TERRY: Right,

Exactly. Exactly. You just, you’re
supposed to do the zipper thing, when you get down to the end, you take turns.
But I don’t know why some people just feel like they want to be prepared. I’m
going to get in the right lane. just a little, little crazy, , I’m trying to
think about other places.

I mean, I lived in, Boston also,
but I didn’t, have a car when I lived there, the roads are crazy and Boston and
I think that that might actually have an impact on how people drive too, not to
cast any aspersions on people from Massachusetts. , and I live in the Chicago
land area here and my gosh on the highway here, every once in a while you’ll
have people that are driving, like they’re in the Indy 500, meeting in and out
of, people are going 75 miles an hour on the highway and then you got somebody
who’s going 90, weaving in and out of the cars and that’s insane.

BHAVNEET: Yeah, I would
not be able to deal with that. Like 6 95. The beltway area here in Maryland is
crazy enough for me.

TERRY: Yeah. Yeah. And I
mean, sometimes you’ll see people that are , zooming from the far right-hand
lane, over to the left-hand lane and back it’s insane. . I just try to stay in
my lane.

 Just definitely Avoid.

those crazy people.

BHAVNEET: Yeah. Now that
we heard a little bit a lot about your crazy driving experiences, let’s dive
into what kind of driver you are. How would you describe yourself as a driver?

TERRY: I think I’m a good
driver. I mean, even though you’ve heard of some early experiences , where I, I
was still learning and maybe had some lessons to learn, but well, actually I’m
going to tell on myself a little bit in my high school yearbook, , they asked
for pet peeves and one of my pet peeves was people that don’t use their turn
signal. So I think I try to be polite. I try to, , signal, I am definitely not
a tailgater cause I’m like, why? What’s the big deal, right? You can leave a
little space in case you need to, , hit the brakes. You don’t want to be
rear-ending anybody. , I like to drive maybe a few miles over the speed limit,
but I’m definitely not one of those people that striving super, super fast,

And I also don’t like to use the
cruise control. I just don’t feel like I’m in control whenever I’m using the
cruise control, so even though I know that you can slow it down and you can
stop it, but I just like to have my foot on the, on the pedal.

TARANJIT: is the blinker
thing still your pet peeve today, or do you have another driving pet peeve?

TERRY: Well, I mean, I
suppose I still don’t like it. In fact, I think I was going someplace with my
husband the other day and somebody, , they’re in front of them. And they almost
stop in the, middle of the road and then they start turning and then they turn
on their blinker and I’m like, what is the purpose of this?

Like, yes, we figured out that you
were turning when you were turning. , maybe you could have, let us know a
little bit before this. So I suppose that the answer to that would be, yes.
That’s. I just think it’s really rude. Plus it’s, smart to let other people
know what you’re doing.

 So that they’re not running into you.

BHAVNEET: Exactly. And
this, this is also okay. This is also in Delaware. , I guess all of our things
are in Delaware. , we were coming back from, I don’t even remember where we’re
on a road trip and there was a sign on the highway that said blinker fluid is
free. Use it. And I thought that was hilarious because people don’t use their
indicators.

I was wondering how many people
actually thought blinker fluid was a real thing.

TERRY: I never have heard
of that, but I like it. , Actually, we just got a new car and the car has one
of those, , blind spot indicators. I’m super excited about that because that’s
a tough thing.

 Especially when you’re, , you’re driving on
the highway and sometimes you’re aware, but maybe somebody speeds up in the
lane and you don’t realize they’re there.

So I’m excited about that.

TARANJIT: Yeah, or
they’ll hang in your blind spot and

TERRY: That’s the worst.
So just having that little, I can remember in, , driver’s ed, that, that my, ,
driver’s ed teacher said always, look in your mirror, but before you switched
lanes, look over your shoulder to make sure. So I always thought that was good
advice. , but I’ve had some close calls over the years where , you think
nobody’s there,

and you start to go and then
there’s like, Fred.

TARANJIT: Yeah. All of
the new, I guess, safety features that they’ve added is making, driving easier,
whereas before it was like you had

to, all

TERRY: it was all on you.

Yeah, Well, one of the features on
the car that we get just gotten, I haven’t used it yet, but it’s, lane
detection, it, I guess it probably has some cameras that zero in on the, lane.
And if you start to veer out of lane, it’ll pull you back into the center of
the lane, which I haven’t used it, but I would imagine it would, be really
handy on longer road trips.

TARANJIT: Yeah, I’ve used
it when I first got my car and then it got annoying after awhile because when
you’re on your daily commute, you’re like, okay, I don’t need

TERRY: Yeah. Yeah. I
know. That’s kind of one of the things that I was wondering about too. Like if
you, I’ve been driving for like 40 years, so, if you have never had to use that
and then. Is it really helpful or is it just annoying?

BHAVNEET: I will say I
have used it once when I was super exhausted from like, you came from a. Oh,
off the plane, we had a long flight and I just used it then it’s like in case I
like zone out.

TERRY: Yeah, totally,

TARANJIT: going a little,
back into your firsthand driving experiences, how would you describe that? And
what was your driving tests experiences?

TERRY: When I was
learning how to drive the car that my mom had was stick shift. And it was a lot
to try to remember, like clutch and gas and the break. And I, I can remember
one time, striving on this back road and.

 Taking this corner, way too fast, because it
was downshifting and I forgot to hit the brake to slow down. And then having to
restart the car.

And then the light turned red and
the people behind me beacon, the horn and stuff. So that was nerve wracking.
But my first car was actually, , uh, four or five speed, I don’t know, but it
was, , a manual transmission. So I know how to drive a, , a stick shift, which
I think is a good thing to know how to do.

 But my driving test, I don’t even really
remember.

it. I remember driver’s ed and I
remember, My driving partner was named Ursula. And we also had a choice of, I
went to Cape Henlopen high school in Lewis, Delaware, and we had a choice that
we could either drive to ocean city, Maryland for our long driving test with
our instructor, or we can , drive to Dover.

And I was like, ah, that’s boring.
I don’t want to drive to Dover. So I drove to ocean city.

TARANJIT: So it sounds
like you’re kids have.

TERRY: all of my kids
have.

TARANJIT: Well then all
of them not experience.

TERRY: , I think it was,
it was okay. It’s funny because I was the one that was more focused on, helping
them learn how to drive. Especially my oldest, my husband, I don’t know. I
think that he was just in denial or something and he didn’t want to take them
out.

 So I would just take them down to , there’s a
parking lot. That’s like, we live close to lake Michigan and there’s a parking
lot at this park and I would take them down there and have them like drive
around in it. Cause there weren’t a lot of, cars and ,

there were some accidents, like
small ones, like my, my son, we had, uh, , Honda minivan and he would drive it
to, , cross-country practice. And one Saturday morning, he went in for,
practice and I don’t know what his deal was, but he got in the van and he just
, gunned it, pulling out of the parking space.

And I guess he didn’t see this car
that was parked behind him and he hit this little Honda civic and he ended up
moving, it a full parking space over and he made a huge dent in the back of our
van. But I was the first one that rec the van I wrecked the van when it was a
week ago.

 In the parking garage at my building, which
was mortifying, it’s horrible. We haven’t even made one payment. We had not
made one payment on it, and I was used to driving a sedan and the parking
garage was under the building and there were these gigantic big square columns.
And my parking space was around this one column.

And I just took the corner the same
way that I took it when I had the car. And . It wasn’t a big enough turn radius
for that big vehicle. And I just scraped the whole side of the van down this
big, column. And I was just like, oh my God, please. At first I was like, oh,
maybe it’s just a little scratch.

Got out. The whole side of the van
was just crushed and scraped and it was horrible. And I, went upstairs to my
office and my boss, who I had really good relationship with. , he made a little
bit of a snarky comment cause I was late and he was like, , oh, I’m so glad you
showed up.

And as soon as he said something, I
just burst out crying. And he was like, oh my God, what’s the matter. What’s
the matter I told him what happened and he actually made me feel better. Cause
he told me that him and his wife, , backed into each other in their own
driveway and wrecked both their cars. So I was like, okay, better. Yeah.

We did take the car and got it
fixed, . The door had to be replaced. The back quarter panel had to be
replaced. was not good.

TARANJIT: Well, scratch
is always better than a huge debt.

TERRY: Yeah.

TARANJIT: So switching
gears a little bit, since we have been talking about your current driving
experience and your past driving experiences, let’s talk a little bit about the
future of driving. I know we touched on this a little bit of how you don’t
really use cruise control, but what are your thoughts on self-driving cars?

And is this something that you
would

get

in.

TERRY: , I’m not that
into the whole idea of self-driving cars. . It’s funny. Cause I was actually
talking to my son today about, when you’ve grown up in a generation where. You
had to rely on yourself. I mean, we talked about some of the safety features
and they’re great.

But even things like learning to
read a map, . When I was growing up, we actually would

when I lived in DC, we had maps in
our car, you’d have a book that had the map of the whole area. And, if you were
going someplace, you hadn’t been before, you’d find it on the map,

And then just figure out how do I
get

from point a to point B from the map
yourself? And I think nowadays, I mean, I liked GPS. I liked the, Google maps
and all that kind of stuff. It’s really convenient. But I think that a lot of
skills have been lost because we rely on, on technology too much.

And obviously with a lot of the
self-driving cars, I mean, we’re seeing that. The technology is missing, ,
somebody in.

the crosswalk. For some reason, the
car malfunctions, . And the person gets killed. It’s horrible. Or, they’re
saying like, oh, you should pay attention.

Even when you’re using self
self-driving and people are watching movies or playing video games and they end
up getting in some fiery crash because they didn’t control the car. I just, I’m
not into it.

BHAVNEET: Yeah. I agree
with you. I would not, I wouldn’t want to be in a self driving car. I doesn’t
enjoy driving too much. I haven’t been to the point where it was. I haven’t
obviously driven when it was only mass, but like, we still have atlases in our
van. They’re outdated, but our dad definitely used them a lot.

TERRY: Yeah. Well, you
know, one of the things that I found too is that, especially when you go, you
get out west. a lot.

of times the internet connectivity
is not very good, so if you’re relying on the Google maps to, show you where to
go, sometimes you’re literally driving blind because you can’t get access to
the maps.

BHAVNEET: And you also
don’t want to rely too much on GPS. Cause like if a road has changed and it’s
not updated or like, I think our uncle was telling us a situation where it’s
the roads, keep going straight, but then there was like a roundabout there and
it’s like, uh,

TERRY: yeah, totally. I
mean, , our old car had , built-in GPS, but we didn’t update. , it was like a
2008 and we didn’t update the software on it, cause he had to pay and we’re
like, ah, whatever, , it’s good enough. But there were times when we were going
someplace and , maybe they built some new roads and it wasn’t on the GPS.

Or there was an access road that
wasn’t there , when they put the GPS together. It can be a little bit tricky
sometimes when you’re relying too heavily on the, technology.

BHAVNEET: Bonus question
time. Are you

TERRY: Yeah, I think so

BHAVNEET: If you can make
one, a new driving law, what would it be?

TERRY: one new driving
law.

It would just be actually for
people to follow the driving laws that we already have, drive in the right hand
lanes, unless you’re passing, too many people are like, Hey, I’m going, , the
speed limit 65, I’m going to drive in the left-hand lane, going 65 miles an
hour.

It’s just super dangerous. And then
I guess the other one would be you guys definitely guessed this make people use
their blinkers.

TARANJIT: Yeah. I don’t
know if they actually find you for that right now, but if that would be a law
that you would like to implement, that’d be interesting to see how many people
would actually follow it. If there was a fine associated with it.

TERRY: I, I really wish
that more, I was talking earlier about how people drive so crazy, , like my
husband and I actually, we just picked up our new car on December 30th maybe.
It might’ve been like new year’s day. We went out for like a little bit of a
drive and we drove a little bit south and we came back on the highway and this
Tesla was, it was weaving in and out of the traffic.

And when they came in front of us,
it.

was like inches and I was like, oh
my gosh. Like if that car in front of them slowed down just a little bit, it
would be catastrophic accident. And I just really wish that the, that kind of,
aggressive driving could be policed more, , because I think it’s really super
selfish of people.

And when those kinds of accidents
happen, they really are horrible.

TARANJIT: Yeah, I agree
with that. I feel like it’s also, I guess, location dependent in some areas
police have more like dangerous things to focus on as opposed to just like
someone not using their blinker, but then other states there’s like nothing
going on so they can pull you over for tailgating.

it depends.

TERRY: well, you know,
in, in Chicago, they got the red light cameras. They also have implemented
speeding cameras and actually they have that in DC, too. I actually, this is
another rental car thing. I ended up getting a speeding ticket in a rental car
one time. It came months later, I got a charge on my American express and I was
like, what is this for?

And it was because I was clocked on
some highway in DC, exceeding the speeding limit. And they, send a ticket to
the rental car company. And then of course they charged me plus some,
additional fee on top of that. I mean, I guess I just said that I want them to
police it, so I can’t complain too much, but it’s super frustrating.

Like we know what the Chicago, we
know what the, when the oblong comes, I’m like, Oh man.

the red light tickets are a hundred
bucks. So when those come it’s like, and when you’re going through it, like,
you’ll you’ll think like, oh, I can make it through. And then it flashes and
you’re like, man, they got me.

It’s.

BHAVNEET: No it does. I
find it hard to know, like when the light turns so quickly and you’re going
like just fast enough to not stop, but not fast enough to cross. And then
you’re like, which do I do?

TERRY: I know. I, I
agree. And I, feel like they time them so that they can make more revenue.

BHAVNEET: I know you
mentioned a little bit of advice earlier, but do you have any final thoughts or
any , final tips that you would like to give other than.

TERRY: I would say take
some deep breaths people , let’s avoid the road rage. It’s not worth it. I
didn’t talk about this at the beginning, but I am a executive and career coach.
And, I actually talk about how, what we believe can impact how we feel. And, ,
I actually, I I’ve written a book too, and it’s called winning the game of
work.

And in the book I talk about, how,
if we change our thoughts, we can change our responses. And an example I use is
That if you’re driving down the highway and somebody swerves into your lane, I
mean, we’ve all experienced this right, where you’re like, oh my gosh, like the
belief deep down inside a lot of times is that, , this crazy, person’s trying
to kill me.

 And so of course, if that’s what our belief
is, we’re going to beep the horn and start cursing them and, maybe shake our
fist or give them the finger or whatever. But I want to contrast that with, if
you are. Driving down the highway and a police car, or an ambulance words into
your lane, you have a different reaction, right?

Because you know, deep down inside,
you feel like, oh, they must be, , on their way to, taking somebody to the
hospital or, , to an important situation. . So we don’t have the same response.
So I think that it would behoove all of us that when somebody does something
that feels threatening to maybe consider that they’re really not trying to kill
you, , that maybe they’re taking their wife to the hospital to have a baby, or
they just lost focus momentarily.

They’re really not trying to kill
you. , just so we don’t have so much violence on the highways, . That’s my
advice to.

BHAVNEET: That is a
really good way to think about it. And hopefully more people will implement
that

TERRY: Yeah,

BHAVNEET: we don’t need
all that aggressiveness on

TERRY: we don’t. We
don’t. And like, no. Why? Why let your blood pressure go off the charts? . Just
take a deep breath and get back to, you didn’t die. Nobody hurt you. Take a
deep breath and just get back to what was going on before don’t get caught up
in the.

BHAVNEET: Exactly. Well,
thank you so much for coming on. It was so much fun talking to you before we
let you go, though. Where can our listeners find you if they want to connect?

TERRY: Yeah, well, they
can go to my website, which is Terry being mcdougal.com or they can also
connect with me on LinkedIn. My handle on LinkedIn is Terry V McDougal. And ,
if they are interested in living a happier and more successful career, they can
check out my book, which is called winning the game of work career happiness
and success on your own terms.

It’s available on Amazon. And I
also have a podcast which is, called marketing Mambo, where I talk to people
that are in and around the world of marketing.

BHAVNEET: Awesome. Well,
thank you so much for coming on. It was really great talking to

TERRY: it was great
talking to you. guys too. Thanks for having me.

 (transition music)

TARANJIT: When Terry was
sharing the story of flushing her keys down the toilet by accident, I, we were
all trying to figure out what was the reasoning behind them putting two keys
together?

Well, I left.

BHAVNEET: Oh, you did.
You did your .

TARANJIT: I’m like, I
know we’re speculating. What could possibly be the reason, but I looked it up
and this is from autotrader.com. So I only looked at one site. I didn’t do
proper research, but yeah, I just got this based off of what they said, do you
have any guesses as to why they might do that before I share why they do that?

BHAVNEET: Well, I mean, I
thought it was so that like, you know, you would keep them together because.
Don’t lose one. You’re only renting one. I don’t know. Why would you need your
spare to separate? I don’t know what

was the reason?

TARANJIT: So what, so
before they used to give you both keys, they used to actually give you one and
keep one, and then they were transferred to the office, but if a key was lost
in transfer, they didn’t, you know, like the office wasn’t able to send her
something like that.

Then it was on the rental company
to have to cover those costs. And then they’re like, oh, what if we give both
keys to the customer, they lose a key, charge them extra. They cover the cost.
We don’t have, we don’t get in trouble. We don’t have any issues. We get money
from this. It was a way to turn it around and put the cost on the customer.

So they didn’t have to pay money
out of their pocket because apparently they were losing a lot of. That way.

BHAVNEET: I mean, I could
see that, but pause

for the siren

this is a life of vodcast or it was
next to a fire station.

TARANJIT: now that she
brought that topic up, I can’t even remember when I rented a car. If I had both
copies of the keys I did. You did. I can’t remember.

BHAVNEET: They were, they
were chained together.

TARANJIT: I honestly, I
don’t. I feel like that’s something, I would remember if it was double keys,
but I also

BHAVNEET: had pushed
starts, so it’s like they add them together and I just throw it in my purse.

TARANJIT: I honestly
can’t remember. And I’ve had rentals two times, three times three cars. I’d

BHAVNEET: probably add
them both.

TARANJIT: Well, okay.

When I rented it from the toilet,
I’m pretty sure I just got one because it was going to go back to Toyota. It
was like their car versus if you ran from like enterprise or something, you
could drop it off at another enterprise in another state. So then I feel like
they would give you two. anyways.

BHAVNEET: We could go
into hold debate about that

if you’ve had any crazy interesting
rental car stories, share them with us on Instagram, at drive with us podcast,
and we hope you enjoyed listening to Terry’s driving stories.

Be sure to stay tuned until the end
of this episode, to hear a sneak peek of next week’s episode with Mariel Fry
from Connecticut

TARANJIT: she shared with
us a lot about the Jersey driving culture, about not having to pump gas. And
also the Jersey slide.

BHAVNEET: Thank you for
tuning in this week. And if you enjoyed this episode, you can help support the
show by sharing it with your friends or leaving us a review on pod chaser. It
truly does help us get discovered.

TARANJIT: Thanks for
choosing to drive with us and we’ll see you all next week. 

(outro music)

 MARIEL: My friends and I, we go to the Jersey shore.

so I , back in the car with two of my girlfriends and my girlfriend ended up cutting through part of the highway, like through one side of a major highway to another side of a major highway.

Cause she almost missed a stop and cut through everything which is called the Jersey slide

she just went for it and ended up going on a curb,