Car Mix-Up

Considering how many other gray Honda Pilots are on the road, I'm surprised it took almost five years for this to happen.  But happen, it did.  Yesterday.  Troy thought another gray Pilot was ours, and the story he and Julia told had me in fits the rest of the day.

For this little tale, it's important to know that Pilot owners know where a "secret button" is to open the glass on the rear hatch door - it's a hidden button you push to release only the glass if you don't want the entire rear door opened.

Now for the story . . .

We four Lusters ran several errands yesterday morning, hopping from one store to another and from one parking lot to another.  My knee wasn't doing well, so I waited in the car whenever possible.  I didn't need to go into Bed, Bath & Beyond, so Troy went inside, taking a spunky little Julia with him.

They weren't gone long, but when Evelyn and I saw Julia and Troy walking toward the car, we knew something had happened.  Troy was shaking his head, and Julia had this big, Cheshire-cat grin on her face.

Troy had spotted a gray Honda Pilot near where he thought ours was parked.  Since his bag was small, he only wanted to open the glass section of the rear door.  As he approached the car, he began to question whether that's where our Pilot was really parked.  After Troy opened the glass hatch window, three things happened at once:

(1)  Being ever-observant, Julia noticed that the back of this Pilot had the wrong "decorations" (as she calls them); this one was all done up with a New England Patriots license plate and stickers. Julia hollered, over and over again, "Daddy!  This isn't the right car!  This isn't the right car!"

(2)  Troy saw a cargo liner (which we do not have) inside the Pilot, along with some other stuff that didn't look like ours.  He started to say, "What the heck is all this . . . ?"

(3)  A burly man sitting in the driver's seat turned around and gruffly bellowed, "Excuse me?!?"

Troy quickly said, "I have the wrong Pilot - I apologize!"  He then closed the glass portion and made a quick get-away, returning to the Pilot that really was ours.

I reminded him that's why I have the back of my car decorated the way I do - nobody else in Massachusetts has a Nebraska Husker tow-hitch cover, as well as a Dallas Cowboys star and a St. Louis Cardinals sticker.  Guaranteed.