It's disorienting when I visit family back in Texas each year after living in Germany for the past 15, and especially now that I've given up our second car beca

It's disorienting when I visit family back in Texas each year after living in Germany for the past 15, and especially now that I've given up our second car because I realize I wasn't driving enough for it to make sense, it really irritates me that I have to have a rental car the whole time I'm visiting. Since I'm a respectable-looking, middle-aged white lady, I just get stopped and politely asked if I need a ride or to borrow their phone when I'm walking between shopping centers. It's not as universally pleasant for people who do not look like me. My sister-in-law thinks I'm nuts for wanting to walk a couple hundred yards to the other side of a large shopping center rather than get back in the car and drive there.