Backing out of a parking spot is no fun.
You’re turning side to side, checking mirrors, moving real slowly, trying to size up how far away your car is from the next one. It’s an awkward three, four, five-point turn, as you twist your spine up, scrape your tires up, dent someone’s fender up, and narrowly avoid hitting a baby in a stroller up.
It’s a risky, twisty game of Lot Danger.
So take no chances and go for that beautiful Parking Lot Pull Through, a classic parking move that lets you drive right in and drive right out. The trick to pulling it off is finding a double-empty parking spot, entering it, and then driving up into the second spot.
And it’s great, because you get two smirky, satisfied smiles for the price of one. When you nail that PLPT, you’re loving it. And when you return to your car and drive right out, you’re loving it again. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s two awesomes for the price of one.
AWESOME!
AWESOME!
29 Comments
December 8, 2008 at 10:00 am
Hi – I have been “lurking” at your blog for a while and wanted you to know that I mentioned it in a lay sermon I did at our U.U. church yesterday. The topic was gratitude and here is what I included in the sermon:
” A blog that I follow on line has been listing 1000
Awesome Things. The author is up to number 880.
Can you imagine dedicating the time to find
something awesome to write about each day for
almost three years? Some days the writer, Neil, is
profound, while other days he is grateful for really tall
people or the secret of peeing in a pool. But can you
imagine how that project has changed that man’s life? How he has to be now looking around for
gratitude each and every day – centering his life on
gratefulness?”
And so I am thanking your for sharing your thoughts with me and for letting me share them with others….
July 16, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I call this “Granny Park” and I yell it out every time it happens to me!
December 8, 2008 at 10:21 am
We have our own name for the Parking Lot Pull Through, named after a friend of ours who parks exclusively in this manner. If there isn’t a pull through available, she drives on.
She drives on.
December 8, 2008 at 11:00 am
Okay, the pull through is awesome. And I am all about awesome things, but you know what is not awesome? When you go to park in a parking space and someone is in the middle of a pull through. And then they do not to back up and stay in the parking space where they belong but look at you like “What? I’m just pulling through”.
December 8, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Yep, awesome and SAFER, for the driver and little kids running 20 feet ahead or dawdling 15 feet behind Mommy.
December 8, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Yeah it is awesome!!!!!
Loving the blog btw
December 8, 2008 at 3:09 pm
They need to bring angle parking to Canada.
April 21, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Canada does have angle parking! However, no one pays attention & often the lines are gone due to weather.
But we are not a backward country and do have angle parking … check out strip malls.
December 8, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Head on crash with two Pull Throughs? A cosmic collision.
December 10, 2008 at 6:12 am
On “Says You” on NPR one week, they were talking about words from some website that has “words” for things that should have words but don’t yet. The website apparently lists the Pull Through Parking Spot as a “sprew”.
December 10, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I generally just steal my grandmother’s handicap placard before I go anywhere with parking “difficulties”. But I’ve been known to do the pull through on occasion in bigger cities.
December 12, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I was at 24-hour K-Mart the other day and when we were leaving the spot in front of us was empty and I said to my mate who was driving “Dude, you can just drive out forwards! BRILLIANT!” and he goes “Yeah, that’s the Parking Lot Pull Through. It was on 100 Awesome Things just the other day.” And here it is.
Dude, you totally get me!
December 15, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Story of my life. This is how I have to park since my good old beater of a volvo essentially does not back up. If there’s no pull through, I’m not parking there. End of story.
December 22, 2008 at 6:55 pm
My mom got poked in the butt she was doing a pull through and someone went behind her and hit her right in the butt. LOL she never pulls through anymore.
February 6, 2009 at 2:47 am
I do this too much. hehe
November 11, 2009 at 3:02 am
Lazy parking is another good one. That’s when you pull into the parking lot and can just go straight into a spot, without having to go up and down aisles trying to find somewhere to park.
November 15, 2009 at 4:35 pm
my friends and i have a saying for this: pull throughs is golden!
April 21, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Grammar? “THROUGHS IS” = plural. Plural verb is ‘ARE’. When will we learn the to use the language correctly, this person is probably complaining about people not speaking English – neither is J.
May 20, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Oh, Maura, J probably meant to say ‘pull through is golden’.
November 15, 2009 at 10:06 pm
You know what is absolutely not awesome: when you’ve found the perfect spot, you’re all geared up for a PLPT, your smirk is beginning, and some guy comes from out of nowhere comes from the other side and pulls into your perfect pull through spot. That is a sad, sad moment.
April 19, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Even sadder is when your cars collide and suddenly you’ve got a dinged-up car, a big expense, and you know your effin’ insurance company’s going to drop you, all so you could get a PLPT.
December 26, 2009 at 11:28 am
i just did that yesterday and got hit by a person backing out from the space next to the empty one that i was about to go into. Cops came and said this move is illegal.
March 5, 2010 at 7:17 pm
[...] knows that this kind of parking spot makes life so much [...]
March 26, 2010 at 8:46 am
This happened to me this morning, though I was the PLPT-ee.
I think it’s alright, as long as you pause in the first spot and make sure no one is coming from the other side.
April 15, 2010 at 10:26 am
[...] The Parking Lot Pull Through [...]
April 27, 2010 at 8:35 am
[...] Finding Money You Didn’t Even Know You Lost #959: Planning for Snoozes #879: The Parking Lot Pull Through #698: Listening to Your New Favorite Song Over and Over Again #694: [...]
May 23, 2010 at 3:18 pm
I had a large amount of time on my hands and had begun reading through the list starting at 1000. I left off at 885 a couple days ago and then just yesterday I experience a perfect parking lot pull through and I wondered is this on the list? and if it isn’t it should be. So I am happy, relieved and just all around glad you thought to include it!
July 31, 2010 at 10:35 am
Got a new awesome thing to add – when you realize a crappy MS Paint picture you made about a decade ago to illustrate your Wikipedia article has ended up on a really awesome website – yeah, that’s pretty awesome.
August 5, 2010 at 3:01 am
Holaa.. this is a real simple and awesome trick!