Since my children are in year-round school and track out for 3 weeks at a time, I had the brilliant idea to take a road trip during their next track-out to see their grandparents. Okay, technically, I had this brilliant idea for their last track-out, but that was in January and since our destinations include Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, I decided that the upper Midwest in January plus me driving equalled certain doom (for the car, if nothing else). Well, I've finally gotten around to looking at the calendar and the map, most importantly the map. Yeah, did I mention our starting point is NC and our final destination is MN? The trip - not including sightseeing, which is part of the plan - is 1,340 miles. What exactly was I thinking? I did at least plan to rent a car, so as not to put all those ungodly miles on the Mom Taxi.
That's another thing - I started looking at car rentals. The "unlimited miles"? They're not really unlimited. They're capped at 3000 and they have to be within the renting state and surrounding states. How do they determine where you've driven and that you've stayed only in your state and those that border yours? Do I really want to know? Is this some sort of Big Brother thing? No, don't tell me. I just watched
Eagle Eye the other night, which I found so disturbing I just curled up in a corner in the fetal position afterward. As an aside, how does Shia LaBeouf (the goofy kid from Disney's "Even Stevens") always wind up with the hot girls? What is up with that? But I digress as usual.
Oh, and I wanted to rent a hybrid to keep fuel cost down and save the planet. Evidently I can't afford to save the planet. It would actually be cheaper to fly than to rent a "Standard" hybrid. It doesn't even list the price for a "Full-Size" or "SUV" hybrid on the website. It's obviously somewhere between an arm and a leg and your first-born child.
Clearly, this trip will require further research. And maybe funding. Square One, here I come.
By the way, BA and Fishmonger: yes, I expect to see you whilst on said journey. Why else would I come up there? It's not like I'll be going to the bars with the girls in tow. The little one I could get away with, but Grover is probably old enough to net me a contributing to the delinquency of a minor and/or child endangerment charge. That would definitely tarnish my Mother Of The Year image.
