Safely home

Miss D. and I arrived home safe and sound at about four this afternoon, to be met by an ecstatically purring cat.  She’d been cared for by our friends during our absence, but clearly they were no substitute for her real Mommy and Daddy.  She’s been insatiable ever since we came in, winding herself around our ankles, demanding attention and pettin’s, being reassured that we still love her.  It’s cute.

The rented car looks much the worse for wear.  We washed it in Colorado Springs, but that was 2,000-odd miles ago, and it’s now covered in insect remains and dust.  I’ll try to run it through a car wash early tomorrow morning before I return it.  I wouldn’t want the rental company to think we don’t take care of their vehicles.  It returned very good fuel economy, averaging well into the 30+ miles per gallon range over the course of the trip.  Miss D. and I were both impressed with it, and the experience will probably influence our future car buying habits – not in terms of brand, but features that are worth having.  We’ll certainly rent a similar car for future trips of this kind.

I’m exhausted.  I did almost all the driving this trip (which, of course, I don’t mind), and it’s caught up with me.  I’m not as young as I once was, and even in a very comfortable car, covering almost 4,000 miles in two weeks takes its toll.  I’ve already napped for a few hours, and in a short while I’ll fall back into bed for some more rest.  (The cat is delighted at the prospect.  I can be properly attacked when I’m lying down – or, at least, that seems to be her perspective on the situation!)

I’ll put up more posts tomorrow.  Meanwhile, thanks to all who offered prayers for traveling safety.  They really helped, I’m sure.  Now to wash all the dirty clothes, unpack all the bags, clean the guns that got thoroughly dirty at Blogorado (in particular the torture-tested .44 Magnum revolvers, which need it very badly!), and catch up with two weeks of missed mail.

Sleep well, y’all.  I intend to!

Peter

6 comments

  1. Just out of curiosity, what will the tab be on the rental 4K miles +two weeks usage? Back when I rented them a lot of them came with daily mileage limits and some specified in state use only. "Course I was using them for months at a time and on the company tab so I didn't much worry, heh, heh, heh.

  2. @0007: We rented on a weekly rate, for two weeks. The total, including insurance waiver, taxes, etc., came to about $900 for the whole period. Rental alone was about $330 per week. This was for a "premium car" such as a Chevy Impala, Chrysler 300, etc.

  3. "I wouldn't want the rental company to think we don't take care of their vehicles."
    Oh, don't worry. They're going to charge you $20-30 for "cleaning service" anyway (usually hidden in the fine print).

  4. Glad you're back safe and sound. I've done a few of those 4K plus road trips and I know what you mean about being exhausted at the end.

    The last day of driving on the trip home is usually the worst. It's true, you do have sleeping-in-your-own-bed to look forward to at the end of the day, but it's been a long slog by then and all of the really memorable parts of the trip are behind you. Those last few hundred miles seem to go on and on.

    I have not rented a car just for a road trip before, but I might in the future, so a blog post about those "features that are worth having" would be very interesting.

  5. @Roy: There were several features both of us appreciated.

    1. Adjustable lumbar support in the front seats. Invaluable for those with bad backs.

    2. Individual climate settings for driver and passenger. I could drive on hot days with mine dialed down to 66 degrees, while Miss D. could keep her side set to 74 degrees, and we were both comfortable.

    3. Rear seat leg room. When we carried extra passengers, all commented on how much room there was for their legs and feet. It was actually a pleasure to use the rear seats, instead of an ordeal to be escaped as soon as possible.

    4. A decent-size trunk. We stowed 10,000+ rounds of ammunition, two range bags, two handgun cases, one long gun case, a big gun cleaning box (a toolbox converted for that purpose), a foam mattress topper for use on hotel beads in small towns where new mattresses were few and far between, a firm pillow (ditto), a duffle bag full of tea and coffee goodies (including an electric kettle), and three or four other small bags in the trunk, leaving the back seat for our big wheeled duffle bags (one apiece) and our shoulder bags. We had more than enough space for everything we needed for a two-week trip. Only an SUV could have held more.

    5. Excellent tires, suspension and brakes. They made the trip vastly more comfortable than either of our own, older vehicles.

    We'll be renting something like this again for future such trips.

  6. Piker! I just did 3500 miles in 6 days not even a week ago. 1500 to get there in 2 days, then 400-ish in running around over the next couple of days, and then 1600 back in 2 days. Long trip, but well worth it.

    I kid on the piker thing. It really does catch up with you. You think you're just sitting down, but… it really takes it out of you for some reason.

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