A Slice of Life
Bill Lites
Day 6 – July 20 Continued:
Here I was almost 1500 miles from home, with a disabled vehicle, only 6-days into a 20-day Road Trip with few options. I asked Clayton, the mechanic at the auto repair shop, about rental cars and he told me he could have his helper run me over to the local airport where I could rent a car. He also told me that he had a good friend (of 25 years) who worked at the Chrysler Dealership in the next town who might be able to help me with a car if I was interested. I told him yes, and to give his friend a call and see if he had any vans available. He called his friend, Glen, and he said he had a couple of vans, and I made an appointment to see him the next morning (Friday) at 8:00 am.
Image Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/mecanic/clipart
Then Clayton had his helper take me to the local airport to rent a car. He dropped me off at the rental car office and I was surprised to see only two agents in the office. With both showed big smiles, the first one asked me if he could help me. I said, “Yes, I would like to rent a car.” He said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have any cars.” I said, “No cars?” And he said, “Not until late tomorrow at the earliest.” I looked at the other agent and said, “How about you?” And she said, “We don’t have any cars either.” I said, “What is going on here?” He told me something about a big annual reunion or something like that and all their cars had been rented for the week. So, I asked him, ”What DO you have that I can rent?” He said, “We have pickup trucks.” So, I asked him about the estimated cost of renting a pickup truck from him and dropping it off in Florida (I was considering renting a pickup truck and a car dolly to take my van back home). He said it would run somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000-$1200 for that scenario. It never dawned on me that National Car Rental didn’t put trailer hitches on their pickup trucks or cars because they don’t allow people to pull a trailer or trailered car with their vehicles. Duh! I really wasn’t thinking straight by this time in the evening.
Image credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/car+dolly
When I added that to the cost of repairing the engine ($1500 estimate from Clayton the mechanic), I was looking at as much as $2500-$3000 to get my 17-year-old van running again. And then there was the problem of having to cancel the rest of my Road Trip. Bummer! So, I decided to wait and check out the vans at the Chrysler Dealership in the morning before committing to anything right now. I rented one of National’s pickup trucks for a week (cheaper than by the day) and headed for my motel, which luckily, was just 8 miles north on I-39 in Rothschild, WI.
Photo Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;national+car+rental+pickup+truck
On the way to my motel, I saw a Denny’s Restaurant and decided to stop for one of their 3-egg breakfast plates with hashbrowns, link sausage, and a biscuit. I love a breakfast meal any time of the day, especially when I can get a hot cup of Earl Gray tea to go along with it. After that delicious meal, Greata (my Garmin) took me to my motel for the night. After I got checked in, and got my things in my room (not much tonight as everything was still in my van in Mosinee), I didn’t even look for anything to watch on TV, but just recorded as many of the details of today’s events as I could remember, and went to bed. I was tired and had no trouble going to sleep tonight.
Photo Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/dennys/2-egg+breakfast+link+sausage+hash+browns
—–To Be Continued—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 
Thank you for stopping by and reading our posts. Your comments are welcomed.