The Journey East Part 1

After the week I had in preparation for my trip East with my four kid, I decided to write my blog as I go along. We (my sisters and I have been planning this trip since my mom past away. The purpose is for all of us to have a chance to look through my moms things before they are sold at a garage sale. I wasn’t sure about taking this trip alone with my kids but as the months went by I decided I needed to be there since while this will be a hard time it will also be a healing time for all of us. We are all scattered through the united states. All of them live in the Eastern US and I live in the Midwest.

I knew I couldn’t afford plane tickets for my whole family so I decided we would have to drive. I think through the months before this trip I was in denial on how difficult it might be. So when a few weeks age I decided to leave a few days earlier and visit my sister in law for a day along the way I definitely felt more peace about the trip.

Loosing a parent is the hardest thing I have experience, but I always still had a place to come home to. Loosing my second parent made it so I felt displaced and like I had no place to go. So in discussing with my sisters about how long and what this trip would look like we decided to turn it into a family camping trip. So this year marks the first annual family reunion of my parents decedent’s.

After mapping out my trip I decided to travel about 5 hours a day and stop with two family members I was beginning to feel excited about it and like we could handle it.

I want to start by telling you the proverb my brother in law used to quote and I have now found myself quoting it especially in preparation for my trip.

“Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape.”

The week started uneventful. My husband was planning on taking our cattle off of grass but out truck broke down so we had to take it to the mechanic. We also wanted to take our Yukon xl into the shop for a pre-trip check especially because I was driving alone with all the kids for about 20 total driving hours. (I got AAA especially for this trip) but we wanted to get it all checked and a tire put on the back. So this day was spent driving too and frow dropping off vehicles since both needed worked on. Tuesday we got a call saying our car had a problem deep in the engine and it would take two weeks to fix it because it would take so long to get to it. The mechanic said it was something bad enough that if it was driving it would make the problem worse and you might not get home in it.  He recommended that we rent a car for our trip.

Not a big deal we need to rent a car right? Well I had planned on packing my large SUV with all our bags in the back then our car top carrier with our camping gear. Then our hitch extension bike rack with our 6 bikes (I was bringing an extra for my sister). So this was going to drastically change my packing arrangements and our amount of space. So I needed to look into a large SUV to rent. I found one that was a decent price and waited to book until I had the money in the bank. I needed this car for 3 weeks because of the manor I am traveling and doing all the driving myself I am not over doing it with the time on the road each day and definitely don’t want to rush while traveling.

On Thursday I was able to cal my bank and book the rental. Since it was such a large amount the bank didn’t allow the transaction to go through. So I called to let them know I was making the purchase. It went through, BOOKED!!!!!

I began packing and getting things ready and waited to be able to pick the rental car up on Saturday. Friday we celebrated J’s birthday and I was able to relax. I knew Saturday morning I would pick up the car and have the whole day to pack. I wanted to pull out Sunday after church.

Saturday morning after Adam returned from his bible study around 9 am we drive an hour to the airport to get the car rental. I go to the agent and say “I have a reservation for a rental” the agent says “OK can I have the credit card you want to use for this” I handed him my bank card which i used for the reservation. He said “do you have a credit card that doesn’t say debit on it?” I said “Yes but its too high for my limit its going to not allow it to go through this is going to be a problem” he said ” well this is why we don’t have you pay online hotwire says you can’t use a debit card to book. Do you have another card I can charge” I said “so hot wire charges my card the money is already out (I called to confirm with my bank it was paid for) and your telling me I can’t have the car I booked and paid for ? This is balogna…” He said “Well you will have to take it up with hotwire. ”

I then called A who had been waiting at a restaurant with 3 of the kids for me because I thought it would take just a second since it was already book (I had W). He came and got me and I was mad. I called hotwire and they were so helpful to me. They said it was ridiculous that this rental car agency was doing this and we talked about different options. I could use my husbands credit card but he would have to be one of the drivers and add me for 13.50 a day (I was already spending a lot of money for 21 days of a rental car)  but that would also make it so I had to cancel and rebook which made it so I would have also had to spend 300$ more to do that on top of the extra for adding a driver that wasn’t even coming with me. GRRRRR!!!!!!!! Both ladies at hotwire were very kind and helpful.  I then decided to call my credit card company to see if I could raise my credit limit so it could at least cover the rental and I could take the same reservation for the same cost and deal with canceling with hotwire later. The credit limit was able to be raised and after lunch (this took 3 hrs) A dropped me off again. Thankfully it was a different agent. I handed him my credit card and he said “it looks like you already paid through a third party we just need this credit card for incidentals” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Off I drove in a very fancy ford expedition! This made it so most of my afternoon was gone and we got home 15 minutes before we were to leave for our small group so off we went to church for the evening. I decided I could pack in the morning and we would just use our small group for church that day. There were no more events that I needed flexibility that day.

Sunday I woke up and started the packing of the car. A lot depended on if the car top carrier would go one the roof and if there was a hitch for this rental car. Thankfully they were both a go and we got packing going in a very timely manor. I halfway expected a new car like that to have a DVD player but instead has has a sunroof the size of Texas extending to the back seat if completely opened. It also has automatic everything which is fun but also annoying when you pack everything up and realize the charging outlet for your son is on the other side and the seat that was folded down will have to be folded up so he can sit there and you’ve already loaded everything including the bikes which make it so you can’t open the rear gate which is where the button to lift the seat is. After all this was taken care of we plugged in the brand new dual screen DVD players (bought the night before) only to realize that one of the screens doesn’t show anything except lines. (Back to Walmart) Blessed are the flexible! Thankfully there is a Walmart along the route I was taking so I said we could just go to that town have lunch and get the DVD player exchanged! On the road!

To be continued…

Jenny Ren