I think this picture says it all :)Trip Breakdown
Day 1 - Travel from Abq to Buffalo, NY
We flew from Abq to Cleveland, OH since my family reunion was held just 30 min south of there, but we took a very (!) brief detour to Buffalo to see Hubs' family since we so rarely make it out there. Flights are fairly uneventful. Kids are whiney but good for the most part. No delays or lost luggage, plus Continental still serves in-flight meals (sort of, it was half a sandwich and a bite size Kit Kat, but that's better than most airlines!). Rental car was a bit of a different story. After a 20 minute drive to te rental car place (WTF?) we find that apparently quotes given by Expedia are a farce as Dollar wants to charge us $300 versus the $166 we were quoted online. After about 30 minutes of waiting and arguing (on top of the 30 minutes we waited in line just to find out that they wanted to charge us double what we were quoted) I manage to get it down to about $260, only $100 more than we were originally quoted* (I know, serious negotiator here ;) Then we have to wait another 30 min while they prepare our car for us (apparently none of the cars that were patiently waiting in the parking lot were good enough). By now the kids are tired and cranky, Hubs is beyond pissed, and I am just trying to futiley keep things from going into a complete meltdown. We finally get on the road a mere 2 1/2 hrs after landing** Then it's only a four hour drive to Buffalo! Oh wait, yeah, that part sucked, too. The kids completely melt down in the car before two of the three fall asleep and the other one decides that she should continually ask, "Are we there yet?" every five minutes. After about two hours of blissful silence, the little monsters, er....I mean angels, wake up and whine for the remaining hour into Buffalo. We do, however, make it all in one piece and are treated to a wonderful evening visiting with Hubs' dad and his family in lovely Orchard Park, home of Ralph Wilson stadium!! We enjoyed a fabulous evening of pizza and wings (a given for Buffalo!) and a huge bonfire with lots and lots of alchohol :) Kids enjoyed being spoiled rotten by their Grandpa John (I mean ice cream for breakfast kind of spoiled...they Loooove their Grandpa John! :) They also enjoyed a stroll at dusk into the woods with Grandpa John and Daddy where the hightlight was seeing a bunny rabbit poopin in the woods. Plus Shelly (John's wife) cooked us a wonderful breakfast in the morning, and I also got to meet John's mother and brother for the first time. John and Shelly have this huge, black Lab named Chopper that the kids absolutely fell in love with. Here's some pics from that part of the trip:
After we left John and Shelly's on Friday, we went to Hubs' mom's house for a few hours (stopping only to take advantage of the 50% off Bills gear sale at Dicks and Friendly's, which is an absolute MUST for me when we are in that area of the country). We hung out with Ma and bro-in-law Drew for a few hours and then headed off to Homerville, Ohio for what will become a later post ;) Anyway, here's some pics from the second part of the Buffalo trip:
*sidebar: Why is it when I go on business travel my Expedia quotes always remain the same, yet when I travel for personal reasons I get screwed? Discuss.
** Definately not a fan of the Cleveland airport!
9 comments:
Expedia and Dollar have some sort of scam running.
We were quoted something like 160 for our car and we paid 500 when we go to Maui, but after a 5 hour flight with two lap kids we just said F it and payed for it.
I'm so sorry I've been out of touch for a while....but I think of you every time I put one of J's dresses on Gabrielle : D
when we "got" to maui....
I'm not that FOB. LOL....
sounds like the sort of trip the kids will totally remember fondly as they grow up! Way to go mom and dad! :)
You've got to talk to Husband about the car deals- i think we usually do ours through hotwire and never have any problems.
I always make my reservations direct with company (air, hotel, car) with the exception of an occasional hotel through hotwire or hotels.com. I don't like dealing with third parties.
Ugh, I hate car rental companies--even when everything goes smoothly it seems to take FOREVER to get your car and of course you never actually get the car you thought you were getting and it always costs more than you expect (except when you're traveling for business--maybe they know they can't screw over the gov't/companies or they'll lose their contracts, but they can screw over the little guys because they know that the individual buyer will continue to fall for the same trick of going with what looks like the cheapest company).
Anyway, glad you had a nice trip in spite of it all :) I'm interested to hear about that big dead animal in your first picture. I assume it's a pig?
Let me defend the Cleveland airport a moment - the airline got you there in one piece and on time. It was Dollar that screwed you over. Let's focus that anger on the correct target.
Seriously, that does suck. Seems like the Buffalo family visit made up for it, though.
Motorcycle helmets on the refrigerator....awesome.
As I read your entry, I was totally there in the moment with you trying to prevent the meltdown. Ugh. Of course had I ACTUALLY been there, I would have gone ape-shit and probably left without a car entirely. Might not have been too good for the kids as one of them might have had to have been sold to pay for a car at another rental company. That'll happen with kids though...it's always a risk.
Glad you survived the travel part so you could enjoy the destinations!!
Keep up the good work.
Post a Comment