Vacation 1.0

So much to blog about so little time (mostly because it's almost midnight and I'm still a tad wired but tired from all of the driving.)


Woke up this a.m. with such a joy in my step and the Go-Go's Vacation hummin' in my head. Paid my rent, stopped the mail, shoved a bunch of clothes into a suitcase and attempted to assemble all of the other things I knew I was forgetting to do. All this before 6:30 - which if you know me well is an UNHEARD of hour for me to be up and wandering let alone accompolishing ANYTHING.


My friend Angie was great and picked me up at 6:30 and took me to the airport to pick up my car.


PRIUS:

Okay, so I got to the rental car counter and the guy tells me I can rent a Prius for the same cost as my current rental. Who wouldn't want to not only save gas but attempt to try out this new technology right? I knew I was doomed when the counter guy sent this other guy with me to show me how to work the car. I have, after all been driving since I was 15 years old - it couldn't be that difficult?

Remember too that it is about 7 a.m. and I'm normally not exactly functioning until about 8.

So we get to the car. I was amused that it had a california license plate as if everything "green" needed to come from the west. I climb into the driver seat with Roger next to me. He hands me the key and says "you need to be sure the key goes in like this, not like this". Uh okay?

I stick the key in. And then he says you start the car by pressing and holding this button until the computer tells you it has started the car. Seems a tad more high tech, but okay.

Then he starts fiddling with the rest of the buttons showing me all sorts of things that are way over my head. He says in his best driver's ed voice - let's practice moving the car. You move this lever to go forward and press on the brake and then the gas. Uh okay.

To park the car - you just press this button and the car parks itself. What? At the same time the car having sat idle for more than 5 minutes went to energy saving mode and felt like it was turning off.

At that point I had visions of being stuck at a rest area in the middle of wisconsin with a computerized car that wouldn't go forward because I forgot which buttons to press.

And as much as I wanted to save gas, being a slight technophobe and driving alone and wouldn't have someone in the passenger seat to help me figure it out, I bit the bullet and asked for another car.

Which worked out for the fun factor. I received a fun Pontiac G6 convertible. It has XM Radio (which aside from listening to a book on tape - having XM in the middle of wisconsin was such a blessing for having something to keep me company.)

It was raining and because I had a lot of luggage I wouldn't have been able to test out the convertible on the drive down but guaranteed fun for the rest of the trip.

Because I wanted to wait for most of a storm to pass I decided to head to the Minnesota cosmetology school for a haircut. Now here's a best kept secret....Thursday special haircut for $4.99. All together my whole hair cut and other primping cost $11.00. YAY!

I stopped in Janesville for dinner and a short time of shopping. Found emily's birthday gift and had a great dinner. And arrived here just after 7.

TOP FIVE: Car, XM Radio, this book "the Barbarian Way" that I listened to on tape, seeing my family.