A world of travelers

As the date for our departure to Maine approached, I considered the flights ahead of us with trepidation. I actually like flying, but like many, I greatly fear a plane crash.

Fear is the operative word here. For one who is obedient unto God and walks in faith, knowingly allowing fear to express itself is failure to walk in faith.

Nevertheless, deep down inside the fear festered.

We spent the night at a motel near the airport to avoid the lengthy drive from our home, nearly 90 minutes away, the next morning. We drove to satellite parking, parking our car in the first place we found a spot – already many sections in fro the entrance.

Ten minutes went by, then 20, then 30, while we watched the shuttles come and go, only collecting people from the first section and then driving right by ours – which quickly grew from just a few of us to a packed house.

We now had just under 90 minutes to our flight. The bus driver chuckled at our plight and proceeded to drive to a number of empty shelters seeking other passengers while the few of us close to our fright time gritted our teeth and resolved to rely on the good Lord's mercy.

We made it to the airport and got through the long line to check our bags and lucked out at security when the TSA allowed all on the Detroit flight to come to the head of the line. The plane took off easily and landed the same and our flight into Manchester, NH was uneventful.

Grateful that the first leg of our trip was a success, we were not too happy when after collecting our rental car from a dippy Hertz agent and began our 2 hour drive to Maine, we heard tires loudly slapping against the pavement and the car swerving every which way.

Digging out the paperwork, we had been charged for a mid-size car (our request was for mid-size) and received a compact. Calling Hertz, we were told to go to the Portland Jetport, near our destination and they'd trade out the car - no extra charge.

Awesome!

Of course - we learned that in the car rental industry, they make extra money on each car rental by changing the way car sizes are charged. In the auto industry, sub-compact, compact, mid-size, and sedan are what we - the consumer - are used to. In the auto rental industry, what auto manufacturers deem a compact car is now considered a mid-size and so on and so forth.

So for a mid-size price, the consumer gets a compact car.  Nice right?

We received a nearly new Hyundai Elantra with New York plates for the duration of our week. It was a lovely car, driving well and roomy enough (for a mid-size car that was - in fact - a compact), and did well on mileage.

Driving a car in a tourist area with New York plates got us into trouble on more than one occasion.

 Tomorrow ... more on our travel adventures.