Day 1 – The Upgrade

Our plan was to pick up the minivan from Enterprise at 9am on Friday, March 23rd with plans to hit the road by 3pm. Just when we were about to leave the manager from Enterprise called to tell us that gasoline had been spilled inside the minivan and it was in no condition to be rented. She promised that two other minivans were on the way and that we would get the better of the two. They would arrive by 10:30am she promised and then she took the cost for one day off the rental for the inconvenience.

At 10:45am I emailed the manager to ask if she had an updated ETA. She called a couple later. She had no updated ETA and asked if she could upgrade me to a Ford Expedition. It fit the same number of people as the minivan, had more room for luggage and had a ton of built in perks like a navigation system, heated and air conditioned seats, environment control and more.

“Sure,” I said. Then she explained that she would send a driver over sometime during the trip to swap the minivan for the Expedition. After I explained to her that I would not be local but instead would be somewhere in the United States, she decided to upgrade us for the duration of the trip and she took a second day off the bill as well.

We left shortly after 3pm. Stopped at a Denny’s for dinner around 8pm before settling in at the Best Western in Clearfield, Pennsylvania.

Number of States: 3

Total Miles Driven: 386