zathrus ([info]zathrus) wrote,
@ 2009-07-05 20:27:00
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Small-Town Kentucky is Amazing
We are on the road tonight, on the way back to Chicago, spending the night in small-town Kentucky. We went out for Chinese food tonight, experienced good, friendly service, fed all five of us, have enough leftovers to feed us all tomorrow night as well (if we can manage to get them home), and spent a grand total of $20 (plus a special tip for the person cleaning up after our rice-loving toddler).

In other news, we are still driving our '91 Previa, because Enterprise is the major seller of used 12-passenger vans and July 4 is a big car rental weekend; while today's rain was annoying to drive through, the lack of heat was very welcome. (Our air conditioning mainly works when it is cool outside.) Also, my sunburn from taking the kids swimming on Tuesday has started peeling.

Newt

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[info]ukelele
2009-07-06 01:55 am UTC (link)
The trick, of course, with small-town Appalachia is that things can cost that little because nobody has jobs. There are reasons essentially none of the interesting people I knew in high school still live in West Virginia (even though our town does have an economy). Driving through with a Chicago salary gives you certain advantages.

Also, buying used cars from Enterprise: <3. That's where we got ours (and they were totally charmed that [info]nonnihil came to pick it up on his bike, and had never seen that before...well, people, how else are we supposed to buy the car we definitionally don't have yet? ;). They even sent us a Christmas card (and mentioned the bike).

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[info]zathrus
2009-07-07 06:47 pm UTC (link)
It does. :)

I'm glad to hear a good review of Enterprise. They seem to be about our only option, unless we want to watch Ebay Motors obsessively for a few months. I am very much looking forward to having a new(ish) vehicle. :)

Newt

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[info]zixi
2009-07-06 03:46 am UTC (link)
Have you ever driven a 12-P?

Not to question your car decision, and I understand your reasoning for wanting the big car, but I highly recommend trying them out a bit first if you haven't already. Having spent a year driving 12-P's and 15-P's, they don't just handle like larger mini-vans. Visibility is much more reduced, you take up more space, and you have to be super careful because they have a high rollover rate (15-P's are worse) and guzzle gas.

By all means, if it's the right choice, go for it. I'd just recommend seeing if you can rent one for a week or something first (and maybe you've already done that.)

Hope the rest of your trip is fun and safe!

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[info]zathrus
2009-07-07 06:55 pm UTC (link)
We have not rented a 12-P before; we have some friends who own them, and I suppose we could ask them for a test drive.

But really, it doesn't look to us like we have any other option. We're about to start down the road towards foster parenting, which could bring us to a total of 6 kids in the house at any moment (or, if they get desperate, possibly past that -- the legal limit is technically 6 kids under 18 per foster family, but if you have a kid who needs somewhere to go and everywhere is full, what do you do?). I've squeezed 6 kids into an 8-seat minivan before, but it's more the sort of thing you do when you want to take one long ride with a friend and be able to chat along the way, not the sort of thing you want to have to do every time you go anywhere. So really, what other option do we have? We've already gotten used to driving an older minivan (which probably has more of the issues you mention than the newer ones); we'll adjust to driving a 12-P, and probably in a while, it'll seem weird to switch back to a minivan. (Although after this last winter, I am dreading trying to get the thing out of the garage in the snow. Alleys, ugh!)

But thanks for the feedback! The rest of the trip was safe, and relatively fun; finished the Two Towers and had lunch at a Steak & Shake!

Newt

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