Frying pan… to the fire…

This past weekend was setup to be quite a bit of fun, and anytime you are set for fun, you should be prepared to have to “pay” for that fun. We were supposed to leave town about 1 or 2 PM on Saturday for California to pickup my middle son for his summer visit. The morning started off… and rapidly went downhill.

I was signed up to attend a “cold brew coffee” class from 10-12. I love learning about coffee and the best ways to enjoy it, and couldn’t hope for a better instructor than Rich from Prescott Coffee Roasters who was supposed to hold this class. Did you notice the “supposed” in that sentence? Apparently there was a schedule mixup and Rich wasn’t going to be able to be there to hold the class. The coffee place bent over backwards in apologizing for the miscue by providing everyone who attended with gift cards and discounts, and a promise to be first in line for when the class was re-scheduled. And then Brandon from the coffee place shared his knowledge of coffees and it was still a very enjoyable event.

From there, my oldest son picked me up and we headed to check my mail to be told it wasn’t there and likely wouldn’t be until about 12:30. I had a reservation through Enterprise for a rental car (since my van costs roughly $300 round-trip at the least renting a car seems a better choice) and the confirmation email stating they closed at 1PM on Saturday’s we knew we would be cutting it close (and I needed something from the mail and backtracking seemed crazy) so I started trying to call Enterprise a little before noon. I kept receiving a message that said their mailbox was full so I tried calling over and over. About 10 after noon I finally received a different message, informing me that their office closed at 12. WTH???? I double-checked the email and it said 1PM. Enterprise still hasn’t heard my wrath from that, but they will, trust me.

So while we continued to wait I started calling around to other rental places only to find each one was booked, until I finally was able to make a reservation with Hertz and all seemed good. By now, the mail had shown up and we were on our way to pickup our rental. This is when my sons car started acting up and kept stalling on us (a condition he has been fighting for awhile after the car gets warm) but this was the first time I encountered it and it seemed like the catalytic converter was going bad. So I started driving (since I have had WAY too much experience with temperamental cars) and managed to get us to the rental place.

Upon arriving we were informed that the service that reserves the cars actually has no idea whether the location can fulfill those reservations, and they actually DIDN’T have a car for us, but they MAY in a few hours. After some debate we decided to return home, and review taking my vehicle after all. So we loaded back up into my sons car and attempt to leave Prescott Airport (where the rental place is) only for the car to stall again and we were unable to get it going this time and sat on the entry road, hoping it would cool enough to allow us to move again, when cops pulled up behind us… (to be continued)