I appreciate the concern of others, but I will no longer drive to Florida. I am not fit to face 3,000 miles of pavement (round-trip) for our annual winter hiatus. We’ve driven for years. Now I must find another way.
“I’ve had a friend travel to Florida on such a train and it is an ideal way to go,” the caller said. The sticking point is getting to Indianapolis to get on the Auto Train. From the Quad-Cities, that is 310 miles, which is four hours or more on the road.
BILL OTTEN of Eldridge suggests: “I am assuming it’s being behind the wheel that you don’t like, not necessarily the drive. Do you not have a younger member of your family who could drive you to Florida? Once there, you could fly him back home and maybe put him up for a day or so to make it worthwhile. When you are ready to come home, buy him a plane ticket to Florida and the three of you could drive back to Davenport together.” That sounds good, Mr. Otten, but traveling all those miles as a passenger is not exactly my cup of tea.
It reads, “We are very sorry this unfortunate situation took place. The first our customer relations team heard about it was from the media calling us today. I have personally spoken with Ms. Weissman and expressed our regret and have already begun the process of making her whole. She seems to be satisfied with our response.”
I have spent much of a day listening to suggestions. Most have been similar: Helen and I should fly and rent a car while in warm-land. That sounds simple. But I have been quoted estimates of up to $4,000 (yipes!) for several months of renting a midsize car. No thanks.
Every time the phone rings, I know the person on the line will have an idea of how I can get to Florida without going broke. I can’t recall such a string of calls since my litany on the Saturday morning agony of changing the sheets on the bed. There must have been at least 25 well-intentioned phone calls in one morning on my latest dilemma. It is such a cacophony that my left ear is getting numb. These are live calls, not emails. There have been plenty of emails, too.