Ongoing Travel Plan Adjustments

Guess who is back at his car dealership? Yeah, this guy! Actually it’s less irritating as one might assume. When I last left the dealership with the payment equivalent to buying a new laptop they weren’t able to complete repairs on some of my running light system. As a result, my service rep had sent me on my way with an invitation to drop on in later to get the work done (which is not at all as convenient as it might sound, in that I live over 30-minutes away on the other side of town). Knowing how if I put this off I’ll probably never get it done, I decided to call to set up an appointment for today as soon as I wake up… which I did and now I’m at the dealership waiting for them to finish the job that they started two-days ago. Yay [sarcasm].

One of the things that came out of this whole thing was that I still hadn’t made my travel reservations for my niece’s wedding at the end of May. I’d scaled things back from a month-long train travel adventure to six-day there-and-back train travel trial run. Little did I know tickets to travel in coach can sell-out a month before the scheduled trip and that the alternative would be to travel in a private room for over $1,000… one way. That’s when I looked up how long it would take to drive to and from Battle Creek, Michigan. But then I’d be driving right by Chicago and my friend(s) in Madison and around the area, and I still wasn’t so sure about my long distance driving stamina and night-vision. Damn. So I googled flights from Las Vegas to Michigan.

Looks like I won’t be doing the train-thing on this trip. The cost for a round-trip to and from Battle Creek is just a bit under what a 30-day US Rail pass was going to cost me. If there’s a plus side, it would be that the actual travel time will only be a little over 8-hours there and 8-hours back. It’s disappointing that I won’t be doing the train travel trial, but it’s a good thing to know that train coach seats are much more limited than I would have assumed and thus require a bit more planning than I was ready for. It kind of makes me wonder how far in advance I have to plan for the longer 30-day version of this trip, even if I’m planning on or hoping for things to be more spontaneous than having a set in stone travel itinerary. Good to know. Also, it’ll probably help to contact whomever I’m planning on visiting (i.e., crashing on their couches) for the longer (30 day?) trip. Oh yeah, as I previously told someone, paid lodging at any place that’s under $200 a night is usually a bit dicey, so my short two-nights in Battle Creek is also cutting into my budget in a unwelcome fashion. Yeah, I was probably much more fun when I thought I could afford things because I would just pay it off with my next paycheck. Damn. Being responsible sucks. Maybe doing the 30-day travel trip via my newly serviced car isn’t such a bad idea. Damn, I think my next stop today is Tenaya Creek Brewery. I fucking earned this one.