Just another mad mad day on the road

[austin_dern]

One side effect of my parents' holiday was the car problem. The earliest ideas were that I would drive my parents to John F Kennedy International Airport, since my parents like to fly in and out through there because it's the least convenient of the major airports in the vicinity, but this would have required me taking a day off work, or perhaps just not showing up onthe theory that nobody would notice anyway. I suppose I might have missed a cake that way. But that was avoided by the discovery that my sister-in-law has lots of free days and was willing to drive them up. This left the logical problem that there wasn't a way to get their car back from her to me, though, since they expected me to pick them up, and since that was a Sunday my theoretical absence from work wouldn't even exist.

The trick here is that they're far enough away that her driving down, then my driving her back up, and my driving back home again would be a real pain; but, they also don't have much need to drive past here so there's not a logical reason the two of them would drive down in separate cars and one drive back. One thought was that they might come down to the outlet stores, although they didn't have much to let out. Adding to this is the fact that I'd like to drive the parents' Toyota Something, which I'd driven maybe three times in total if you count moving it from one driveway to another (silly problem).

We did work out a compromise that didn't actually solve the problem of getting my car and my parents' car here together, but gave me the chance to enjoy driving a car that has no major or minor issues and even features a five-CD player and heated seats: after the dessert party I drove my parents' car home, and left my car with them for the week. Despite the pangs of conscience that I was abandoning my basically fine car I was able to carry on.

Trivia: Asparagus requires about 21 to 28 days to germinate. Source: The New York Public Library Desk Reference, Editorial Directors Paul Fargis, Sheree Bykofsky.

Currently Reading: A Short History Of British Expansion, Volume 1, James A Williamson.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

So far, despite Momgoose's plentiful vacations which leave her Taurus behind, I've rarely been tempted to drive around it instead of Meefer (My Ford Escort). This is mostly due to Meefer's gas mileage being significantly better; and the few exceptions I've made to this have been in summer months, when Air Conditioning on my commute has been nice.

Usually for our airport trips, which involve about an hour (Providence) or hour and a half (Hartford), we take the Taurus, as it is more comfortable than Meefer, the headlights are a tad more powerful[*1], and it's an automatic[*2].

--Chi
[*1] Preferable at the 4:30am time often seen on airport trips for her or myself, due to cheapskate and maximimizing-vacation-time factors.
[*2] Preferable for the same 4:30am time.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Ah, that would raise some questions. For me, though, my parents have reliably had cars better than mine on every measure: fuel economy, speed with which the heating (or air conditioning) works, absence of quirky little features you just get used to like how the gas lid doesn't open from inside, all of that. If I had a new or newer car I might not be tempted, but given the comparison between a car with heated seats when it's 34 degrees Fahrenheit out and one that hasn't it's easy to pick.

For airport trips, Newark is just a bit over an hour and very easy. John F Kennedy is about two to two and a half hours, and wouldn't be so bad except we have to go along the Belt Parkway. LaGuardia I don't have enough experience to judge. My parents claim to have flown into and out of Philadelphia's airport, whatever that is, but I don't believe them. And one time they flew out of Trenton-Mercer Airport, which would be only about 45 minutes away and exceedingly easy to drive but does require going to Trenton on purpose too.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

JFK I do understand- it is very economical for certain international travels, but it's two and a half hours from where I and Mom'goose live as well, and is regarded as generally impractical for domestic trips. I've never flown in or out from there, just picked people up.

I hadn't known Trenton had an airport. Well, I'd naturally assume they would, but not one where passengers might outnumber pilots.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Kennedy is, frankly, on the wrong side of New York City to be an airport, apart from being on the waterfront where there's unoccupied approaches. From anywhere except Queens, though, you have to drive through a protective layer of one or two boroughs. Newark may be convenient only if you're coming from the west side of the Hudson River, but then it actually is convenient from that side.

And I discover now that while Trenton has an airport, it no longer has any commercial flights that go through it. My parents had used it at least once to get to Boston (I believe) and the first real leg of whatever their international trip a year ago May was.