Still on Hiatus, But.........

I'm still sort of on hiatus from updating my driveaway blog - just don't seem excited enough to make it worthwhile blogging about driveaway to my 1's of Driveaway Blog fans. But, I have some big news that should be broadcast, and a quick note about my latest trip.

The Big News!

Caitie, my youngest daughter, who turned 25 this past September, got married!!!!! She and her new husband, Hugh, had been living in our favorite town in the world, Choteau, MT, since January, getting their head straight after graduating from college, working in Guatemala, and coming back to the good ole US of A. During their stay, they figured they liked it in Montana, but not enough to do another winter there. Perfectly understandable. I typically do summers there, although I have enjoyed a couple of good blizzards and some -28 days there.

They decided during this past summer in Choteau to return back east and finally picked Asheville, NC as their nesting place. Hugh would return to school to do post-graduate work at UNC-Asheville, and Caitie would continue her art there. And to clean things up, they decided to get married before coming back. Even though my wife and I missed the wedding, we were thrilled for them to marry in our favorite place. Not to mention the huge savings, but I think they got what they really wanted. They are not the big wedding types, so they had a quiet wedding with friends they'd made in Choteau, officiated by the judge who married David Letterman and at the same location in the beautiful Teton County Courthouse. They spent their wedding night at the elegant Grand Union Hotel in Fort Benton, MT. I think they got what they wanted. Again, we were sad to miss the wedding, but really happy for them and enjoyed welcoming Hugh into the family.

Latest trip

Since this is supposed to be a driveaway blog, I will report on my latest trip, which was close to the type of trip I had imagined in my "looking at driveaway through rose colored glasses" days when I first started.

I took a nice, new unit from Altec in Daleville, VA to West Palm Beach, FL - never a bad trip at any time but especially nice as winter approaches. I tow my car 99.9% of the time, but this time I checked some travel options and found a $22 airfare on Allegiant Air out of Orlando's Sanford Internation Airport along with a $38 rental car from Alamo from West Palm to Sanford. The only drawback, and actually one most of us would like, was I'd have to stay over an extra day to catch the flight since Allegiant doesn't fly that route daily. So, a driveaway driver has to do what a driveaway driver has to do, and I stayed over near Titusville, FL at a nice Comfort Inn using a $42.99 travel book coupon, visited the US Astronaut Museum, and tooled around Port Canaveral for the afternoon.

The trip, in general, was very relaxing, I made a few dollars (not a lot) and put me in the mood for rethinking driveaway. Driveaway, the way I normally do it, and many others too, is very stressful and not a lot of fun. It is very hard to get assigned trips enough in advance to line up reasonable alternative transportation, so I've found I have to tow my car in order to survive. I just can't take what a lot of drivers do which involves bumming the best transportation you can get once you've dropped your truck, hopping on buses, trying to get to rental cars, etc. Those expenses can run up and out of hand very quickly if you aren't careful. I've found towing, along with all of its hassles, is a better fit for me.

This is the type of trip I'd like to do more often - fairly long, with return transportation lined up before I leave. But I know that's not reasonable to expect, especially from the company I drive for, so will soon get back into the towing mode, I'm sure.