How do we get there?

When I was a young college student in Greenwood, SC, a good friend of mine decided to take a cross-country road trip. Since he didn't have a car of his own, he talked a young woman he knew into taking this trip with him. I wasn't invited, even though I owned a small Nissan pick-up truck my parents had given me for high school graduation that would have made the trip. I guess he decided the prospect of spending time with half dressed hippy communes high in the Rocky Mountains wouldn't appeal to me. He didn't ask, but he would have been correct. When the summer arrived, he and this young lady packed up whatever late model used car a young lady who lived in a room behind the local college speakeasy could afford and off they went. They drove from Greenwood, SC and eventually arrived in Seattle, WA, where they parted ways. Turns out, young ladies who live behind bars have a tendency to be crazy. Who knew. He called home, got a bus ticket wired to him in Seattle, and set out on an entirely new adventure - traveling from sea to shining sea compliments of Greyhound. He, uh, doesn't talk much about that. Ah, to be young again.

A decade or so later, the Gongre family has decided to do exactly what these young people did. My wife has a brother who has planted a church in Bakersfield, CA. It is his idea that traditional church services are not reaching the youth of this country, what with the hymnals and the early services and such. And he is right, at least in Bakersfield. His church is growing quickly, and God is being brought to the masses. We are all very proud. Rebekah is especially proud, not only of his service to the church, but also for his sacrifice. Her brother Mark has a family of his own, and he moved his lovely wife and his two sons far from the Heimburger clan here in Columbia, SC. My wife misses her family, and this is why we are setting sail for Bakersfield, CA. I will finally get to see the fabled 'streets of Bakersfield' and will know what Dwight has been talking about. Then I will be free to judge him...unfairly, perhaps harshly, but free, nonetheless. I'm coming Dwight... Anyways, our first question after making this decision - How do we get there?

If I was still a young, carefree college student, I suppose I would be perfectly content with packing up the 2006 Honda Accord we own and heading out into the wild blue yonder. But alas, the wisdom that comes with age has settled upon me, and I thought it would be prudent to have the family car checked out and cleared by a mechanic first. There is a difference between adventurous and reckless these days. Sad, but true. The mechanic informed me that the timing belt on Hondas need to be replaced as a matter of routine maintenance. As we are looking at a three week trip which covers around 6000 miles, he recommended we go ahead and do that. This was news to me, as I have owned my share of late-model clunkers (none of them Hondas, by the way) and never had a timing belt issue. So I inquired of him what kind of price tag he was talking about. When he said $750, I decided I'd take my chances. I contacted my cousin, an expert himself in all things Honda, and he assured me my mechanic was correct. And that wasn't all. If the timing belt were to break while the car was in motion, say, traveling 80 miles an hour on interstate 20, for instance, the entire engine would suffer catastrophic failure, amounting to thousand of dollars in damage. After I hung up the phone with him, I began reflecting on my college friend's now seemingly reckless trip all those years ago. Ah, to be young again.

We can't fly to California, though I didn't mention this earlier, because I live in a world where no one has the money to fly a family of three to California from South Carolina and back, so it goes without saying. We checked out Amtrak, which took too long and was still too expensive. The last option - renting a car. The challenge - finding a rental agency that would allow their car to go from the east coast to the west coast, crossing through four time zones, and back again. The answer - Hertz. Apparently Hertz is run by a madman who doesn't care where you drive his cars. That's a good thing. My wife, though, was convinced she could find a better deal. My wife is an avid couponer, who for months now has been honing her budgeting skills with our family food fund. And she is sharp. So I figured, hey, I know Hertz will do it, so what could looking for options hurt? Well, guess what... We now have a reservation with Enterprise for a Hyundai Accent that will serve as our faithful stallion for the ride of our lives. Of course, Enterprise now has to change their website to reflect the fact that, in the future, they DO NOT want their cars driven from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. I guess the guy who runs that outfit isn't a madman, he's just a little careless with his website rental conditions. Game on. America, here we come.