Monday, September 11, 2006

Online reservations

Last night (Sunday, September 10) I attempted to make reservations online to the shadow of the mighty DeLand water-tower.
I’ve done online purchases in the past, so I know to use IE, since sometimes Netscape locks up; although IE doesn’t display the blog toolbar.
Online airline reservations went without a hitch: down Monday, September 18; return Wednesday, September 20. Any hitch at all was at our end, wedging said foray amongst all the various appointments.
Saturdays are always out; Linda works at the post-office Saturdays. Linda also has a few weekday work-days scheduled, and a doctor’s appointment.
A service-appointment for the Bucktooth Bathtub needs to be scheduled (tire-rotation), plus the wheels need to be balanced for the CR-V. The contractor may also want to pour (set, place, whatever) the floor-slab for the shed while we’re gone.
Another factor is that AirTran (the airline) has only one direct flight per day Rochester-to-Orlando; and 9/25 going was sold out. All other flights involve a plane-change — which is okay, except a direct flight takes less time.
Reserving a car crashed mightily in flames. Hertz and AirTran are apparently affiliated so that Hertz has an AirTran discount. This is how we did Boston; all reserved online.
But trying last night sent the Hertz site into a tailspin, finally locking up my machine. Nothing worked — I had to reboot (15 minutes to scan the 60-gig hard-drive).
Before the bluster-boy tells me to “dump the MAC for a real computer” (BROKEN-RECORD ALERT!) Linda fired up her PC and promptly got the same result.
A number of factors are at play here. Hertz is renting a Shelby GT-H Mustang again, and had a few at Logan last July.
I’d like to rent a GT-H, but A) Orlando is the worst place in the entire universe to rent a car; and B) the GT-H is only a two-door.
  • RE: Orlando. Last time we got sent into a parking-garage trying to return the car; they even have parking for satellites. Approaching the airport was a crapshoot: expressways we couldn’t find on a map (including their map). —We found the airport by signs; thankfully no condo parking-lots via Jack. (And we were on the donut too; that was the trip where the tire went flat in the shadow of the mighty DeLand water-tower.)
  • RE: GT-H. A GT-H costs almost $100 per day, but I could spring for that if I knew I didn’t have to cart around Big Dorothea. Linda could clamber into the back seat, but I’m sure there’d be a noisy fusillade of guilt from Big Dorothea; bellowing over her shoulder-harness, etc. (“Ya got me strapped in!”)
    All of which is okay — Linda’s mother is 90, and frail. A Corolla at $30 a day makes more sense. It has four doors.
    Plus a GT-H is rather large — it should have been in Boston.
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