My tenth trip to visit family, has me learning a new way.

[Mark Sedenquist]

I'll probably be home before I can get back to this thread.

Lifey,

Thanks for the update. We are watching the news too about this new variant.

Hoping you get home OK.

Mark

[Southwest Dave]

Yes, I certainly hope all goes well for you Lifey and very pleased for you that you got to enjoy another USA trip with family and friends. Safe travels.

Dave.

[Lifemagician]

As I spent many days sorting through the bits of paper on which I had written notes; as well as the book in which I kept a few stats , I realised I will have to go back and mention a significant part of the experience I had overlooked..
A week at daughter's place when I went back to Boston in October. The day before I was leaving I went to start the minivan, only to find the battery was dead. This did not seem right to me, and I reported it to Sam, the Budget man in Ankety IA. AAA got the car going again. But this was the third time I had a dead battery. The AAA man suggested I leave it running for a while. Hours later I took it for a run up I-95/93 just to be sure the battery was well charged. But lo and behold within the week it was dead again. Sam suggested I go to get it checked out, and gave me the preferred place he wanted me to take it.
Fortunately I was in Raleigh NC, where friend was able to find the place and gave me detailed instructions to get there.
The result of that exercise was that there was a fault with the electronics, which I guess I should have noticed, as the 12v outlets were still life after I had turned the ignition off. The vehicle would have to go back to wherever warranties are fixed. Sam said to go a budget dealer where they had another minivan for me to change it over, which was most likely to be a busy airport. At Charlotte NC airport, no questions were asked, and I drove out of there with another minivan, with quite a bit of damage on it. The first thing I noticed that evening, is when I turned off the ignitionf, my gps went off as well. At least the electronics in this van appeared to be working.
This now set me up to do a loop of scenic roads through SC, a place I had not really seen much of.

TBC.

Lifey.