Welcome to Miami

Um, so I'm going to Miami in FOUR DAYS.  I can hardly believe it. 

My friends and I have been talking about going on a girls reunion for years, pretty much ever since we graduated from college and stopped having pre-determined Thanksgiving/Christmas/Spring Break times to see each other.  Sure, Christmas and Thanksgiving are still the same times every year, but now we've reached the stage where several of us (myself included) are coupled off and don't make it to our hometown for every holiday.  Also, we're now spread out across the eastern seaboard from Richmond to Connecticut (and for three years, one of us was living in New Mexico!  We saw her... never.  It was sad), so traffic makes the holiday schedule even more hectic.

So after years of talk about "we should plan a trip together!", we finally decided to do it, and all of a sudden we were all booked on flights from New York and Baltimore to Miami.  At the time, the trip was about eight weeks away, and I don't know what the hell happened in between, but now, all of a sudden, it's THIS WEEKEND.

And all of a sudden I also remembered that in the interest of saving a few hundred dollars, my friend Jenny and I decided to fly in to Ft. Lauderdale, thinking we'd figure out how to get from FLL airport to our hotel in South Beach later.  You know, when it got closer to the trip.

Luckily there's nothing I love better than a problem and a fast internet connection to solve it.  After spending the morning on Google and travel sites, I came to a disturbing conclusion:  we were going to have to rent a car. 

Shit. 

Well, we don't HAVE to, but it makes the most sense.  Shuttles run for $80 each way, which is about $10 short of what we paid for our flights, so that seems excessive.   Public transportation costs $1.50 each, but the estimated time is 113 minutes, it would require two bus transfers, and one travel site mentioned the stops being in "not the best areas".  Um, no thanks.  Renting an economy sized car, however, will cost us $100 total.   No waiting for shuttles at the airport, no worrying about finding a way back to the airport on Sunday afternoon.  Plus, now we'll have a way to get around if we need to leave South Beach for any reason.  Perfect, right?

Here's the thing: I am terrified of rental cars.  Actually, I am terrified of driving any car but my own.   I am so afraid that if something were to happen, whoever's car it was would never forgive me.  And/or I would never be able to pay for the damage. 

This probably stems from the fact that I have never had collision insurance on a car I've owned, and therefore every accident I've been in (three total) has resulted in a huge hit to my bank account.   Even still, it's just not worth it to pay for the insurance on a car as crappy as mine.  Don't get me wrong, I love my car.  But I only paid $5000 for it, so it doesn't make sense to pay for extra insurance on a car that was worth $5000 three years ago when I bought it, and is probably closer to $500 Kelly Blue Book value now.  So when I rear-ended a jackass taxi that TOTALLY CUT ME OFF a few years ago, my insurance happily paid for the Honda CRV in front of him to get a new spare tire cover (which cost all of $80 but still jacked up my insurance for three years), and I was left with the $1000 bill to fix my own car's smashed in front and get a new hood. 

Good times. But at least it was my own car!  And at least my car is not worth that much!  The great part of having a POS car is that you don't have to worry about it as much.  Like the time Joel was driving my car and put it into first gear instead of reverse on a giant hill and consequently smashed into the pickup in front of me?  I forgave him.  Even though it was the week after I got my brand-new hood put on.  It's a lot easier to do that when your car is a POS to begin with.  A little dent in the hood just keeps it in character with the rest of the car.

Plus, I am just not the greatest driver.  There, I'll admit it.  Driving stresses me out.  I am easily distracted.  I suck at directions and I freak out when I think I'm getting lost.   I freak out extra when I'm not used to the car I'm driving.  I know my car.  I know how far I can push it before it stalls (pretty damn far), how fast I can gun it to merge on the highway (not very fast at all, thank you v4 engine!), and that the little shaking it does when it goes over 80mph is just its way of saying "slow down, boss".  I know that the engine light coming on means nothing and that the left blinker only works every other Tuesday.   I do not know all these things about other people's cars. 

Even more scary to me than driving someone else's car is driving a rental car.  Why?  Because I fear the rental company suing the crap out of me if I wreck their car.  I always buy the optional rip-off insurance, but I"m still scared that it won't cover everything.  Come on, everyone knows insurance companies are the devil.

It probably doesn't help that back when I went to Arizona in January, my coworker and I rented a car to go to Sedona, which was hit by a freak snowstorm while we were there.  Driving back in said Freak Storm, I could not see a damn thing, missed a turn and then jumped a curb at 40mph trying to make an illegal U-turn to get back on the highway in the right direction.   Whoops!  The rental company didn't come after me.  I'm not even sure they noticed the nice dent I left in the wheel well.  So it worked out fine.  But that doesn't stop me from being afraid that next time I won't be so lucky.  God, I hate driving.

But I love going on fun trips with friends.  Here's to hoping that Jenny won't mind being the driver on this trip.  Which I'm sure she won't.  But does that make me the navigator?   How about I just man the radio instead?   Actually, I totally suck at being the DJ too.  I'll just lay down in the backseat and take a nap.  We are leaving for the airport at 6am, after all.

Comments

[motherofbun]

I am so excited for you -- a girls' trip. I hope you all have a blast!

[janet]

First of all, let me just say I am so jealous! My college roomies and I drove from New Orleans to Miami for spring break senior year (13 hours each way!) and it was SO FUN. We even laid on the beach topless for like 20 mins just to say we did it. It was LIBERATING! You must try it.

I went back to Miami for a wedding the next year and rented a car and got around fine all weekend, it wasn't too bad. Oh wait, husband drove. Well, in a way that is more dangerous! And we both came out unscathed. You can do it!

I am going to be so jealous of your tan, dammit!

[heidikins]

That sounds so fantastic!! The Miami trip, that is - jumping the curb in a arizona snow storm sounds like fodder for a creepy novel..."It was a dark and freakishly stormy night in Sedona..."

[Isabel]

Dude, do not focus on the driving aspect and ONLY FOCUS ON THE AWESOME GIRLS ONLY WEEKEND, of which I AM SO JEALOUS OF.

Yes, so jealous!!

[Alyndabear]

I just got that old lame rnb song about Miami in my head.. I don't even remember the words, just the tune. Oh wait, something about a Ferrari. That must rhyme with Miami? Or not.

OMG. GIRLY WEEKEND! I WANT TO COME. I'd totally drive you. (Let's just hide the fact that I? Am already freaking out at the thought of driving into Sydney city tomorrow to get my Laser Eye Appointment done. Hooooly shit.)