A Long Wait Yields a Sweet Ride

Everything about the trip out to CO went smoothly (in spite of our mild surprise that we didn’t have a non-stop flight after all, turns out we were just two of seven people who didn’t get off the plane in Chicago) until we arrived at the Budget rental car offices. There we were greeted by a lengthy line out the door (we were number 51) due to a national computer system outage (turns out that Alamo and one other rental company were similarly crippled) that forced employees to do everything manually. We were in line for close to an hour but the computers were up by the time we got to the front. The agent who helped us was very nice and even post-poned a clearly much-needed cigarette break to ensure that we got the most fuel-efficient car available. A customer had just returned a silver Chevy Cobalt Sport, our mobile home/office for the next 2.5 weeks. This thing is loaded: heated leather seats, sunroof, XM radio (reminds us of why we cancelled our cable TV . . . 175 channels and nuthin’ on), outdoor temperature gauge, two cigarette lighter power jacks, OnStar, and enough room in the trunk and back seat to accommodate all of our luggage. The info panel says that throughout the 7,382 miles it had been previously driven, it got 28 mpg. All it’s missing is the owner’s manual to tell us how to work everything. Not bad for $14 a day.