Reno!

Just for the record, this wasn't us.

We made it to Reno last night and Gar drove the bulk of the way. I think he finds automatics + cruise control amusing the same way I do, "why are you changing gears that way?" You could almost get into a conversation with the transmission. Not that I've ever done that during long drives, nope. There were a lot of chances to ask it though as we crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The last (only?) time I did serious mountain driving (no, not the Wicklow Mountains) was in a Ford Escort. The Toyota Sienna seems much easier.

Rach has now been to Wendy's and has learned that most Americans don't understand that chips are french fries. I haven't told her yet that cheese and onion flavor crisps are pretty much non-existent (and there's no Tayto). In other shopping news we've seen Target (didn't go in) and went to a Fry's. That last one explains why we now have a GPS - apparently Australian accents work best with text-to-speech systems.

It's the last day of work...

...for three whole weeks! Everything must be completed and/or handed over by the end of today. There is no panic here.

In other news, the camera is still missing, the GPS has been located and batteries charged. MP3/Ogg players are at the ready, and I'm packing a CD writer and a few blanks in case the car only has a CD player and we can't plug an MP3/Ogg player into the radio directly.

The car has been hired, the Nightwish gig attended, the suitcases recovered from the attic and the junk tipped out of them, the clothes washed, the kitten fed, the passport renewed, and the tickets lost. With just over 24 hours to find them again, I think we'll all be okay.

Next stop, Dublin's finest airport...

Old favourites...

So my first week back in the States and I've had several old favourites - including Cap'n Crunch for breakfast! Yum! Apparently it has something other that sugar in it. Who knew?

In other news the fabulous Rachael and the fine folks at Car Hire 3000 have found our vehicle (that's VEE-hikle by the way - hopefully folks can help Rach and Gar learn to speak proper English): a Chevrolet Uplander. The review isn't exactly glowing but it looks like it has the room we need and won't be too tank-like to drive.

Hotels!

So we're booked into the Hotel Triton in San Francisco for our first two nights. Still trying to figure out the car. We've been looking on Car Hire 3000 and Kayak.com for cars. For car models the Toyota Sienna seems good for a minivan, the Chrysler Pacifica seems good for a "crossover" (uh, isn't that just a bulky station wagon? OK, apparently not.) and for large sedans the Chrysler 300 and Buick Lucerne seem good.

Anyone have any opinions? This will be for three people, their growing amount of luggage ($1.55 to the euro? shopping fever!) over 4,500 miles so a Dodge Neon is not on the cards. Or a Miata for that matter (*sniff*).