Mr C and I have been planning for weeks to get a rental vehicle reserved for the trip to get the twins. On a number of occasions, we have gone so far as to compare prices and features. We came quite close to actually booking the vehicle a couple of weeks ago, when a discount club I belong to through Staffmark offered triple the number of bonus points going through their site. *We* couldn't decide on whether or not to go ahead and book or wait. The sale was over the next day... so once more the decision was put off. Looking yesterday, Mr C and I just ALMOST booked again. The phone rang, we got distracted...
SHINY!
And forgot again. Today, the discount club couldn't find ANY rentals in ANY parameters I set. As if, in the past 24 hours, ALL the vehicles in Northwestern Arkansas were suddenly booked at the same time we needed one. Thinking just MAYBE one had to book "more than" a month ahead through the discount club- I went to the websites of a couple of the car agencies I know serve NWA.
One of the agencies (Enterprise!) was set up to search a bit differently than the other sites I had been on. I got the base price of exactly the vehicle Mr C said I should look at: A full sized car. Then I went up and down the grades of vehicles, just to see the difference in cost between a mini-van, a full sized SUV, and a full sized car. Tom and I had eliminated "Luxury Car" from our previous search parameters. Who can afford a luxury car?
It appears- WE CAN!
In a strange twist- the dates we need a vehicle for have all the full-sized, mid-sized, and economy cars within $20 total cost of one another... a dollar or two per day. But the "Premium/ Chrysler 300 or similar" was more than $250 LESS than even the smallest economy car, total cost. Wow!
Car rental- Booked! Camp Site- Reserved! Tent- selected, set up/tested/ packed.
Camp gear- gathered, stationed for packing. House/ garden sitters- asked!
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The twins are back on the Trail after have FOUR zero/ Near-0 in one week. They are now traversing the beginnings of the most difficult sections of the trail- and it only gets harder from now on out. Two of their zero days were from being sick, and another two waiting for a package containing a replacement stove to arrive. It turned out, AFTER their wait, the package had been delivered and signed for in another town down the trail. It was NOT forwarded- in essence- it "disappeared". So they had to order ANOTHER stove... to be sent farther on up the trail. Their packs are full of meals, and no way to cook them.
They got a few aluminum cans and watched some tutorials on YouTube on how to build a pop can alcohol stove. They are hoping their macgyvered stove will work until they catch up to the new one.
In order for our plans to mesh- they now have to travel an average of 16.3 miles per day for the rest of their hike. Some places, that will be nearly impossible... so they will be needing to make up for it on other days. (Due to the forced zero/ near0 days, their average for their 106 days on the trail so far is now 15.1 miles per day.) As of last night- they have done 1600 miles!
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I am continuing to try to get conditioned. Our scale is annoying and highly inaccurate. I don't say that because it weighs light by a good 8-10 lbs. But one can step on it three times in succession, and get a weigh variance of more than 5 lbs. For instance- I was down six lbs. from my best weigh yesterday, when I stepped on the scale this morning. In disbelief, I shifted slightly... and was up two lbs. from yesterday. That's an eight lb. variance just by slightly shifting my weight on the scale. Stepping off and back on- I am less than a lb. under yesterday. I would like to have a GOOD scale! (And, for the record- I KNOW ones weight varies from hour to hour during the day, AND to avoid disappointment/ discouragement, I should only weigh once a week or so.)
Today I walked 5.7992 miles. I wrote it down as 5.8! (Yesterday I walked 3.5167 and just claimed the 3.5, so I don't always round UP). My cumulative total is up to 67.5 miles since the 31st of May. Still not enough to burn an extra lb. per week- but tomorrow I should hit enough distance to equal two lbs. worth of calories burned. I am sure my distance will fall off next week when I have two of the granddaughters here. I'm pushing myself as it is. When I start out every morning, I am ready to turn back before I have gone 300 yards. It takes a mile or more before I have the endorphins kick in!
My cumulative weight loss is six lbs. in the past 3 weeks. We are headed into THM Diet week 4.
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Tom's hobby of looking for houses turned up possibly the BEST address I have ever seen. A house on Buzzard Glory Rd., in Crooksville, Ohio. While it isn't the best house I've ever seen- isn't that an awesome address? Another interesting street name in Crooksville : Portie Flamingo Rd.. I misread it as "Portly" Flamingo Rd. We actually aren't looking for houses in Crooksville, OH... but the Buzzard Glory Rd. came up in a search Tom was doing... and with a name like that, we HAD to look.
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That's all for now! Thanks for reading.
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