Road Trip Rules: Step One: Get Your Car

For my recent road trip, the Two Chicks and A Road Trip Adventure, before I could do anything else, I needed to get from Boston to NYC and then get my rental car. So road trip rules step one: Get a car. That meant I had to take the short 1 1/2 hour flight with JetBlue from Boston Logan International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport, stay overnight in a nearby hotel, and then get up bright and early to get my rental car from Avis. Step two required a bit more pre-planning. In order to embark on our road trip, we’d need to make sure that we had suitable insurance to allow us to drive the vehicle around legally. One of my friends told me to try and find the cheapest insurance for your car trip. She said that would help me to travel on a tight budget. My friend also recommended that I looked here to read about some other ways to save money when traveling. That was all helpful.

Apparently, I was going to have my patience tested as the flight was repeatedly delayed to my dismay and that of my fellow travelers.

Fearing the worst, I was completely anxious thinking I would never make it to New York the next morning. Finally, my 7:05 pm flight departed Boston at 10:37 pm and we arrived in Newark around 11:34 pm. Considering you’re only in the air about 30 minutes, I could’ve driven down to Newark in less time. But it is what it is and you can’t change that can you? I could’ve lost my mind on the gate agents like others were, but I chose to sit and wait quietly. No sense in going bananas for nothing. Although I did ponder taking Megabus or Amtrak or renting a car and then freaked out a little on the inside when I realized how crazy actually doing that sounded. My friend had a similar experience but also worked with the best booster car seat which made the experience a lot less stressful.

By the time I got off the plane, through the airport, onto the AirTrain, and outside to wait for the shuttle to my hotel, it was after 12:30 am. So as a result of my fatigue, there are zero pics from that night, but luckily there’s Flickr. But it was all a blur anyway that night and the next morning I had to do it all in reverse to get back to the airport to get my rental car from Avis. That’s why I flew down the night before so I could rest up, get up early, grab the rental car, and then drive to Brooklyn to pick up Danielle.

In the morning with very little sleep under my belt, I somehow made my way over to Avis at Newark Liberty International Airport and past the first of many Dunkin’ Donuts we would see throughout our trip.

My fingers were locked into a permanent crossed position as I was hoping that they would a) have the Ford Mustang we requested and b) that I would be able to change the drop off location. Somehow I requested the East 43rd Street location for drop off instead of the West 43rd Street location, which would be a 30 minute walk from our hotel when we arrived back into NYC. When I called Avis, I was told they would need to reprice the reservation, which came out to 4x the rate we paid, so I politely said, “No.” But then it was suggested that I simply ask for the change when I picked up the car and thankfully, the reservation agent at the airport was able to do it without a problem. With contract in hand, I was able to pick up my pretty black and white Ford Mustang without issue. Avis was fantastic and they were able to provide us with a great vehicle for our trip as well as outstanding service. The car was an absolute dream to drive. Obviously, back home I’m more used to driving the van so this took a bit of time trying to adjust! Although, I forgot to mention that we recently bought a new van on finance. We always thought that bad credit would prevent us from doing that, but it clearly wasn’t as much as of an issue as we had suspected.

After loading up the Mustang with my bags, checking that everything was good with the car, and then testing it out, I was ready to go. With the directions to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal plugged into my Waze app on my iPhone, I made the trip from New Jersey to Brooklyn in about an hour. Can’t tell you which way I went as I was focusing on the road and trying to contain my excitement about starting our girls road trip.

After an hour’s worth of driving, I was finally in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. This small cruise terminal has areas for drop off and pick up of passengers right in the front of the terminal. I knew Danielle would be waiting for me in front and she was. After a few quick hellos and hugs, we threw her bags into the car and headed out to begin our road trip. We hadn’t seen each other in nearly a year and had been planning this trip for nearly that entire time. This road trip was our baby and we had worked on it for months on end and now it was finally coming to fruition and we were both so excited to start the trip.

I’m always up for anything and we made an unexpected stop on the way. This turned out to be bonus for Danielle as we were driving through Staten Island on the way to New Jersey. As a huge fan of American television, one of her favorites has been “Mob Wives.” When Angela Raiola, better known as Big Ang, passed away in February, Danielle was so sad. However, she knew that her sister had a store, The Country Mouse, where a new mural of Big Ang was placed.

A quick detour off the main roadway and we were soon on Forest Avenue in Staten Island and in front of this mural memorial to the late TV reality star. The stop was never on our plans for our road trip, but I’m really glad we took a moment to visit the mural.

Nothing says road trip more than driving and then stopping at any one of the many rest areas/stops on or near the highways in the United States. As I was pulling into our first rest stop, I spotted a beautiful brindle 5-month-old boxer puppy. I literally stopped the car, didn’t park it, and ran over to the little guy. Yes, I have a thing for dogs, especially boxers. The puppy had been wolfing down a ton of water and so I ended up with a bath and a paw down my top. His dad said, “Looks like he already made it to second base.” Wah – wah. The owner said they were on a trip to the vets to Learn more about using CBD in the dog’s daily routine. I didn’t want to pry but he mentioned something about needing some medication to treat an illness. The puppy was so cute, he didn’t look poorly at all! I guess you can never really tell but I hope everything worked out well for them. After that, we ran inside to grab some drinks and food before heading back on the road to our final destination for the day, Atlantic City.

Make sure you check out the next installment of my road trip series where we will move past road trip rules step one and I’ll cover my thoughts on my stay in Atlantic City.