The trip to vancouver (reviewed)
After I raced around like a maniac on the friday before I had to leave, I boarded a Westjet flight bound for vancouver. I must have been brain dead, because when I first sat down, I was actually in 10A instead of 10F. The girl who actually had 10A told me to get out, so in my embarrasment I slid across into the F seat. Turns out, I ended up in 11F and in a couple minutes the guy in 11F told me to get out. They probably all thought I was a terrorist trying to get any free seat but at least they didn't know I was homeless. The flight itself was pretty hobo, although they did give me two oreo cookies. Of course there was no movie. And no headphones.
The flight was really long and I slept a lot. When I got to vancouver we had to take 3 buses and a skytrain to get to Sarah's aunt and uncle's place in Surrey (more about Surrey later). I really appreciate them letting me stay there. I did think about camping out somewhere in vancouver, but it was pretty cold and it's hard to camp near public transit (and I definately wasn't renting a car for the whole week).
Sarah and I talked to paul and we decided that we were gonna rent a car to get to Kelowna (about 400km from vancouver through the mountains). I checked out enterpise and I think there was something wrong with there website since the compact was only $23 a day but the economy was $33 a day. This includes unlimited mileage in BC. If enterprise didn't have such great service I would call them hobo car rental since it's so ridiculously cheap. Well, I booked the compact (since there was no way I was gonna spend $10 a day to get a marginally larger car) and the website told me that it was gonna cost $137. The guy at the car rental place tried to scam me out of $8 a day to - get this - insure me against the deductible on my insurance. He said that driving on the highways could put chips in the windshield and I would have to pay for that if it happened. After I declined the insurance against my insurance and we were driving down the coquihalla a car in front of me kicked up a stone and put a small chip in the windshield which made me wonder if they were going to make me pay $5000 for the windshield (which could be how they make their money).
We got to kelowna at around 5pm (after having bought the cheapest mitts we could find between vancouver and kelowna). Then, we skied like maniacs for the next three days. I fell and hit my head 3 times on a snowboard and once on a set of skis, which made me think I had a concussion for about half the trip but it was so worth it.
Sarah and I slept on an air mattress in the corner of Joe and Alison's room but it wasn't totally hobo, since we had an en suite bathroom (although since there were only 2 bathrooms for 12 people, en suite means our bedroom was sortof a hallway, which is still way better than sleeping on a couch in your office, I'll tell you).
We both rented equipment and bought a three day lift pass all for $500 dollars. Incidentally, the snowboard and boots cost $30 a day to rent which I thought was outrageous. This made me really worry about enterprise breaking my kneecaps since there is no way they can profit on $23 a day.
When I returned the car I was a little nervous about the chip in the windshield, and the guy at enterprise wandered around the car with his clipboard. Turns out he either didn't notice or didn't care about the chip. It ended up only coming to $114 (since they waived the underage driver fee) which was amazing for a four day rental.
The flight was really long and I slept a lot. When I got to vancouver we had to take 3 buses and a skytrain to get to Sarah's aunt and uncle's place in Surrey (more about Surrey later). I really appreciate them letting me stay there. I did think about camping out somewhere in vancouver, but it was pretty cold and it's hard to camp near public transit (and I definately wasn't renting a car for the whole week).
Sarah and I talked to paul and we decided that we were gonna rent a car to get to Kelowna (about 400km from vancouver through the mountains). I checked out enterpise and I think there was something wrong with there website since the compact was only $23 a day but the economy was $33 a day. This includes unlimited mileage in BC. If enterprise didn't have such great service I would call them hobo car rental since it's so ridiculously cheap. Well, I booked the compact (since there was no way I was gonna spend $10 a day to get a marginally larger car) and the website told me that it was gonna cost $137. The guy at the car rental place tried to scam me out of $8 a day to - get this - insure me against the deductible on my insurance. He said that driving on the highways could put chips in the windshield and I would have to pay for that if it happened. After I declined the insurance against my insurance and we were driving down the coquihalla a car in front of me kicked up a stone and put a small chip in the windshield which made me wonder if they were going to make me pay $5000 for the windshield (which could be how they make their money).
We got to kelowna at around 5pm (after having bought the cheapest mitts we could find between vancouver and kelowna). Then, we skied like maniacs for the next three days. I fell and hit my head 3 times on a snowboard and once on a set of skis, which made me think I had a concussion for about half the trip but it was so worth it.
Sarah and I slept on an air mattress in the corner of Joe and Alison's room but it wasn't totally hobo, since we had an en suite bathroom (although since there were only 2 bathrooms for 12 people, en suite means our bedroom was sortof a hallway, which is still way better than sleeping on a couch in your office, I'll tell you).
We both rented equipment and bought a three day lift pass all for $500 dollars. Incidentally, the snowboard and boots cost $30 a day to rent which I thought was outrageous. This made me really worry about enterprise breaking my kneecaps since there is no way they can profit on $23 a day.
When I returned the car I was a little nervous about the chip in the windshield, and the guy at enterprise wandered around the car with his clipboard. Turns out he either didn't notice or didn't care about the chip. It ended up only coming to $114 (since they waived the underage driver fee) which was amazing for a four day rental.
posted by Timothy Fowler at 2/24/2005 01:34:00 PM
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