Ever since I graduated college I've taken weekend trips up to Boston to see my best friend from college, ... we'll call her Mama (Max's Mama). When I lived in Hoboken I would drive up. When I lived in NYC I took the $10 one way Chinatown bus. When I go up for work, I take Amtrak (company paid).
Over the years Mama moved from the North End where she was a single lady to Central Square with her fiance, turned husband, then to the Burbs where she currently lives with her family (and now son, Max). Getting to the burbs by car, easy peasy. Getting there by bus, easy, but long - almost 7 hours door to door one way. BUT since I no longer have a car and am not longer the biggest fan of driving, this is the best possible option. And after this past weekend's visit to Hell, I'm extra certain the bus is the way to go.
So, after calculating this 7 hour figure, I thought that possibly renting a car could be a decent alternative to the bus. After looking up various rental places in and around NYC I realized car rentals in NYC are the biggest rip off ever! With one last effort I tried Priceline. Being that they only seem to deal with airport rental places, I got a pretty decent deal of $50 per day ($140 with taxes for a 2 day weekend). Hey, twice the price of the bus but it'll get me there in 1/2 the time. Couldn't hurt to give it a try once, right!
So I pack up my bag, take the slow 1 hr bus ride to the airport and begin to follow the very simple google maps instructions to walk to Avis. um... FYI, google maps does NOT specialize in walking directions. What was supposed to be a 9 minute walk, turned into 30 minutes with no Avis in sight. Finally I flagged down a cab. I loaded all my crap into the cab, drove 1/2 a mile and we were there. $5 please. nice.
Already exhausted and frustrated, I was just grateful I found it and was excited to get on the road and beat the traffic. There were 3 counter attendants helping other people, so I stood patiently waiting in line. That patience ran out when after 20 minutes attendant #1 was STILL working to give 5 people legal access to drive their one rental car (each one- license & credit card please). #2 was helping 2 women who couldn't understand how they got charged insurance. and #3 was chatting with her customer - yes, not working, not chatting about rental cars, but about living on long island. REALLY? Finally I went to the preferred counter and asked for help. The guy was nice enough to run my information, quickly confirmed my reservation and said I was good to go! I was thrilled!! Happy and ready to get on the road... that is, until... "wait, we can't rent you a car."
Ok. stay calm. This HAS to be an error, they'll figure it out. Calmly I ask "Why not?". "The system gave you a rejection code". Huh? I ask again and he grabs a paper with a list of 10 or so options listed and he circles the first one and gives it, my license and my credit card back to me. "I'm sorry, we can't do anything for you."
Keep in mind, I haven't had anything to eat since 10:30am - it's 4:10pm, I just spent the last 50 minutes walking around the airport highway turnarounds and standing in a pointless line while people do nothing productive - I was ready to kill. I look at the paper and say "what do you want me to do with this? what does this mean?" "We are connected to the DMV and your rejection code says your license has been either suspended or rejected. you have to call the DMV to get it corrected before we can give you a car." And that was it. No more help from them. What happened to customer service? Surely, there was SOMETHING they could do. How about the phone number to the DMV, what would be nice.
I finally get the number, call and find out that the DMV had closed FIVE minutes earlier. I was livid. And it wasn't so much that I probably looked like a criminal to them, I mean, who gets their license suspended????, but it was more I had a plan and it was not only crumbling before me, but now I had all these other crappy, stressful things to deal with. All I wanted to do was go to Boston!?!? Why is it all SO HARD?!
Finally, the man, desperate to get rid of me, sends me to attendant #1. I was hopeful she was smart and would get it corrected. She didn't. She told me the exact same thing. "So you're telling me, I reserved the car, am supposed to be in Boston tonight and now I'm suck in queens with no options?!" I was seriously behaving as if Laguardia airport was the middle of nowhere. I completely knew I was being dramatic, hello, I used to live 5 minutes from there, but I couldn't help it. I was pissed no one was making any effort to help the situation! In hindsight I was being a little ridiculous, but I was seriously about to cry and couldn't deal. The woman offered to call me a car while I call priceline to fight for a refund. Wait, what? you won't give me a refund for my $140?! calm yourself... just deal with this in the car.
The car shows up and what do I see? a white limo. Most people would be excited about this, I just found it annoying. The driver repeatedly asked "where do you want to go?" and I repeatedly said "I don't know yet, I just need 5 minutes and I'll tell you". I realized he did NOT understand me when he started to drive off. "Sir, can you please STOP DRIVING?!" he looked at me confused. "Please stop, I need TWO minutes, just stop". As I frantically tried to determine my destination, the bus stop or home? Once I realized all buses were sold out for the night, we started off for home.
Apparently, to the driver, home was south. To the rest of humanity, home would have been west. So we spent the next 1.5 hours stuck in traffic on the queensboro bridge. FYI, rubbing your temples does nothing for stress. I asked the driver to please go up the east side and over 97th and his response back was a very annoyed "I know how to get there". And my annoyed response back "well if I thought that we'd be on the tri-borough bridge right now". "there's traffic on that bridge"... UMMMM, what do you call this gridlock we're in?!?!?!?! I was getting angry. and the giant limo we were in didn't exactly easily maneuver through traffic. UGH! I wonder how much I was going to get screwed for this ride home. Silver lining: while riding home Priceline happily "cancelled" my reservation for a small $50 cancellation fee. Hey, better than nothing, I'll take it!
Finally I got home, paid the guy the $40 fare with an extra $6, oh no $7, for a "credit to cash" fee. Really? Are you making this up as you go along? Then I get out and head right to the fridge for a cold, calming glass of wine. Thank goodness, it really did help.
Boston, take #2. Bolt bus: sold out. Megabus: 6:50am arrives 11:05am. Sold. I called Mama to confirm the new plan and then I booked it. Now on to dinner. This felt like a monumental task. I was so hungry, a little loopy after one glass of wine, and clueless as to how to order take out that is weight watchers friendly. Not easy.
The next day, I woke up at 5:30 to get dressed and head to the bus for 6:35. I made my way to the subway and when I see the platform FULL of people at 5:50am I was sure it would arrive any minute. oh no, my harmonious relationship with transportation continues. It didn't come. I couldn't be late for this bus! I leave the station, get in a cab (ugh) and arrive at the bus stop. In front of me was 3 buses, 2 random lines or people and hundreds of people just standing around totally clueless. It was nuts! Bolt bus (my preferred bus) is chaotic, but this was total madness. I'm lucky I found the right bus and actually got a seat! Apparently people with reservations didn't make it on at all.
In the end, I was just happy to be on the bus. I had my Transderm patch on, a movie on my laptop and I was on my way!! Only one accident, one previously closed highway and a 45 minute delay and I was finally in Boston, so excited to see my friends!
After all that, the ride back HAD to be better! And, boy, was it. I somehow skipped the line home and made it onto the EARLY bus that wasn't sold out! I sat by myself and had a lovely relaxing, only mildly delayed ride home. You can imagine I slept like a baby Sunday night!
So, after all of that, I made it safely to Boston & back, had a great weekend with Mama & family, and still, for some reason, have a suspended/rejected license. Seriously, again, who does this happen too?? Perhaps it's a sign to finally change my licenses to NY. We'll see :)
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