Tonight finds SWMBO and I west of Nashville, on our way to Hot Springs AR. Normally, we would be in Hot Springs by mid-afternoon tomorrow, but we’re staying in Little Rock tomorrow night. Elder Daughter is taking the red-eye from California, and arrives on Friday morning. So, we’ll stay close to the airport there, and meet her flight on Friday. It’ll be nice to see her again, even though the purpose of the whole trip is a little bittersweet. SWMBO’s mom is beginning to fail noticeably, at least mentally, so this could be the last time they’re all together in some semblance of the way things have always been. I plan to consume my brother-in-law’s beer, watch his TV, and generally hang out.

There are no Buick fuel economy numbers to report; Avis was out of Buicks, so we were stuck with a Mercury Grand Marquis, a supposed equivalent. I made so many snarky comments about the Merc on the drive over that I feel like I’ve blogged them already. I will recognize the efforts of Drew, the Avis agent on duty at Dulles airport this morning. He turned over every Avis inventory for 30 miles in search of Buicks, to no avail. I appreciate his efforts; he did proffer a Lincoln Town car. I told him I’m a GM guy, and asked if they had any Cadillacs. Nope. If I’m going to go funereal when it comes to driving, make mine Cadillac.

The Merc accomplished one thing worthy of note; it maintained my no-fly streak. And that’s worth something, I guess.

-k-