The Highs and Lows of Spontaneity

One of the advantages of Blake's job with the airline is the theoretical ability to hop on a plane at any given moment to embark on adventures of all varieties. Of course, theoretically this sounds lovely, but the realities of a one year old and a limited income force many of our travel dreams into a perpetual state of potential.

Except for this time.

Monday- 10:45am- Brittany arrives home. Blake is scanning craigslist Phoenix for used Subarus. Both are overwhelmed by a sudden desire for adventure. Blake sees that there are two seats free on the 3pm flight to Phoenix. Brittany calls her sister in law and her grandfather, and waters the houseplants.

11:15am- Brittany is packing for herself and Rorykins, whom Blake is bathing to remove all offensive traces of peanut butter from breakfast. Blake makes a rental car reservation for the following morning. Brittany runs the dishwasher. Rory is put down for a nap.

12:00pm- Blake waters the garden and packs. Brittany fills a snack container with enough cheerios to keep the baby entertained on the airplane. She also flash freezes four pounds of fresh blueberries. Blake calls his uncle.

1:00pm- Blake makes calls to car dealers in Phoenix and selects one near the airport to visit. Brittany realizes that she has fed her family nothing except homemade doughnuts all day and throws together several sandwiches. Blake's parents agree to water the garden for a few days. Blake makes a hotel reservation in Palm Desert. Doors and windows are locked, Rory is in her carseat.

1:45pm- The Bowen family is in the Jeep, on the way to the Flag airport.

2:30pm- Brittany is entertaining Rory while Blake is working at getting them on the flight.

2:45pm- The ticket counter closes and the two seats are still available. Blake, Brittany, and Rory breeze through security proudly brandishing their boarding passes, and board the plane.

3:30pm- Blake decides that Rory has been too happy on the airplane, and proceeds to whack her head on the ceiling. Or maybe the plane lurched just as he was repositioning her on his lap. Either way, Rory is no longer too happy and is informing the world of her displeasure. Cheerios seem to appease her.

4:00pm- Blake's sister Bethany gamely picks them up at the airport on her day off. She drives them to a moderately sketchy car dealership nearby, where Blake proceeds to test drive an Impreza they had been eying on craigslist for a while. The car is not perfect, but the price makes it worth it. An offer is made, but the uninspired salesclerk is not interested, as someone else expressed an intent to finance the vehicle for the whole price. Blake and Brittany and Bethany and Baby leave without the car- good riddance.

5:00pm- with no other strong car leads, the group returns to a cousin's house where Bethany is dogsitting. Pizza is ordered and consumed, Blake's final homework assignment for the summer semester is completed and submitted, craigslist is perused, and the evening passes. The rental car is to be picked up in the morning unless a car is found and purchased. Dinner plans are made with Blake's uncle and grandpa for the following evening.

9:00pm- Blake and Brittany and Aurora go to bed. Rory sleeps admirably on a pile of cushions.

Tuesday 7:00am- Blake and Brittany start the day with craigslist and autotrader. No Subarus are found, but temptation lurks in the form of a Volvo cross country wagon just barely out of their price range. Though ardent Volvo lovers, the couple had decided a month ago that the risk of expensive Volvo repairs would make such a vehicle an imprudent purchase while Blake is in school. Still, they wavered, and even called the dealer. They deliberated over a cold-pizza breakfast. A last  minute idea finds them placing a "wanted" add on the Palm Springs craigslist saying they'll be in town and would like to buy someone's Subaru (hopes are not high as no one drives Subarus in Palm Springs).

9:45am- Everyone is loaded into Bethany's car, and she waits patiently as Blake decides where they're going: the car dealer or rental car office. A phone call to his dad helps remind him why they had decided against a Volvo in the first place. With new resolve, it's off to the Hertz office to pick up the rental.

11:00am- They bid Bethany goodbye and head west. A coffee stop is made, and a phone call is received from a guy hoping to sell his black 5 speed Subaru Impreza. The seller lives five minutes from the restaurant they would be eating at that evening, and a meeting is set up.

2:00pm- The desert is beyond ugly and the thermometer reads 114 degrees. They plow on towards the hotel.

4:00pm- Blake and Brittany and Rory leave the hotel, headed for Riverside to meet up with family for dinner. They enjoy the time with Blake's Uncle Greg and Papa Kaye, whom they do not get to see often enough. Interesting parenting advice is freely given by Blake's grandpa's Filipino wife, who has no children. After dinner, the owner of the Impreza brings it by. Blake takes it for a drive and likes it. Brittany thinks the interior is gross, but the owner drops the price to allow for professional cleaning. Blake and Brittany express their desire to buy the car, and a meeting is set up for the next morning.

Rory and Papa Kaye

Blake, his grandpa, and his baby girl

Wednesday 6:00am- Awake, showers, breakfast, and back on the road to Riverside. A new drop-off location for the rental car has been arranged, the withdrawal limit from the bank has been increased, and Blake and Brittany and Rory meet the car seller at a dealer to have it inspected before the purchase is complete.

10:00am- Blake informs Brittany that the inspection has revealed problems with the car, and they cannot buy it. Dejected, the family heads back to Palm Desert to meet Brittany's Granddad for lunch. They have a wonderful time with Granddad and enjoy seeing his new home in a swanky independent living community. Rory only has one minor breakdown, thanks in part to all the bread she ate during lunch. Plans are made to meet up again for dinner.

1:00pm- On a whim, Blake and Brittany decide to visit the Palm Springs Air Museum, which Blake had never been to (Brittany hadn't been since she was a child). The museum has an outstanding collection of World War II planes, which was exceedingly appealing to the WWII buff Bowens. Blake and Brittany love airplanes, and met at an airport (read their story if this is news to you). After admiring the huge models of the wartime ships (the aircraft carrier and submarine were particularly fascinating), they finish perusing the room devoted to the Pacific Theater before heading to the European Theater collection and the much anticipated tour of the B-17 "Flying Fortress" Bomber. Brittany is pleased that at seven months pregnant, she is still able to crawl through the airplane under the watchful eye of their elderly tour guide.

Rory attempting to escape amongst the airplanes

Blake and Rory and the maritime models!

Blake checking out the troop transport plane

Rory was not overly impressed by the awesome assortment of airplanes

A cute little flight simulator used to train pilots during the war

We love airplanes!

Blake and Aurora next to our next family vehicle!

The B-17 bomber "Flying Fortress" we got to tour!!!

3:00pm- Armed with iced tea, the family returns to the hotel where Aurora blatantly refuses to nap. More internet searching turns up zero new Subaru options, and Blake is glumly resigned to the fact that they'd likely end their trip still car-less.

5:15pm- Blake and Brittany sit in the car with Rory and pray fervently that Rory will miraculously be kept from having a "legendary freakout" during dinner, despite her naplessness. They really, really do not want her to embarrass her Great Granddad in the fancy dining room by throwing a fit. Miraculously, she is an utter angel during dinner, and charms everybody she encounters. She eats nothing but bread (and pear tart), but she is a trooper. Blake and Brittany have a great visit with Granddad, and are relieved he was able to enjoy his great granddaughter.

7:00pm- Bedtime for Rory; Blake and Brittany watch an episode of one of Blake's favorite shows, Top Gear, before sleep.

Thursday 8:00am- a lazyish morning and leisurely breakfast cause the family to get a late start. They check out of the hotel after calling some dealers in town to make sure none had magically acquired a Subaru overnight. They are horrified to find a place (the hotel) that offers worse coffee than their church, so they stop at Starbucks once again. Other than heading east, they have no precise plan. They would like to look for cars again in Phoenix, but it seems there is nothing worth looking at. They deliberate between returning the rental car in Flagstaff, or just flying home from Phoenix.

1:00pm- After an unsatisfying fast food lunch, another craigslist search is done, to no success. They spend far too long dallying around Blythe before getting back on the road. They have a contest to see who can spot the most dust devils. Blake is confidant that he is victorious, but Brittany is skeptical. They finally reach Phoenix, and sadly only have half an hour to spend with Bethany before she needs to head out. One final search for a car in Phoenix leaves Blake dejected- the spontaneous, unplanned trip had been a success in that they had spent time with the grandfathers, but both had hoped it would include them finding a car as well. About to shut the computer down, in one final act of spontaneity, Brittany types their location and desired car into autotrader and one result comes up. It was a car they had not seen yet, a manual Outback in their price range. Blake agrees to call to see if the car is still available, and they are surprised to hear it is. After briefly considering it, Blake decides they could stop by and take a look, since they were leaving anyway.

5:30pm- They are surprised by how much they like the car. They decide it would be an excellent choice. They make an offer, and it is accepted. They go to the back, return with cash, sign a few papers, and drive off. Blake calls Hertz for the billionth time and finds a new location to return the rental.

7:30pm- Blake and Brittany leave the rental, get some dinner, and head towards Flagstaff in their new white Subie. The spontaneous trip to see family and buy a car has been a success on all accounts, and their faith in adventure has been restored.

Our impromptu trip could not have been made possible without the affable help of my sister in law, Bethany, the willing availability of our grandfathers and Uncle Greg, and the go-with-the-flow attitude of our baby girl. At times we bemoaned our lack of planning (you mean it will cost $100 more if we change the rental car reservation?!), and each of us suffered brief periods of discouragement, but all in all, we had an outstanding time and enjoyed the challenge of starting each day with little or no plan. We took turns encouraging each other and had lots of fun. Now we're eagerly awaiting the next adventure!