2005-08-31
I was very concerned about how I was going to get to Dallas for the annual OU/Texas Hoedown. I considered that I might save money by driving. All 1280 or so miles. But then, when you factor gas, roughly half an oil change and air filter, it'd cost me about $200 to save any money. And I'd put 1280 miles on the car.
And that's not counting all the driving I'd end up doing once I get to Dallas. 700 miles over a three-day weekend wouldn't be too wild an estimate. And you'd have to throw in the 5% chance of me wrecking the car and/or the car getting stolen.
Well, then I looked at how much air fare cost. Non-stop STL to DFW: $308. And that was on Expedia. They had one that was $134, but it had a two-hour layover in Minneapolis and six hour travel time. I thought surely there's a better way.
Finally I checked American's website. DFW is a hub for them, and St. Louis is kind of a hub-let, a legacy from when St. Louis was TWA's hub, before TWA went belly-up and was bought by American.
Anyway, they're running a special over at American where they're giving flights that they consider a Short Hop™, for a mere 15,000 frequent flyer miles. Guess how many miles J has more than? And name two cities the jaunt between which are considered a Short Hop™?
So, I'm flying to Dallas for a mere $5 service charge. This will be the second year in a row that my flight to OU/Texas hasn't come out of pocket. Last year, I spent the money they gave me to be violated anally, and this year I get to use frequent flyer miles.
Proving once again that, aside from the catastrophically unfortunate stuff that happens to me with distressing regularity, I'm the luckiest person alive.
Actually, it might even get better than that. I might have found someone to buy the Proud Larry. Someone in Dallas. Which means I could drive to the Big D and take a one-way ticket back to St. Louis. Granted, a one-way ticket is a high percentage of the cost of a round-trip ticket, but on the other hand, I'd get rid of the car.
I can find only one hole in your Proud Larry theory, and that is that, sad as it is, the Proud Larry might not make it 1280 miles. Or at least, it might not do it without necessitating several stops and potentially some costly repairs to get it down there, whereupon the potential buyer might shy away from it when you pull it to a smoking, screeching stop on their doorstep.
If you can make it to the Lower Greenville area while you're in Dallas, you should come by my house. I'll be hosting another annual afterparty, so come drink as much free beer as you can. Same goes to anyone else who may or may not be reading this.