Sooooo …
it’s been a crazy long, crazy short, crazy summer of change down here. I’ll
recap it in the next few days, but what I want to set down for the record now
is the Great 2026 College Road Trip.
My youngest
daughter, known as Patch in these electronic pages over the last eighteen years,
has chosen to study fashion at a school in upstate New York. A big factor is
her love of the Adirondacks, the cool Falls and snowy Winters, the comfort of
memories of her grandparents at their house in northeastern Pennsylvania. She
got accepted back in June and we faced the problem of getting her – and, more
pressingly, all her stuff – to her dorm room half a country away.
Now, her
school is just shy of 1,600 miles distant from our doorstep here in the northern
Dallas suburbs. My logical, less-pain-the-better way of thinking, along with
the Mrs, was
1) 1) Ship
as much stuff as possible to Grammy’s in PA
2) 2) Fly
the three of us into LaGuardia
3) 3) Rent
an SUV, pick up stuff at Grammy’s, and move her in to her dorm
4) 4) Drive
back to NYC, return rental, fly home
And this
is where it stood for six or seven weeks.
Then, Patch
began scheming. Then she brought her mother into the scheming. And I should
mention that things had changed a bit, since due to an immovable business product
launch, my wife was not permitted to take off during the week we were expecting
to move her in.
Sometime
about a month ago, just after a delicious home cooked dinner she made for us,
Patch presented me with a proposal printed out on a piece of paper. Two
columns. Column One: Fly to College. Colum Two: Drive to College. Beneath each a
listing of anticipated expenses in dollar form.
She wanted
to drive to college, mainly because she wanted assurance she could bring
everything she needed to her dorm. The Mrs. wanted me to drive her to college,
mainly because she saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime bonding experience for me
and my daughter. I hesitated. One, I don’t like seeming last-minute changes to
schedule, and two, the car we’d have to take is my ancient 2013 Toyota Corolla
get-me-to-work-and-back car I drive four times a week.
Sensing my
hesitation, Patch sweetened the pot: “Dad, we have three remaining Thursday
movie nights before I have to leave. I’m willing to watch the Lord of the
Rings trilogy with you if you say yes.”
How could I
respond other than in the affirmative??
So it was decided.
Per her sheet it would cost twice as much to fly and rent as it would to drive
and stay in motels. I factored some of that savings in and brought the Corolla
into the local shop. $750 later I had two new tires, all of them rotated and
balanced, oil changed, new air filter, new fuel filter, and the coolant system
flushed. Right away we noticed an improvement in the car’s handling. My
confidence this machine would make the trip increased from Never to Possibly.
Based on
our trip from New Jersey to Texas during the Big Move back in 2021, we knew it
would take about two and a half days of travel. Waze had it at around 23 hours.
We planned on two full days of daytime driving (from 9 am to 6 pm), stopping
only for gas and bathroom breaks. We’d take some sandwiches, drinks, and snacks
from home to save money. In the late afternoon on each day Patch would get on Priceline
and book a hotel / motel room an hour up the road. On the third day we’d arrive
at my parents’ home in Pennsylvania in the early afternoon.
We’d have
a day of rest in PA where Patch would unpack all her shipped items and we’d
load them all into my stepfather’s roomier Camry. Wednesday my mother and I
would drive her to school, empty the car, set up her dorm, walk around the
campus, and say our goodbyes. Then I’d spend a relaxing Thursday with my folks
and depart for the 1,600-mile ride home Friday morning, returning to my front
doorstep early Sunday afternoon.
Patch
could help me out on the drive, at least on the way up. She got her driver’s
license in June (that’ll be in the future summer recap post) but had never done
any highway driving. She volunteered for two hours a day, and that seemed
reasonable to me.
It was
settled. On Thursday, August 20, we watched the final entry of the Lord
of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, chomping down some
Jersey Mike’s sandwiches. We started this “movie night” tradition when her big
sister went off to college four years ago, and over those four years watched
199 movies. Everything from Kill Bill to Airplane! to The
Corpse Bride to Despicable Me. Those Thursday nights themselves were
quite a bonding experience.
The next night,
after work, we all met at a local Asian restaurant – me, the wife, Patch, and
Little One, fresh from her second week of teaching fourth graders in a school
45 minutes away. We dined on ramen noodles and sushi and promised to celebrate
again in four months, when Patch returns from the Great White North for
Christmas break. Afterwards we all hit a Baskin Robbins then returned home,
where the girls watched a Charmed while I read my current read.
Little One
went home later, and we all turned in. Patch and I needed a good night’s sleep,
for the next morning, Saturday the 22nd, would be the first day of the Great
College Road Trip of 2026.
… to be
continued …
