The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The little black car

A couple of months ago I saw a car rental deal, and I booked it. Originally, the plan had been to rent a car and drive down through Toronto to Pelee Island and visit our friends Heinz and Uli. There are some other people we could have visited along the way, as well as Ruth's sister and her husband.

But as the date drew closer, we simply didn't feel like doing the drive.

It would have been around 800 kms (500 miles) each way. Having just done the 3,000 km (1,800 mile) drive from Saskatchewan, it just didn't seem that appealing to drive all the way down there, as much as we like having lots of laughs with Heinz and Uli!

Plus, our time here with family and friends in Ottawa is passing quickly enough. Less than two weeks to go before we leave for Romania.

So we decided to stay in this area, but we rented the car anyhow. This way, we can come and go as we please and we don't have to be a burden on Lindsey and Justin with constantly trying to arrange our time around when they're not using their car.

Plus, it was a good deal. $149.00 CAD ($115 USD) for a week, taxes included with unlimited mileage.

The little black car!

It's a 2016 Mitsubishi Mirage. Already had 51k kms (31k miles) on it, so that's pretty beat up in rental car mileage! Probably hasn't even had an oil change yet, and the front tires are getting a little worn. But, it'll do us just fine for a week. Has all the toys, but no cruise control! I'd rather it had none of the other toys if it had cruise control installed. Cruise should be standard equipment in my mind.

We picked up the car at 10:00am, and then drove over to my mother's place for a visit. She took us out for lunch to an Indian restaurant.

Indian curry. Yum!

Mia's Indian Cuisine. 
Thanks Mom!

After that, we drove up to Ruth's dad's place in the village of Galetta. We watched the 4pm Blue Jays vs Cleveland game and it was nice to see that the Jays get to live to play again today. It's never over 'til it's over. Go Jays!

Today, we'll take the little black car and go for a drive up to Calabogie to see the leaves that are now in full color. Should make for some nice pictures to show you tomorrow.

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16 comments:

  1. Post request: details on how you identify good boondocking sites. If you've already have this somewhere in your archives, how about pinning it up in the black index bar below the day's picture?

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    1. Yes, we have written about it before and the post is here www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2016/05/how-to-find-great-boondocking-campsites.html. Kevin will look into pinning on that bar.

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  2. I rented a car for Colin for 3.5 days in Winnipeg this week for $86.00 all included, just a few dollars more per day than your rental. There are some great deals out there if one takes the time to look.

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    1. Sounds like you did well with Colin's rental too. If people look around and keep their eyes open the deals are out there.

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  3. I'm with you on the cruise control issue, don't know how I lived without it! ;c)

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    1. As Kevin said, cruise control should be a standard feature on cars nowadays!

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  4. Both cruise control and GPS are must-haves for me. Looking forward to the pictures tomorrow.

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    1. Cruise definitely is number one in our books! Today's post should be up shortly and yes, we saw some nice colour. :-)

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  5. Good price for the car! I'd like to know how to find rental car deals. Do you check directly with the company?
    TIA

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    1. Hi John. I start looking as soon as I know that I'm going to need one. Usually, I start by checking something like Expedia and then looking for the cheapest one there. Then, I go directly to the car rental website that had that cheapest car, and double check the price. Then, I check different locations in the city I'm going to be in. Often, the locations in smaller, more residential areas will have the best prices because they're simply not as busy as say the airport, or right downtown. I book a car, then keep checking back because the prices can change regularly and of course it costs you nothing to cancel one reservation and rebook at a cheaper price.

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  6. We don't a have cruise in our Saturn, just automatic and air, wind up windows too. (our choice)
    The car is mostly just a runabout so no need for cruise.
    But love it in the motorhome. and our previous vehicles.
    Good deal on the rental.

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    1. If any highway driving is involved Kevin wants a car with cruise but because we got such a good price with this rental, he will just put up with it but he would never buy a car that didn't have cruise on it.

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  7. I like curry, but sometimes it does not like me:)

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  8. Lol 31,000 miles without an oil change? Why would you suspect that?

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    1. Because I used to do a lot of contract work for the rental car companies and I know how they operate. It's not a priority for them to pull cars out for service. Maybe they've changed...I checked the oil and it actually looks not bad!

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