Everything is Awesome!

So it was clear but cold in Saskatchewan.  The weather forecast looked rather unremarkable.  But I forgot to take into account watching for a prairie tropical storm.  In Bermuda, I learned that tropical storms are 63-113 km/hr.  In Saskatchewan the other night, we had winds up to 90 km/hr.  It was also -20C, with one amazing windchill that made it feel like -38C.  Nothing tropical there.  I guess we call it a blizzard.  Even if it isn't snowing, that kind of wind will pick up snow off the ground and blow it around, reducing driving visibility to, well, close to zero.  The howling winds kept me up most of the night, and then it was an early morning as I headed to the airport.  It was a happy coincidence to be leaving on one of the most miserable days of the winter.  2 flights, one layover, and 7 hours of conversation with chatty co-flyers later, I landed in good old Phoenix, AZ without so much as successfully turning one page in my book.  It was a long day, I was tired, and still had an hour to go by car.  For anyone travelling to Phoenix Sky Harbour Airport, Alamo is the car rental agency to go with.  The other places that I could think of like Hertz, Budget, National, and Fox were literally TRIPLE the price.  And so I reserved "your cheapest smallest car" with Alamo in advance.  I was told it would be a Chevy Spark, and so we named it Sparky in advance of meeting it.

The car rental center at Sky Harbour is one large building a shuttlebus away from the airport.  All of the agencies and their cars are in this building.  I went up to Alamo and was greeted by a super friendly girl at the counter, who directed me to the pickup floor, where a super friendly lot attendant offered me a water, but said there were no more Sparks available and asked if there was another car similar to the Spark I would like.  "Do you have a Hum V?" I asked.  He started laughing and tried to draw some similarities between the two, until I said that something between the range of Spark and Hummer would be fine.  He wrote "Free Upgrade" on my ticket, and offered me anything I could see in the rows of cars.  I looked down the road of shiny but normal little cars and wondered who I would choose, but then he said "you can even have this one."  I looked at a shiny, brand new, black Volkswagon Beetle.  "OMG it's soooo CUTE!" I heard myself squeal in a girly voice.  The car had been chosen.

Now I have never really understood what the fuss was all about with the VW Bugs, I usually just thought about the old Disney movie "Herbie," which was played instead of cartoons on the Walt Disney Hour on Sundays, so I was never really a fan.  But it's roomy, and it handles really well.  As I cruised down the Interstate at the 75 mph speed limit, the Lego movie theme song popped into my head, you know, the "Everything is Awesome!!!"  Funny how the promise of sun, an adventure, and a zippy little car can make your day.

Isn't it cute?!?!?

 

Look it has two cute little exhaust pipes!!