Mounting expenses

Under my insurance, the dent in the side of the Subaru was going to cost me a $500 deductible. Not bad considering that they were replacing a door, but certainly a significant amount of money. The PT Cruiser rental was cheap. The insurance paid for a basic model of car, and I paid a couple of dollars a day more to get the Cruiser.

Then, somehow, in the mix of cars parked under the trees beside the Brown Round House where the cousin's reunion was taking place, the Cruiser sustained a dent. A nice round indentation on its plastic bumper. I didn't know plastic could do that!
Although I would argue with the insurance company about it, that dent would eventually cost me a $250 deductible.

When I picked up the Subaru, it was shiny and polished, no doubt in an attempt to make the car match its new part. I felt a small pride of ownership, but also felt the pain of being back using a stick shift.

After the deer incident, the check engine light had come on. Surprisingly, for a car with 135,000 miles on it, it was the first time this had happened. I asked the door repair people to look at it, and they said that the code indicated trouble in my catalytic converter.

I took the car to my trested mechanics at Brentwood Foreign Auto for an estimate. They said it would be $2100 because the car has a "California" catalytic converter.

PT Cruiser the Rental car

The dent in the side of the Subaru necessitated a call to my insurance company, who instructed me to take the car to a local dealership/car repair enclave in a nearby, but dodgier part of town.
There it was determined that the driver's side door needed replacement, and that it would take at least a week. I was to have a rental car.
An exciting prospect, but with hidden downsides.
Coming up was the weekend of a family reunion-- the Cousin's reunion. Originally started as a gathering of first cousins-- the offspring of my grandfather's generation-- it has in recent years come to include my generation and our children. My grandfather was one of twelve, so it is a large group.
I rented the PT Cruiser based on looks alone, with little thought to the considerations of gas mileage or durability.
And drove it from Baltimore to the cousins' reunion in southern West Virginia.
From Baltimore to it is highways most of the way to Greenbrier County. US 70 W to 81 S and down, down, down the spine of Virginia. Then lighting out to the West on a slightly smaller state highway, then a state route, then a county road and ultimately a dirt road.