Honey, I’ll Go Get the Wine, Pt I

So, there I was one day in late-January, at home, working away on my computer, when in came an email message from Hertz. One of those marketing messages that I receive often from them. Contrary to what I normally do, I read this one. On it, a great offer on one-way, West Coast-to-East Coast rentals. I guess they needed to move cars from there to here… Hmmm. I checked with Delta Air Lines and found an interesting one-way fare from Boston, MA, to Seattle, WA. I checked with my friend Brian at Celaeno Winery in Woodinville, WA, and he had some wine for me. Just like that, the Great Wine Run was on!

The Hertz offer came with a few conditions, the most important of which were:

When all objectives, conditions, and restrictions were taken into consideration, this is how the Great Wine Run looked like, big picture-wise: I would go from home in Rhode Island to Boston by train, and then to Seattle by plane; here, I would pick the rental car up upon arrival; the next step was to pick the wine up at the winery; I would then drive across the US to Rhode Island to drop the wine at home; then south, to return the car to Hertz in DC; last but not least, I would fly from DC straight to Rhode Island.

Coming Up with a Route

From the 10 days that I had with the car, I would use the first one to catch up with Brian, drive to the winery, re-visit the place, taste the wines, load up the car, et cetera; and, on the other end, I would use the last day to drive from Rhode Island to DC, this after having unloaded the wine at home. So that gave me 8 days to do the actual coast-to-coast drive. Easy, I thought.

Early in the route defining process, I decided that I would stick to a northern course. Three reasons behind this decision:

Having said that… I was fully aware that I would have to be flexible. After all, we were at the peak of winter. The probability of being snowed in for a few days somewhere mid-route was quite high, I thought. Additionally, I had no idea about the type of car I was picking up at Hertz.

Based on these considerations, the 8 days to cross the country were so allocated: Day 1 to Day 5 mainly on US Hwy 2—the Great Northern—from its beginning in Everett, WA to its first ending point in St. Ignace, MI; Day 6 to come down through Michigan to Toledo, OH; and Days 7 & 8 on historic US Hwy 20 to Worcester, MA, where I would turn south, heading directly to my home in RI.

Getting Fluffy

Departing time for my Delta flight from Boston to Seattle (via Atlanta, GA, of course…) was early in the afternoon, too early for a convenient connection with any Amtrak train arriving in Boston from the south. (I presume that Amtrak is currently on some sort of reduced schedule, given the pandemic.) This forced me to leave home in the afternoon of the day before my flight and spend that night in Boston. …Which did not bother me a single bit, I must add. Yes, I love Boston, even in the middle of the winter.

On the following day, the flight to Seattle was totally uneventful. And shortly after my arrival, I was being introduced to a beautiful, white-as-snow, Ford Mustang convertible. Fluffy, I baptized her. Yes, she was going to be my ride for the next 10 days! …And the 10-day clock begun to tick.

At the Celaeno Winery

Once in possession of the car, my first task was to pick the wine up at winery. I guess that not wanting to be outdone by the Mustang, Brian showed up on his fully kitted out BMW M6. …Which suddenly turned that parking lot into something very Fast & Furious-like! Overall, a fun-filled afternoon: Caught up with him and his friend Cory; exchanged traveling stories with a few other clients; tasted great wines; and, yes, loaded Fluffy’s trunk with my mini stash!