Laurie & I had a spontaneous quest to go see the totality of the eclipse. We threw this trip together in a few hours just a few days before the eclipse. We could have gone to many locations to be in the path of totality. Laurie picked Memphis because she has recently become a big Elvis fan and wanted to visit Graceland. I've never really been into Elvis, but always appreciated his reverence for God & humility with all his fame. So with all the movies & documentaries that Laurie has been watching about Elvis in recent months I've been turning into a late blooming mini fan... sooooo I was all for buying some blue suede shoes and visiting the mansion & museum of the OG American super mega-star. We used our free flight miles (take-off on Allegiant and return home on Southwest), booked 2 hotel rooms, and RESERVED & CONFIRMED a rental car. We were setting out on a 48-hour Spontaneous Adventure to see the totality of the Solar Eclipse and visit Graceland. The forecast wasn't looking too good for the eclipse as we got closer to departure so we picked a few locations in northern Arkansas & southern Missouri where the cloud forecast was better... and all of which were 2-3 hours away from Memphis. The forecast kept changing so we were going to be flexible with a mobile mentality and keep moving based on the day-of forecast. We were dependent on our rental car! I had never rented from Thrifty, but we got the best rate from them and reserved a mid-size car to be picked up at the airport when we landed. Our flight was scheduled to land around the time that all the car rental agencies were scheduled to close so I made a 2nd reservation for the next morning at an Enterprise about a mile from our hotel in case we missed our Thrifty rental. Sure enough we got caught in some bad weather and had to circle the airport for 45 minutes before we could land in Memphis. We had a gameplan... Laurie would get the checked luggage and I would run to the car rental in hopes that someone stayed late at the Thrifty counter. Did I mention that we found out before our flight that there were no more rental cars available at any car rental agency at the airport. But still we were hopeful since we had a reservation. So I took off for the rental car section of the airport which was waaaaay on the other side of the airport. To my surprise there was still an employee working at the desk! I showed her my reservation, and she said, "Sorry, we are out of cars." It wouldn't had mattered if our plane was 4 hours early... they had customers with reservations waiting for several hours and most of them didn't get a car. As Jerry Seinfeld says, "You know how to take the reservation, but you don't know how to hold the reservation." With no cars left at the entire airport we got a cab ride to the hotel 20 minutes away in Olive Branch, MS. Laurie's room was on the 2nd floor and my room was on the 3rd floor. I put all of my clothes in a duffle bag inside the only piece of checked luggage that we brought. It was close to midnight so I took my duffle bag of stuff & went to my room with the plan to get up early and jog about a mile to Enterprise (who we have always successfully received our car rental from). According to their website they opened at 7a and our RESERVATION & MULTIPLE CONFIGURATIONS was set for 7.30a. But just to be on the safe side I was going to arrive at 6.45a before they opened. But I forgot my running shoes in the suitcase that was in Laurie's room. I didn't want to wake her up so I used another pair of shoes not great for jogging and decided to leave earlier and walk instead of jog the mile to Enterprise. It was a crazy busy commerce road with no sidewalks so I walked along the busy traffic and it had rained throughout the night. I got to Enterprise at 6.45a where they had plenty of cars in the parking lot. The sign on the door said they opened at 7.30a (their website said 7a) so I sat outside for 45 minutes. By the time they opened up a small crowd of customers had formed a line behind me. Not a problem since I had a RESERVATION & SEVERAL CONFIRMATIONS on my app, emails, & print-outs. I approached the counter with my reservation & confirmations to only find out that there were NO MORE CARS AVAILABLE!! According to the staff there were 50 other reservations before mine that they had to fulfill before I could get a car!! Well, why give people a reservation & multiple confirmations if that's the case! I would have spent my available time looking for other options instead of putting my time into this ultimately useless "reservation". He said he may have a car for me in the afternoon. Well, if we had any chance of seeing the totality of the eclipse we had to leave our hotel in the next 2.5 hours. Disappointed with Thrifty & Enterprise, but still optimistic and resolved to find a way to see the eclipse I sent a text to Laurie about the situation and called Enterprise while walking back to the hotel. The Customer Service Department told me they were going to find me a car and drop it off at my hotel, but each branch they set up a car reservation with called me to inform me that there were no more cars available. We were running out of time. I was considering an Uber for the long ride there and back, but could we arrange that in less than an hour?? Then I got a text from Laurie!! She reserved a van from Uhaul!!! It was the last van in the area available (but was it really available??? Or was it like the rental car agency???)... we wouldn't know for sure until they opened at 9.30a. So we got an Uber and took off for Uhaul 20 minutes away. To our amazement and joy... upon arrival we saw possibly the only rental vehicle in the region was in fact there, and it was available!!! PTL!!!! Laurie did it!!!!! She thought outside the box and came up with the best idea that saved the entire trip!!! It was going to end up costing about $100 more than a rental car, but who cares, we had a solution literally with no time to spare!!! That van was gross with slime all over the steering wheel, cup holders, & dashboard... it smelled like smoke & wet dog... it was a mess... and yet it was the most excellent vehicle I had ever seen because it was hopefully going to get us to our destination!!!! It was our vehicular salvation!!!! Our Spontaneous Adventure became The Amazing Race to Totality... and by the grace of God and Laurie's BRILLIANT IDEA & INITIATIVE we now had the needed vehicle just in the nick of time to set out for our quest for Totality!!! But would we make it in time??? What was the traffic going to be like??? Could we find a location without thick cloud coverage??? Would the van actually make it 3 hours away without issues??? The answer to all those questions is >>> Wowwww, we did it! We made it to the area of totality for the eclipse just in time!!!! It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!!! We found a remote spot on farmland in Pocahontas, Arkansas with clear blue skies!! We spent the next 3 hours relishing every second of the eclipse... and when Totality happened it was all worth it!! We experienced 4 minutes of Totality and it was absolutely amazing!!! It was worth every ounce of effort and we are so happy we didn't give up!! We went the distance and got to experience a rare gem of a site... I'll never forget! I'd go again in a heartbeat!! We checked out the cool nearby small town, ate at a delicious Mexican restaurant, got ice cream, then hit major traffic jams on the way back to Memphis. It took 3 hours to travel 2 miles! But we made it back to the hotel by midnight. The next day we used that same most excellent Uhaul van to go to Graceland. We had a blast! A few hours later we dropped off the Uhaul and got an Uber to the airport just in time to catch our flight. Traci dropped us off at the airport on Sunday night and Carson picked us up on Tuesday night. It was a jam packed 48 hours of go, go, go... and it was an unforgettable Amazing Race that we won... we stuffed so much into 2 days that it felt more like 2 weeks. Way to gooooo Laurie!!!! You saved the entire trip!!
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