Diary of a Wedding Guest: Part 15 - The Return

Well, our story has finally come to an end with this post. On Sunday, we returned home from the wedding in Detroit. While there was not really anything abnormal about our return trip, there were a couple of highlights that were worth mentioning.

We began the day by having breakfast with one of Lori's friends and former college roomates, Aileen. Aileen lives in Ann Arbor which is a short drive from where we were staying. We had breakfast with her family at a Big Boy Restaurant and really enjoyed meeting their two adopted boys. On our way to breakfast, however, had a slight delay because we DID NOT follow the GPS. As you know from previous posts, we could only make a right turn out of the hotel. The GPS then instructed us to make a U-turn so that we could get on the interstate. Instead of making a U-turn, I chose to make a left at the next stoplight and see if I could find a better route to where we needed to be. Unfortunately, we had no luck in doing so and my left turn turned into a seven-mile U-turn, forcing us to go much further past the interstate and make a second U-turn to get back where we needed to be. We arrived a couple of mintues late, but I don't think anyone really cared. The Big Boy Restaurant had a Sunday breakfast buffet which was very good. We spent a hour or so catching up (it was the first time Lori had seen Aileen since college).

After breakfast, Lori and decided to see at least one lighthouse before heading home. There were a couple of other lighthouses on the Detroit River that seemed to be close to each other, so we headed that direction and hoped to have success at one of them. We actually had success at finding three lighthouses.

The first one was the furthest out. It was at the mouth of the Detroit River and is known as Windmill Point. I do not know the history of the lighthouse's name as there was no plaque telling anything about the lighthouse. It sits on a small fishing pier on the west side of the river in a little park. It is not one that the average person would know about or even how to find (although it was fairly simple to find). We had to pass through some very poor neighborhoods that we might not have driven through at night, but it was actually a nice drive and the people at the park seemed friendly enough. (A lot of lighthouses are in poor areas because they were guide for shipping and industry. Industry naturally seems to bring down the areas immediate surrounding them.)

(Photo coming soon.)

After a quick visit to the Windmill Point Lighthouse, we drove back the way we came and head to Besse Isle. Besse Isle is a city park and home to the William Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse. Traffic on the island travels one direction in a counterclockwise motion. The lighthouse is on the north end of Besse Isle. The William Livingstone Memorial lighthouse has an interesting architecture to it. It is a square stone tower that bears a striking resemblance to gothic architecture. Unusual for a lighthouse. Like Windmill Point, the lighthouse had no information describing the history of it or its naming. It sits back from the parking area giving us a bit of a walk. All told, we probably walked about 3/4 total.

(Photo coming soon)

The last lighthouse we "discovered" was one that Lori had seen from the street as we were driving to the first lighthouse. We decided to stop and see it before we left town. It was not a lighthouse listed in any of the lighthouse websites I had looked at the night before. I would, in fact, later discover that it was not an actual lighthouse, but rather a replica of a lighthouse that sits at Tawas Point. I do not know if the lighthouse was operational as an aid to navigation or not. It is located in the Tri-Centenial marina on the west side of the Detroit River.

After seeing the three lighthouses, we headed for home. It was just after 1:00 pm and we had to have the car back by 6:00 pm. Luckily, Detroit is only about 4 1/2 hours from Pittsburgh, so we had plenty of time. Or so we thought...

As we got back on the interstate, we came across a closure because of construction. (Yes, the closed the whole interstate for construction. Closing a couple of lanes apparently was not sufficient. The detour took us several miles out of the way, taking us almost back to the area of our hotel. About halfway through the detour, I decided that it was taking us too far out of the way and chose to find my own route. Bad move? Not when you have a Garmin GPS!

Actually, the Garmin re-routed us very proficiently and we ended up only losing about a half and hour. That would put us arriving back in Pittsburgh at 6:00 pm, just as the car was to be returned. The problem was that we would have to stop for gas at least once and we still had to unload the car before returning it. The race was on! I hit the gas with lead in my foot.

There were not really any other stumbling blocks and the trip was essentially uneventful. We arrived back at Lori's parents house at 5:40 pm. The rental car return was at least 20 minutes away. I quickly unloaded the car, made a potty break and was on my way. Now the only obstacle was that I had to top off the gas tank before returning the car. I hit the gas with even more lead in my foot!

As I am driving to the airport, I remembered something Lori had told me when we picked up the car on Friday. Our main route to the airport, as in the shortest and fastest route, was closed because of construction. The detour took me at least 10 minutes out of the way. I hit the gas with still more lead in my foot!

You see, Dollar Rent-A-Car, does not have a leeway policy on their returns. If you are a minute late, you are charged for the next hour. In our case, that extra hour exceeded the current 24 hour period and threw us into the next 24 hour period. Same taxes on rental cars are figured on the number of days the car is rented meaning we would be slapped with taxes equally as much as the rate for the additional hour.

I arrived at 6:06 pm.

As I got out of the car, the return attendant walked up and scanned the car for return. I think I said something like "Please, tell me I'm not late." The girl asked when the car was due and then looked at her watch. She told me not to worry, she would take care of it. She said that Dollar used to have a leeway on returns, but had recently changed it's policy in attempt to boost revenue without actually raising the price of the rental. Dollar claims to be less expensive and on the surface they are, but when you factor in the additional charges for extra drivers and no leeway on the time of return, Dollar simply isn't any cheaper than any other rental company. I thanked the girl for taking care of the extra hour and because of her actions, I will consider renting from Dollar again.

And that is the end of our not so short story. Congratulations to our friend Ashley and her new husband E.J.! May your marriage be the most wonderful blessing you have.