Grand Rapids mini vacy

Michegan, here we come! We are leaving on Thursday afternoon to drive to Grand Rapids, MI for a business conference. It's a 1100 mile drive, and should take us about 14 hours or so. We'll be driving overnight Thursday to arrive at our hotel Friday before noon. Grand Rapids and Ada, MI are the headquarters and home of our contracting corperation, Amway Global. We will get to tour the main factory in Ada, and shop at the Amway surplus store as well! We're totally stoked that this is the first business trip we've taken as a married couple.

In preperation for the trip, we were debating whether to fly or drive.... airfare to Chicago was around $250 round trip, per person. Which at this point, is out of our price range. Then we decided to rent a car to drive there. We didn't want to drive my car, my 2002 Toyota Celica, because it has 120k miles on it now. However, renting a car would cost $130, plus they pend an extra fee of $200 on your card/account for incidentals. ARRGG!! Soooo, we finally decided to take my car into a shop and have it maintenance checked. Two hours and $45 later, the diagnosis on my car was good. The left rear shocks and strut are wet, my battery cable is corroded, my spark plugs are wearing, and my brake fliud and coolant need a flush. However, nothing is pressing to be done before the trip! So we're clear!

Along with the check up, I realized how filthy my car was.... I hardly have time to clean it, so the trash piles up and it just gets gross. I drove to my parents house to use their shop vac and driveway. I decided to take before and after shots of the car.... what a difference!! It's so clean now!

BEFORE




AFTER




Well now Paqui is all ready for the trip! Now we just have to get ready and pack.