Updating

First, thanks for all the good wishes - much appreciated.

Second, it looks as though Marcia's mother will have an operation to set her collarbone today, and will move to some sort of rehab facility after initial recuperation. So our flight plans are currently on hold until we can get an idea of the timescales involved.

On the plus side, Marcia's younger son Kelly and his wife Amanda are scheduled to be in Oak Ridge on August 8th, staying for about a week.

On the minus, Marcia's sister Laura has a broken arm - this happened about a month ago. She's still in a sling, so can't do as much as she'd like to.

Current guesswork suggests that Marcia will be in Oak Ridge to overlap with Kelly and Amanda and will stay 2-3 weeks, and I'm probably staying in the UK. She thinks she's going out there much sooner than that. We shall see who's right.

Updating

First, thanks for all the good wishes - much appreciated.

Second, it looks as though Marcia's mother will have an operation to set her collarbone today, and will move to some sort of rehab facility after initial recuperation. So our flight plans are currently on hold until we can get an idea of the timescales involved.

On the plus side, Marcia's younger son Kelly and his wife Amanda are scheduled to be in Oak Ridge on August 8th, staying for about a week.

On the minus, Marcia's sister Laura has a broken arm - this happened about a month ago. She's still in a sling, so can't do as much as she'd like to.

Current guesswork suggests that Marcia will be in Oak Ridge to overlap with Kelly and Amanda and will stay 2-3 weeks, and I'm probably staying in the UK. She thinks she's going out there much sooner than that. We shall see who's right.

The Free Market In Action

So, for obvious reasons, I was looking at car rental options at Knoxville Airport in the near future. NexTag suggested that Alamo would be cheapest, so I looked at www.alamo.com.

If I live in the USA, I have a choice of 10 car classes; if I live in the UK, I only get six.

As a USAn, the cost of a compact car for 2 weeks is $310.18; as a Brit, it costs $566.00 for the same period.

Bah, I thought, and flipped to the next page. Add in CDW, EP and return fuel to the USA price, and the total cost shoots up to $964.48 with all taxes. With the UK price, all I have to add is the return fuel - CDW and EP are included - and the total cost is $607.82

As our transatlantic cousins say, go figure...

The Free Market In Action

So, for obvious reasons, I was looking at car rental options at Knoxville Airport in the near future. NexTag suggested that Alamo would be cheapest, so I looked at www.alamo.com.

If I live in the USA, I have a choice of 10 car classes; if I live in the UK, I only get six.

As a USAn, the cost of a compact car for 2 weeks is $310.18; as a Brit, it costs $566.00 for the same period.

Bah, I thought, and flipped to the next page. Add in CDW, EP and return fuel to the USA price, and the total cost shoots up to $964.48 with all taxes. With the UK price, all I have to add is the return fuel - CDW and EP are included - and the total cost is $607.82

As our transatlantic cousins say, go figure...