At EWR

I've made it back to the U.S.!  As usual, Newark was an awesome customs experience-- all of 20 minutes or so to get through and the only reason it took another 20 to get here was I had to change terminals.  I'm at my gate with about 45 minutes to spare before my flight to Richmond starts boarding.

I was going to take a rental car from Richmond to Williamsburg.  I've known the Williamsburg Enterprise Rent-A-Car branch to return cars to the Richmond airport, so I assumed a one-way rental would work.  Upon calling them late last night, I found out that one-way rentals have to be done with a major credit card.  No debit cards and no cash.

Okay I've actually loved Enterprise to death for a while, but this is the second time some ridiculous payment issue has kept me from using them.  Last time was when I wanted to use those Visa/AmEx (can't remember which it was) debit cards, accepted "everywhere Visa/AmEx are accepted," EXCEPT everywhere I would like to use them, apparently.  I couldn't use them at Enterprise, and I couldn't use them to buy a money order (which I could have used at Enterprise).  Anyway, I understand that they want to cover all their bases when someone's doing a one-way rental, but seriously.  When the online chat person can call up my last reservation just from having my first and last name, I feel like I'm a regular enough customer that I'm allowed to be P.O.'d about this kind of crap.

Anyway, the train will provide me with good one-way transportation, and Amtrak DOES consider a debit card (or cash, if I wanted to use cash) an acceptable form of payment.  In their defense, most other rental car companies have similar policies, and one of them would have cost three times as much as Enterprise would have, so I guess Enterprise is still the best.  But still, kinda annoyed at them at the moment.

The important thing is that I have been re-patriated, and I've made it to my gate in plenty of time for my connection.  I doubt I'll make another blog post at Richmond-- I'll need to get in a cab and head for the train station pretty soon after I get my bags.  My next post, I hope, will be from the comfort of my room at the Wesley House.

Thanks again for reading; it's been an absolute blast!
-A