I wanted to rent a car at Avis car rental and drive it from Athens to Miami, returning it at the airport just before catching my flight to Ecuador. What I didn’t know was that one has to pay through the nose if the locations of hire and return of the car fall in different states. Since Athens is in the state of Georgia, and Miami is in the state of Florida, carrying through my initial plan would cost me a whopping 500 USD, even for a small, basic car. This was a definite deal breaker.

The best deal I could get was to drive a low-end car until Gainesville in Florida, and then try my luck at the Avis there. Having no other choice, I decided to take it. I said goodbye to Divya, thanked her for showing me such a good time in Athens and began my long drive south.

The open road

I love to drive in the USA. Here, cars are driven much faster than in India (because the infrastructure allows it), yet one doesn’t get exhausted that quickly. Once you get used to it, driving in the US is quite easy and enjoyable. Moreover, in summer it’s really beautiful outside and one can clock long distances in relatively short times.

Back when I used to work in the USA, I used to have a high-end rental car at my disposal thanks to my employer. All high-end models come equipped with cruise control which allows you to easily set the speed of the car to whatever you like, after which the car automatically maintains the set speed by accelerating or decelerating as needed. This lets you take your mind off the speed and instead focus on just the steering and to some extent appreciate the nature outside. So no wonder I was a BIG fan of cruise control. I used to turn it on even on small roads where the speed limit was just 35 mph (which by the way used to freak out my old colleagues Satya and Chebs).

But right now I was far removed from that world. My current situation of being an unemployed backpacker meant that my car didn’t have any cruise control. Driving it on the freeways was absolute torture. I had to constantly hold the accelerator down with my foot and also constantly monitor the speed. This was simply not what I had in mind when I had decided to rent a car to drive.

Anyway, I managed to reach Gainesville by early evening. Luckily for me, a couchsurfer, who was a student at the university in Gainesville had agreed to host me, so I had a place to stay the night. My host, Sara, and her flatmates were super nice and friendly. Later in the evening, Sara took me out to play pool with some of her friends. Over some random conversation, mac-and-cheese was mentioned. I had no clue what that was, and this surprised everyone else. On the way back, Sara stopped at a local store and bought a pack of mac-and-cheese for me so that I could finally learn about this important bit of American culture.

Sara's home

Kraft Mac-And-Cheese