Enterprise Rent-A-Car: The Cpmpany That Picks You Up. Unless You're Stuck on the Side of the Highway - Part 1

Part 1: The Ford Flex - Probably the Coolest Car I'll Ever Drive

As our tour of the East Coast nears its completion, we left Silver Spring today on the way back to New Jersey, where we'll spend the next couple of days before returning home on Wednesday. I note that we left Silver Spring headed towards NJ, but didn't mention how long it took us, because we had a slight mishap on the way with our rental car.
First a few words about our rental. When we arrived at JFK, I happened to call Avis to find out how to get there, and casually asked them to confirm our rental. They had never heard of us. And the price that they quoted on the web was now a great, great deal more expensive. And we needed a minivan to accommodate our large family. We decided to split up. My in-laws, who met us at the airport, took Rena and some of the kids, and I decided to rent a car to at least get us out of the airport, after which we'd figure out what to do from their house.
When I got to Enterprise, I happened to ask whether they had any minivans available. They did not, but they mentioned that they had an SUV. Would that be allright? Sure, why not. The lady let me choose, and I chose a really cool-looking Ford Flex. It's a rather cool car, and it had all the trimmings: leather seats, GPS, power everything, dual zone climate control, and a stereo that sounds better than anything I own at home. It was a great introduction to gashmiyut of the United States. The kids liked it so much that they'd ask me to turn on the map so that they could watch it as we drove, like a video. Petachya started calling the car our "GPS". I think he meant SUV, but what's the difference?
The car had all kinds of buttons, so at one point I told them that it was such a special car, that it had a special rocket button. They didn't believe me, so I told them to count to three, at which point I pushed one of the buttons on the console and floored it, which impressed them to no end. They continually asked me to push the rocket button again. I declined.
The car kept surprising us. This morning we finally decided to see if it was serious about DVDs. The kids had seen one of its many screens that it had a DVD function. Would it really play movies? Indeed, it would, even while driving. (That seems rather dangerous to me, actually.) Thankfully, that function would come in quite handy later on in the day. I wish we hadn't needed it.

To be continued...