Summer lovin’ had me a blast
Summer lovin’ happened so fast
I met a girl crazy for me
Met a boy cute as can be
Summer days driftin’ away, to uh-oh those summer nights
Grease – Summer Nights

Anne has been working on this summer’s spreadsheet. This is not the first vacation travel planning spreadsheet that she has made, but it is certainly the most elaborate. She continues to embellish it, as my queries over dinner ascertained. There are still a few holes in the map, but those blank spots where “here there be dragons” are now considerably diminished. There is an old saw in military circles, “amateurs talk tactics, while professionals speak of logistics.” Anne is no amateur, but rather an expert logistician, she has a master’s degree in systems science, and is not too shabby a logician either, just ask her about prime numbers. The only possible additions that she could make to her summer vacation planning spreadsheet would be pivot tables and macros.

The lump in the snake of this summer’s planning process is Anne’s and my big bicycle trip, in Michigan. It starts in New Buffalo, MI, near the intersection of the Indiana state line and Lake Michigan and ends at the Straits of Mackinac. That part of our logistical nightmare is all bicycling and is all on us. To that end, Anne has been making a yeoman’s effort in training for this ride. She rode 26 miles in the Park on Tuesday and 28 miles out to West County on Wednesday. At this rate, she will be reading Michener’s Hawaii, at the top of the next hill, as I struggle to catch-up. The lump has to do with getting to the start of the ride and then getting back from the finish. It is doable with two cars and two drivers, albeit not without a fair bit of driving up and down the great lakes state. Dan is in Saugatuck and could act as a driver, but his car is in LA. Dave could also play a part, if he could ever decide what he is going to do for the summer. The crux of this problem is that we need two cars, and we only have one reliable one.

We could rent a second car; this would be the cheapest solution and possibly alleviate some of this summer’s driving. We could throw money into Anne’s car and make it more road worthy. Or, we could buy a car. One of my co-workers just returned to work, after a week’s vacation on the east coast. He returned in a rental, after leaving in the family mini-van. It broke down on the way back and now he has to retrieve it. This is something that I would like to avoid this summer. To this end, Anne and I have been talking about buying a car.

Talk started out with buying Dave a car, just like we bought one for Dan, but we kind of lucked into buying that used car and I don’t see a repeat of that luck just now. If we do buy another new car, Anne wants to buy a Prius, while I would be satisfied with another Corolla. I could give my old Corolla to Dave. Does anyone have a used car they want to sell?  Preferably automatic and low MPG.

There is about an $8K+ surcharge for the Prius over the Corolla, but that could be recouped if gas prices continue to rise. If gas tops $5/gallon, it would repay itself in three years. $10+/gallon returns the investment in about a year. Complicating this equation is the 2012 Prius. It offers plug-in recharging and a limited all-electric range of about 16 miles and then there are the all-electric vehicles, like the Nissan Leaf. Anne could easily commute back and forth, gas-free, with the 2012 Prius and I could make to work and with a charge, back home again. Summer travel would be done by planes, trains and rental cars. We would be just so stinking green then. Maybe, we really do need macros and pivot tables.