Travel math

and now we begin the dance….

This is the part of the home exchange that I don’t do so well with. I like to have all the details worked out up front and have everyone on board and briefed on the particulars. We have most of the things worked out regarding moving from one location to another, but it’s the small things that bother me usually. Who has keys to our car and where are we leaving the keys to this car? How are we going to get the location of our car from the Norwegians to the Dutch? How do I get some U.S. currency to the Dutch to get the car out of the parking garage…..and on and on. I’m also ALWAYS the one who calculates the “When do we have to leave for the airport?” time. Let me see if I can show this in math form so you can appreciate my role here.

Leave the house time = Distance in miles divided by 1.5 considering traffic, tunnels, ferries, and the ever present “Oh shit! I left my _____ behind, we have to go back!” I don’t even have the metric version of this rule worked out.

Once you have this value you need to factor in the time of day you are leaving. If this is a morning flight, add 45 minutes for waking up, getting some coffee, shuffling around the house in a daze. For an afternoon or evening flight, add 44 minutes.

I always use the 2 hour airport rule in addition to the above calculation because it gives me the buffer zone I need for errors in my calculation. So lets review. For a 9:00 a.m. flight we have the 2 hour airport rule, the 45 minutes for the 30 mile drive, 45 minutes for the time of day rule and voila! I set the time for departure at 5:30 a.m. knowing full well that we will actually depart at 8:00 a.m. and people will be crying, laws will be broken, and marriages will be strained. Since I am typing about this an entire week ahead, you can imagine my state of mind.