Metromile: The Insurance Company That Fits Your Driving Style

In this world of high-priced everything, it can be hard to find ways to save for that awesome trip you want to take. Metromile wants to help you by giving you comprehensive pay-as-you-drive insurance. Instead of paying hundreds of dollars a month to insure a car you may not drive everyday, or one you only drive to and from work, why not pay only for the miles you actually drive? I work from home and probably drive 300 miles a month on average, because I only make trips to the grocery store, the hair salon and the movies. Of course, if we go out of town, we take my car, but that is only a few times a year. 

Metromile starts you off with a base rate that can be as low as $30 per month and then your cost per mile depends on your driving record, car, age and the things you want your policy to include. Add those together and your car insurance can save you big over your current policy. If you drive less one month, you save more than months you drive more. Pretty awesome right? That money you're saving can go into your vacation fun.

So, how does this effect you when you go on a road trip? It's not necessary to leave your vehicle at home and rent a car to save money anymore. There is no charge after 150 miles per day (or 250 miles per day if you live in Washington State), so you may be spending less on gas and insurance than paying for a rental. When I got a free quote, I did the math and 150 miles came to less than $9 per day (everyone's cost per mile will be different, but all should be pretty reasonable). Can you imagine going on a long distance trip and still paying less on insurance than you do with your traditional policy? Even budget travelers can stay on track. Those months you drive less can help pay for the times you drive long distances.

You're probably thinking that Metromile cuts corners somewhere to bring you such affordable service, but they don't. You can call them 24/7 and keep track of your mileage and more with their app that is available on both Apple and Android devices. Metromile sends you the fancy little Metromile Pulse that you plug into your car and simply calculates and transmits your miles to them. Unlike other insurance companies, they don't keep track of how you drive, because you only pay for how much you drive. They treat you like the responsible drive you are.

The Pulse works with your app to help you be a better and more responsible driver and car owner. Are you in a street sweeping zone? The app will alert you! Does your car need a check-up? The app will alert you! When do you need to stop to get gas to get the most from your tank? The app will tell you! Forgot where you parked your car? The app will direct you!

The only bummer to Metromile is that it isn't available everywhere yet, but they are growing and rolling out nationwide as quickly as possible. At present, if you live in California, Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia or Washington, you can sign up right away. If you don't, you can put your email on a waiting list to be notified when you can sign up. Sounds pretty good, right? What if I also told you that you can win a fancy little swag bag from Metromile? Enter to win below and the go get a quote to see how much Metromile could save you!

Your Metromile swag bag includes this sweet t-shirt and sunglasses, plus: a reusable shopping bag, notebook with pen, mousepad, phone charger for your car, tire gauge, air freshener, a travel tumbler for hot or cold beverages and a $50 gas card! That'll get you started on that road trip you've been planning.

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Disclaimer: This post was brought to you by Metromile, but all opinions are 100% my own, Metromile comes highly recommended and, as always, I never blog about companies whose products/services I don't stand behind.

I Ate and Drank My Way Around the World in One Day

Usually, when people take a trip, they do it at a leisurely pace. I love trying new foods when I go anywhere, as you well know by now, so the opportunity to eat foods from all over the world in one place is always appealing to me. Last month we hit up Epcot's Food and Wine Festival to taste some of the world's dishes. This is our third time to visit the festival, as it brings together all my favorite things: weird food, food carts and small bites. 

I was super excited that Scotland had been added to the festival this year, as well as Patagonia and a few other places. Unfortunately, there were a lot of foods I could get at home, so I had a short list of what I had to try. The great thing about Epcot is that it's mostly for adults and has few rides. In fact, World Showcase now has only one and it's a boat ride like Small World. Eventually, Norway will have a ride that is Frozen themed to replace Maelstrom (another boat ride). It is really about bringing the best of countries to people and helping them learn what each destination is all about through shops, reproduction landmarks, food and entertainment. Even so, we have been there at least six times and still haven't seen everything. Being there on a Saturday when everyone else was trying to eat and drink themselves stupid really gave us a chance to explore.

Each country represented at World Showcase has it's own kiosk with foods from that destination. In between you'll find carts serving dishes from other countries of the world. Each one has entrees, desserts and drinks (basically alcoholic options that come from that region). 

Let's look at where we ate, shall we:

Africa

Berbere-style beef tenderloin tips with onions, jalapeños, tomato and pap 

Buttered chicken with micro cilantro and naan bread

Frozen Brown Elephant

I wasn't enamored by either of these, but Eric was hungry and these were his choices at the time. The best part of the beef was the pap and the best part of the chicken was the naan. I chose the drink as something that sounded interesting. It was a Coke slushie with Amarula, a liqueur like kahlua. It was not an $8 beverage, but it was refreshing and was interesting tasting. Kinda chocolatey.

Belgium

Potato and leek waffle with beer-braised beef and smoked gouda cream

We had to wait a bit for them to get more potatoes to make these waffles, but man was it worth it! I'm hoping my box of souvenirs comes soon, so I can see if the recipe is included in the Epcot cookbook. I'd be willing to buy a waffle iron just for this. I'm almost sad that we only got one to split.

Craft Beers

Funky Buddha Vanilla Espresso Porter, bottled in Oakland Park, FL

I'm not generally a big beer drinker, but I was waiting around and the name of this one jumped out at me, so I figured I was destined to try it. This was a thicker beer like Guinness with a delicious chocolate scent and I loved it. I may have indulged in a flight of beers that included this one, but we were right on the heels of dinner reservations, so I just stuck to the one.

Dominican Republic

Soufflé de yuca: Yuca soufflé topped with griddled cheese

This was on my must-eat list and I'm glad it was, because it was delicious. I'm not sure what I thought yuca would taste like, but it wasn't this pleasant mashed texture that was a little sweet and somewhat bland. I could see this being a staple in my house if I lived anywhere it was available. The grilled cheese on top was definitely different, but added a fantastic element and another layer of taste.

Mexico

Pastel de elote con queso: sweet corn cheesecake

I think I wasn't sure what this would taste like at all, but I saw corn cheesecake and was all over trying it. I think I was expecting a sweet cornbread, but what I got was an awesome creamy dessert that was sweet, but not too sweet. It was a great afternoon treat and I was glad we ordered two so I didn't have to share.

Refreshment Port

Pineapple Dole Whip soft-serve ice cream

You can't take a trip to Disney and leave without having Dole Whip. It sweet and cold and basically the best thing ever. You can only get it a few places in the world: Disney, the Dole Plantation in Hawaii and maybe your local FroYo shop.

Scotland

Haggis with neeps and tatties: Traditional Haggis with rutabaga and mashed potatoes 

Seared sea scallop with spinach-cheddar gratin and crispy bacon

I have been wanting to try haggis for a long time now. Unfortunately, I am not willing for my first taste to be from a can and I can't particularly afford a trip to Scotland right now. Having never seen it before, in my mind I figured it would be stringy and possibly chewy with some sort of weird tripe flavor. Well, I had to try it once just to say I had. I didn't expect it to be super tasty, but it totally was. Also, I think mashed rutabaga (turnips) needs to be in my repertoire now, because yum.

I had some of the spinach gratin on Eric's dish, which I thought was fab. He said his least favorite part of it was the actual scallop. So, I guess we know now that Scotland knows how to make red meat and veggies really well.

I didn't actually have the following things, but some nice people we shared our table with let me take pics of them and told me they enjoyed them.

Brazil

Escondidinho de carne, “Little Hidden One”: layered meat pie with mashed yucca

Beer flight: Hoegaarden®, Palm Amber Ale, Leffe® Blonde and Stella Artois® Cidre

I didn't actually make it to everything I had hoped, as I wanted to try mead and Hungarian wine, but there's only so much time and so much you can eat and drink. We were able to take advantage of the Festival Chase Lounge that was only available to Chase credit card holders. This was found on the top floor of the American Adventure Pavilion (of which we still have yet to watch the show) and featured free drinks, some comfy places to sit, the chance to try out some of the newest Disney Infinity video games, outlets to charge your phone and a selfie booth to remember the fun you had at Epcot. If you were a Disney Chase card holder, you had the option to get some extra freebies and book exclusive experiences. Shockingly, they were happy to sign you up for one on the spot.

Here are some tips on how to do the festival better: 

• Look at the menus ahead of time to see what's on offer and pick your "must try" dishes and drinks. That way you can make sure to hit those kiosks above all else.
• Avoid the weekends. We were there on Saturday and the lines were crazy long. Of course, we didn't have to wait long for rides and other attractions.
• If your only option is the weekend, go as soon as the open and get in line the second they let you into World Showcase. We did this on Monday and were the first ones at a few of the kiosks and only had to wait for the food to be put together.
• Even if you can go on a weekday, get there as soon as World Showcase opens (which is usually 1-2 hours after Future World opens.
• Go hungry. We had a light breakfast so we would be starting fresh when we hit the food. Bites may be smallish, but several can make a meal and can fill you up.
• Be nice and share your table if you have free chairs. Tables fill up quickly and trying to balance food and drink and eat while standing up is not fun. We offered to share our table with people and they were immensely grateful, plus you meet new people. On the other hand, people are nice, so are probably into sharing their table with you if you ask.

That Time I Fed Alligators and Then Ate One

I'm just back from Florida and this trip was definitely one of adventurous eating (for some). I tried at least two things I've wanted to taste for a long time and others I never knew I did. Guess what? I was pleasantly surprised by all of them! So, this trip to Florida, I finally made it to Gatorland. We had a free half day available to us and a 2-day GoCard, so there was no stopping us this time. What is Gatorland, you ask? Obviously, the name says it all. It's a whole land of alligators. 

Gatorland is available in the middle of gator country to educate people on these amazing creatures. Yes, they're kind of scary looking with their snapping jaws and scaly skin, but they are also beautiful, beneficial and intelligent. Usually, when I go to a zoo or a place that has animals in captivity, I can find something to nitpick about how they are being housed, but Gatorland provides huge water enclosures for the alligators that are full grown and need room to swim and live. It feels like a giant lake with little islands for them to sun themselves and nooks and crannies for them to hide and get some privacy. The baby gators are kept in smaller pools to allow them to flourish and enjoy the companionship of their fellow tiny gators until they are big enough to join the larger ones in the big enclosure. 

There are a few gators that get their own enclosures: Big Daddy doesn't get along well with anyone, so he has a smaller section for himself with a pool and room to enjoy his privacy. They also have four white gators - the largest group anywhere - that each have their own pens, because they can't survive in direct sunlight. One is albino, which we found out is a fairly common in the animal world and the other three are Leucistic, which is a rare genetic mutation. Only 12 Leucistic gators are known in the world, and three of them are right there in Gatorland. You can tell the difference between them and the albino gator, because they have some off-white patches as well and their eyes are blue instead of the albino pink. You'll probably never see something so rare and awesome elsewhere.

Want to see some gators in action? There are two shows you'll want to check out then. The Gator Wrestling show is not terrible and cruel as the name implies. You learn that gators are 90% muscle (and having touched one, I can tell you that you can definitely feel the power in that body). It looks like the trainer is sitting on the gator, though he's really only keeping himself behind the head and situated between the front and back legs, so he can get away if needed and can keep those teeth from biting off his arm (or face). He's not putting his full weight on that lovely creature, though he can manipulate the head if the gator is willing to cooperate. And the gator is the one in control there. 

The Gator Jumparoo show is funny, entertaining and educational as well. Did you know that an alligator can jump 6 feet in the air? No? Well, now you do. They can't jump quite as high from the water's surface, but their tail is so powerful that it can propel them quite a way out of the lake to grab food. Now, you can tell that all the gators are well taken care of and aren't malnurished, so any of the gators that participate in the show do so of their own accord. Once the crowd starts to gather, you can see as a few break from their groups or from just aimless floating to come get in on the action. Gators are quick and very precise and I saw one get at least four feet out of the water to snag a chicken on a line. Others were happy to wait for a piece of meat to be thrown to them and others still looked on as if they weren't really into it. 

If you want to try your hand at feeding gators, you can do so, but from a safe distance behind a fence. Purchase a pack of hot dogs from the park and you can feed any gator that you choose, with the exception of the white gators and Big Daddy. Our GoCard came with a coupon for a free hot dog each and we used ours to feed the babies. Obviously, they were well fed, because they weren't really jumping at the chance at some free food. If it was thrown right in front of them, they would snap it up, but otherwise the crazy mooching birds would swoop down and grab it first.

Gatorland is not all about alligators, even though the name implies that it is. There's a train you can ride (though don't buy an unlimited ride bracelet, because it's very short and not worth it) to learn more about the park and the animals that live there. You'll see deer and maybe some other critters that roam free on the land. Then when you wander through the rest of the park, see snakes, a blonde(!) raccoon, tropical birds, a Nile crocodile and more.  It can get really hot outside in Florida and they take advantage of that and have a splash area for the kids. Bring their suits, so they can jump around and cool off. There are changing rooms available.

You do NOT want to miss a trip to the snack bar, because you can get some yummy bites, including Gator nuggets. When else would I get a chance to try these on my travels? Probably eventually, but I planned on getting some on this visit, so we ordered those and some nachos. You know, in case they were horrible. It's hard to describe the taste of gator, but we agreed that it was somewhat like chicken mixed with an overcooked pork chop. It sounds gross and might be an acquired taste, but I liked it. My thought is that if a "theme park" can get it right, think of how good it would be made by an actual chef. It's definitely something to try at least the once.

If you aren't going in with a GoCard, make sure to download a coupon from the Gatorland website for your admission. And don't breeze through the gift shop either, as it's one of the largest I've seen and has so much to check out. Lots of gator stuff, including ornaments (I had to take one of those home) and gator snack sticks that are like a Slim Jim. You'll also find art, jewelry and locally made foods.

Disclaimer: I was not compensated by Smart Destinations for this post, I just genuinely love how GoCard can save you money on your travels. I also saved more by using Groupon to purchase my cards for this trip.