What-Outlaw1234
u/What-Outlaw1234
Yes, but it's very likely the ice pack will melt on a flight to Europe. Once it melts, it will keep it cooler than room temperature but not refrigerator cold. You can try to get the flight attendants to refrigerate it for you, but that's risky. It could freeze, be jostled too much, be forgotten, etc.
I wanted to add this to my other comment. The University of Alabama is known for its robust merit scholarships for out-of-state students. Here's a list of those scholarships and the numbers you have to have to qualify: https://afford.ua.edu/scholarships/out-of-state-freshman/. No full rides on that list, and Alabama really is one of the most generous schools out there, if not the most generous.
Ask him which schools he's interested in and start doing the net price calculators for those schools and your in-state schools. Every school has a link to its net price calculator somewhere on its website, usually the financial aid or admissions page. Some of the calculators include estimated merit aid; others don't. They'll either tell you in the instructions, or it will become apparent when the calculator asks for test scores and gpa information.
Just going by the information you've provided, his best shot for substantial aid, especially aid approaching a "full ride," is going to come from your second-tier in-state schools. You aren't going to get much in the way of need-based aid at that income level except from the very best schools which his test scores and gpa aren't high enough to get into. To get much in the form of merit aid from top-tier state (flagship) schools, you're going to need to get that ACT composite or superscore (some schools take composite; others take superscore) up to at least 33/34. You might get a discount at those sorts of schools with his current test score, but it's unlikely he'd qualify for a full ride or close to it.
I wouldn't normally recommend that tourists drive into DC, but given the size of your group, your limited budget, and your desire to eat and drink out of a cooler (which you cannot, and should not attempt to, drag around DC), you should stay outside the city, drive in, and just pay to park in a centrally-located garage or try to snag one of the paid or free spaces managed by the National Park Service, e.g., at Hains Point in East Potomac Park. You have to get an early start to snag those spaces, though, so have a Plan B.
The impact of the 60s counter-culture movement is not over-stated (proof: divorce rates today versus 1950s, women in the workforce today versus 1950s, recreational drug use today versus 1950s, gay marriage!!! -- all of these things are a result of that movement). But it's also true that there was a Silent Majority that never fully subscribed to the values of that movement. And of course Boomers got more conservative as they aged; most people do. (To explain our political situation today, also take a look at the non-frivolous theory regarding the impact of lead poisoning from leaded gasoline on the Baby Boomer Generation and Generation X, because it's very interesting). That said, not everthing is the fault of Boomers. We've entered a new age of human development (the Technological/Digital/Information Age) that has disrupted life in unforeseen (and still unforeseeable) ways.
Consider your present living situation. Is your house suitable to accommodate a person with your likely disabilities? Are there stairs to enter and leave the home? Do you have a bedroom, full bathroom (with ADA-approved handrails, shower, toilet, etc.), kitchen, and laundry facilities on one floor? If not, start making concrete plans to move or renovate your home over time. The worst way to do it is to wait until a catastrophe happens (e.g., a fall) and then have to move quickly.
