Colin W Kingsbury wrote:
Your CFI can sign you off for unsupervised solo in the local area- up to
25NM radius of your home field, to the locations and under Wx conditions as
specified in the logbook endorsement. So you drive out to your home field,
fly to his base 18NM away, fly together, and then you go back home. You keep
your plane where you prefer and your CFI doesn't have to drive anywhere just
for you.

Guys, am I missing something here?

No, you are correct. But maybe the CFI feels uncomfortable about signing him
off to do that for whatever reason.