htaccess Multiple URL Variable clean URL - php

Question

Ok i've tried multiple versions of code on my .htaccess file and I still can't get it to work properly... I don't know if I'm putting it in the wrong folder or what is going on but, here is what I'm trying to accomplish.
This is my code
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /rentals/
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php\?zipcode=([^\s&]+)&location=([a-z0-9]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1/%2/ [R=301,L,NE]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([a-z0-9]+)/?$ index.php?zipcode=$1&location=$2 [L,QSA,NC]
Here is another version that I've tried
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /rentals/
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}\s/+index\.php\?zipcode=([a-z0-9]+)&location=([a-z0-9]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1/%2/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([a-z0-9]+)/([a-z0-9]+)/?$ /index.php?zipcode=$1&location=$2 [QSA,L,NC]
Here is what I'm trying to accomplish... a URL that looks like this:
example.com/rentals/32746/florida
The "32746" and the "florida" come from a form on the index page of the site and then it gets passed over to the "rentals" folder through the URL.
The .htaccess code sorta works whereas it spits out a URL like this:
http://www.example.com/rentals/12345/arkansas?zipcode=12345&location=arkansas
But do you see the extra on the tail end? It's as if it's duplicating the results in the URL.
I currently have the .htaccess file in my "rentals" folder should it be in the root folder?
UPDATED VERSION
For those who were running into the same problem as myself... here is the actual code I ended up going with:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /rentals/
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /index\.php\?zipcode=([^\s&]+)&location=([a-z0-9]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1/%2/? [R=301,L,NE]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?zipcode=$1&location=$2 [L,QSA,NC]

Answer 1

You need to add a ? to the end of the target path in your first Rule :
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /rentals/
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,}\s/+index\.php\?zipcode=([a-z0-9]+)&location=([a-z0-9]+) [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %1/%2/? [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([a-z0-9]+)/([a-z0-9]+)/?$ /index.php?zipcode=$1&location=$2 [QSA,L,NC]
As it descards the orignal query strings from the destination.
Clear your browser's cache before testing this.