Chicago experience

The blog idea mildly intrigues me so here's my first post, for those who care.

I attended the first two national events at Route 66, back in '98 and '99. For some reason, I never made it back until this year. Going this year was mainly due to Greg Rice's amazing arm-twisting ability. Well, he didn;t have to twist to hard. Our original plan was to meet at O"Hare, get the rental car and come back to pick up Paul Rogers. Paul ended up getting on Greg's flight from Dallas and my flight from Minneapolis was delayed about an hour (should have been my first sign of what was to come for the weekend). So Greg and Paul picked up the rental car and then picked me up at the airport. We were on our way to Joliet! The Three Amigos!

Friday was a long day at the track. We hooked up with Joe (think Eye Candy Man), drank a few beers and enjoyed the racing action. We didn't leave until almost 9:00 (I think) and we got some late dinner at Hooters near the Joliet Mall. We checked in to the La Quinta Inn in Bolingbrook and went to bed. We had a pretty long day and were probably asleep before our heads hit the pillow.

Saturday started out as a beautiful day, but plenty warm, humid, and windy. About 2:00, the clouds began getting darker and it started to sprinkle. We stayed in our seats as the racing was halted and many of the fans scurried for cover. We lasted maybe 5 more minutes when the skies opened up and let us have it. We then bolted for the cover of the grandstands. It wasn't long before the rain was dripping thru the cracks and dry spots were hard to find. It finally stopped and we made our way to the Nitro Mall where it resumed raining. We were all soaked (like "jump into a pool with your clothes on" soaked). We decided the prospects of a return to racing action was looking rather unlikely and that a change to some dry clothes was quite appealing. So we left the track, went to the hotel, changed clothes and went back to visit our girlfriends at Hooters. We get seated in an area where they had the thermostat set on "make them shiver". Because we all still had wet shoes on, the shivering thing worked. It turned out to be quite unpleasant.

Sunday started out nice but just after the first round of Pro eliminations, we watched the skies blacken, eventually dumping more rain and halting festivities for a couple hours. We were able to see 2nd round but then we needed to head for the airport. What a fiasco that whole day was yesterday starting with the rain about 1pm. As we’re driving to the airport at 5:30, I called my house and talked to my daughter. She checked United online to see if my flight status had changed. As of that time, it had not. When I go to the terminal just before 6, my flight had been cancelled. I then stood in line for nearly 3 hours waiting to get a rebooking because the person I talked to on the phone could get me on a 7am flight on TUESDAY! When I said that wasn’t acceptable, she said I needed to speak with an agent in the terminal for which I turned around to about 400 people in that line. My hopes were immediately dashed for getting out Sunday night. I finally get to the ticketing desk at 9:00. They get me on a flight for noon departure today. I asked if they’ll pay for my hotel. She said they can’t because the cancellation was due to weather. That is so bullsh!t because I think they use it as a cop-out so they don’t have to pay for your hotel. They did give an 800 number that you can call for a reduced rate on rooms at local hotels for travelers facing the same situation as me. I get a room at a Quality Inn about 12 miles away. They have a shuttle too. The person who helped me with the reservation says she doesn’t have the info on where the shuttle picks up but gives me the phone # to the hotel. I call and the guy says it’s door 2 at the shuttle center. I set off to find the shuttle center, not anticipating that there are hundreds of people in the same boat as me, waiting for a shuttle. I reach the shuttle area and it’s mass chaos. No organization at all, no queues or lines formed, just a mass of humanity strewn about the sidewalk, everyone waiting for a shuttle to their hotel. Hilton, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Hampton Inn, everything under the sun. When the Quality Inn shuttle finally shows up, there’s a mad dash of about 30 people vying for one of the 11 spots on the shuttle. I wasn’t so lucky so I figure I’ll wait for the next one. When it showed up again, same story. I said “screw it, I’ll take a taxi” and agreed to share a taxi with a guy I had been standing with and he was going to the same place. In the course of our conversation, he said he’d been at the airport for 9 hours, making his way from Austin, TX to Lansing, MI. He could have driven to Lansing in about 3-1/2 hours, just as I could have driven home in about 6-1/2 to 7 from Chicago. We walk over to the taxi stand and get in line. AGAIN! We finally get to the hotel at 10:45. As we’re on the way there, I’m thinking “all those people on the shuttle are going to be in line for a while to check in because there’s probably only one desk clerk”. Fortunately, nobody is in line when we get there and I was able to get a non-smoking room. Now it’s almost 11 and I have not had anything to eat since about 3:00 when I had a pretzel at the track. I figure I’ll call and order a pizza. They all close at 11 so they weren’t taking any more orders. I start up my GPS to see what restaurants or fast food might be within walking distance. There’s something 7/10 of a mile away and I can easily find it. Only trouble is, now it is storming now and heavy rain is falling and I’m not about to walk in it.

I end up just going to bed. The fun didn’t stop this morning when the hotel told me the 9:00 shuttle (runs on the hour) was full but they would send it early to get it back and pick me up at 9:30. The shuttle didn’t come back until 10:00 and by the time we’re on the way to O’Hare, it’s 10:15. I figure I might be screwed because I think the place is going to have massive security lines and I had no idea how far I was going to have to walk to my gate. As it was, security was not too bad, made it thru in about 15 minutes. It’s now almost 11:00. I get to my gate to be greeted by… can you guess? Yep, another line. Only this one is for the 150,000 people (well, really like 200) who are taking their kids to Orlando to see that d@mn mouse. This plane hasn’t even started boarding yet and it was supposed to have left at 10:25. I’m thinking “great, my plane is now going to be late unless they change gates” so I keep walking by the monitors to see if there’s a gate change. Nope. Finally at 11:55, the Orlando plane is gone and my plane arrives. They quickly get us boarded and we back away from the gate about 12:30, only about 25 minutes late. What would this trip be like without one more delay? As we’re en route, the pilot comes on and says we’ll be in a holding pattern for about 20 minutes because Air Force Two is landing at MSP. So, we finally land and arrive at the gate at 2:15, about 45 minutes late.

It’s sure good to be home!