Sitting in the Baltimore airport (BWI) watching all the people and planes and waiting for my newly confirmed flight. However, to properly tell this story, I feel I need to back up a bit. Maybe about 4 days...
This is going to be a bit long!
I left home a little later than I anticipated on Thursday. My oldest daughter was taking me to the airport in Atlanta and my flight was for 12:30. For some reason, we ended up behind and left home around 11:15 meaning I walked quite quickly through baggage check-in, security, and on to my gate. I typically arrive early enough to at least be able to walk at a leisurely pace and not have to insist on taking the underground transportation!
Anyway, all was well and I made it in time to wait in line for my seating zone to be called. Got my bag in the overhead compartment and sat down in my middle seat. Thankfully, no one was in the aisle seat so we had some breathing room. It was a very uneventful 2 hour flight which actually landed a bit early. I walked off my plane and almost immediately saw my convention buddy Sara R. so we walked to baggage claim together.
There was a shuttle to Hertz so we all jumped on there (We had also found Dennis by this point who was working with us as well.) and headed to get the rental. Everything was good - the rental was a Rogue which barely fit the 3 of us with our luggage and computers, etc. but it worked. Now to get on to the highway.
I was a bit nervous as Dennis was the driver for this trip and leaving the rental area he was quite literally driving down the middle of 2 lanes. I have no idea why. I just hoped he was a better driver than I was imagining at that particular point in time. LOL Getting out of the rental area and onto the hwy where we belonged seemed to be a challenge. The GPS couldn't get a signal (but we thank God Dennis thought to bring it) and the instructions weren't totally clear from Hertz on what turn was taking us where. First thing off the bat we made a left when we should have made a right. We circled around, follow by now the GPS. I will tell you that a GPS saying to "stay left and keep to the right lane" was something we heard often but it tended to be confusing.
We did get things figured out, stopped by Dennis' sister's home and met her briefly and then on to Frederick, MD for our convention. The drive takes about an hour. The hotel was simple enough to find. There were places to eat all around. We were doing great! We go to check in... Sarah checked in first and got her room assignment on the first floor. I was next - second floor and no elevator. Are you serious? Apparently so. Oh, and I was on the total opposite end of the building. Dennis checked in - just down the way from Sarah. Very nice. LOL I asked about a change but due to a doggie convention in town, (dog show) they couldn't make a change. Everything was totally booked. No problem. I can handle this!
We had the rest of the afternoon/evening free so we took a nice scenic drive through Historic Frederick. It was beautiful and I hope to have my photos loaded to share soon. The weather was nice and we rode with windows down to feel the breeze and take pictures. We won't continue to expound on the driving at this point. I'm not sure I could have done better considering I didn't have a clue where we were heading, how narrow the streets were with parking on both sides and many of them one way. The architecture was gorgeous though and Sarah and I LOVED getting a little bit of a tour.
At some point (I can't recall now before or after driving around) we stopped at Target for a few items needed and then on to eat dinner at Golden Corral. Dennis had a business call to attend to so Sarah and I met in the lobby of the hotel and played Phase 10 for a while. It was a lot of fun to have time to relax and play for a bit.
Friday morning - up, breakfast and head to the fairgrounds to set up our booth. It took a couple of hours I guess but then we were free until 4pm. We drove back into Frederic Historic district and walked a few blocks to eat lunch in an old brewery. It was DELICIOUS! Then we walked for a bit more looking for a cemetery that had a statue we had seen the day before.
We happened upon a War Memorial Park that was beautiful and had memorials for all the wars. Again, we took lots of pictures! We walked more but didn't find the one statue we were now looking for which was Francis Scott Key. Turns out the cemetery for that was several more blocks away. WOW! It was huge and the outside edge was lined with grave stones for 100's of unknown soldiers and 100's of confederate soldiers. At the entrance was Francis Scott Key's statue. On the back side were the words to the Star Spangled Banner. Did you know there are 4 verses to that song? WOW! What wonderful words they are too! It's a shame we don't know ALL of them!
Well, by then it was time to head to the hotel to get freshened up for the convention that evening. Convention hours were wonderful - 4pm-9pm on Friday and 9pm-4pm on Saturday.
Convention was quite busy on Thursday evening. 9pm arrived before I knew it! Actually, it was about 9:18 when I realized they were blinking the lights to tell everyone it was time to close it up. We got packed up what needed to go with us and headed to find something to eat. We ended up at the Double TT Diner. It was a LOT like the Marietta Diner back home. Wonderful food, with just about anything you could imagine on the menu as far as ethnicity goes. I did get a picture of Sarah's dinner which was a Waffle Split! Basically a banana split on a Belgian waffle. It was gorgeous and she said delicious! I had a gyro which was quite yummy. I honestly do not remember what Dennis had that night. Then it was back to the hotel to crash for a few hours.
Saturday morning we woke to rainy weather. Fortunately it didn't really let the bottom fall out until we were safely in the convention center. People coming in though were drenched!! I was surprised it was as busy as it was but it wasn't as busy as we had heard it usually is. We did well - we missed our sales goal by $1205 but that isn't too bad.
So, show is over and we are packing everything up to ship to the next show. There are still people standing in our booth looking at books as we are tearing down and packing books up. I took 2 orders long after the convention ended in the midst of getting total counts on catalogs and the other stuff we must do. Oh, and Dennis had to leave to buy shrink wrap because ours didn't make it with the pallet and I KNOW it was on there when it left Montgomery!
Ok - so everything is FINALLY packed and placed on the pallet and shrink wrapped. Can we go now? YES! Now, where to eat dinner since we are starved and haven't had lunch during all this? By now Dennis has learned his driving scares Sarah a bit and so he is making the most of it. I just laugh (I'm also in the front seat while she is in the back thanking her seatbelt for being her CLOSE friend).
We finally decided on Longhorn but there was about a 45 minute wait and we still have an hour drive ahead of us. Let's just try the Chinese restaurant across the parking lot. Oh, I'm SO happy we did! It was DELICIOUS! An order of cheese wontons (we know them as crab rangoons) were delicious. I ordered my stand by - Sesame Chicken while Sarah ordered the Crystal Wok. It was a mixture of meats and veggies in a wonderful sauce and brought in a little wok over a flame. Dennis spoke Chinese and we had to get things interpreted. He ordered some green beans and we agreed on sticky white rice instead of fried rice. I've never had green beans so good! We shared it all and it was all SO delicious! I only wish I had taken some pictures of the food before we dug in! I have never had them bring a hot moist towel before but this is a classy joint evidently! Oh, and we also had almond cookies for dessert along with the typical fortune cookie. :)
Now we drive back to Baltimore. This trip was only interrupted by a road side stop to close the back hatch on the car that had let go. OH! So THAT is what the orange triangle with the ! in it meant on the dash! ROFL! Honestly, it didn't tell you why it was on but it did show when Dennis opened his door to get out. Anyway, so now we get in to Baltimore, find the hotel (which looked totally cool on the website AND in person!) and Dennis drops Sarah and I off.
Ok - now the real adventure begins...
I walk up to the desk and give my name. Nope, not listed for tonight. Sarah gives her name. Not found for tonight either. We look at each other as the clerk asks if we are booked into their other hotel. Where is it? It is also VERY close to the airport but on the other side. She calls over and we aren't listed there either. Our clerk checks again and realizes we are booked - for May 14. Yes, we are about a month early! Only we aren't! We can't be sure where the mix up occurred but our clerk was extremely sweet and offered to call around to other local hotels to see what she could find. She made about 5 calls while also answering the phone and found us something just a block away. Her shuttle had already left on a run but their shuttle van could come get us. PERFECT!
Meanwhile I've been chatting with Christi who makes all our reservations and she is at a ballgame with her kids so she needs to get home to get a fax to be able to fax the credit card info from the company to pay for our new rooms. We shuttle over uneventfully and stand in line to check in behind several soldiers who are coming home. While standing there the clerk takes a call from Southwest Airlines for 3 rooms for pilots because of canceled flights. While waiting for our stuff to be completed SW called again for 10 more rooms. Yes, cloud to cloud lightening is one of the quickest ways to get a flight canceled it seems.
We finally get the credit card info all faxed in and get our room assignments. We are across the hall from one another and it is still only about 8:30 I guess so Sarah comes over and we play a good game of Phase 10. Then decide to turn in. I stayed up reading a bit and hit the hay, setting my alarm for 6:30 because we must leave the hotel at 7:00 on the shuttle.
I awoke at 6:20 to a voicemail from Delta. My flight has been delayed. I text Sarah to let her know. She checks and her flight has also been delayed. She went back to sleep. I grabbed a shower and breakfast before we get on the shuttle. Shuttle dropped us off at BWI with perfect time to get through security and get to the gate.
Yeah, right. I don't know when I've ever seen a line so long to drop off already checked bags! It was a mess and that poor Delta Agent was getting swamped and she had no real clue what was going on because she had just arrived herself.
Because I'm ending my travel in Atlanta with no connections, I get to go to the front of the line with a few other people. WOO HOO! Now bag is checked and I'm off to security. Made that successfully and on to the gate area. Found my gate and ask for my seat assignment only to find out the flight is over booked heavily due to a canceled flight last night and one this morning. I have a chance but it's not a great one, of getting on this flight. I realize pretty quickly it's not a go. I was patient and he finally had time to book a new flight and give me a meal voucher for $10 as well as a $400 travel voucher. It's good for a year!
I have a flight in an hour but I'm on priority stand-by. I am confirmed on a later flight. I again realize VERY quickly that getting on the earlier flight will not happen. I go find some lunch at Potbelly Sandwiches. It was a great sandwich.
Since then I've wandered the concourse a bit hunting for a place to plug something in to charge. There is seriously ONE plug in this place and the plugs won't stay in it. UGH!
Anyway, so now I have a seat assignment on this flight at 3:15 and I hope to be home by 5:30. I was supposed to be home by 11:00 this morning. LOL
Maybe next time I won't wait an entire month to blog about something and won't be quite so wordy either!
