More travel fun!

Well, my travel woes continue with this latest trip. I traveled to Harrisburg, PA for another home school convention. :) SO MUCH FUN! But I must tell the story before we get to the fun stuff. 

Jennifer and I left on Thursday with tickets to Philadelpia, PA and then a connecting flight to Harrisburg. We arrived early enough to get checked in, grab some lunch and wait a few minutes before boarding. Hey, this is going smoothly! We were seated together with Jennifer at the window. The sky was clear so we took a few pictures while circling over Atlanta and as we were getting in to Philly. Nice flight! Even with the guy in front of Jennifer pushing his seat beyond where it should have been so he could sleep for quite awhile. 

Arrive in Philly and learn we need to go from Terminal B to Terminal F. Finally find there is a shuttle to get us there. 30 minutes later we are at our new gate and sit to wait the 20 minutes for boarding. We watched our luggage get loaded. That's a good thing - we know it will get there with us.  Then we hear the words, "your flight has been delayed. Your new scheduled departure time is 5pm. We are waiting on a crew to arrive." Not very comforting to know they are still waiting on a crew to arrive.

We decide to go get something to drink and a small ice cream. YUM! Head back to the gate to eat the ice cream when we hear "Your flight has now been canceled." Oh! REALLY? And so now how do we get to Harrisburg? You can go to gate 16 or the ticket counter for a new flight. So, we go to the counter. I call CP who handles this stuff for the company to find out what she needs us to do. It's finally our turn and we ask what flight they can get us on since the sign behind her says there is one at 5:24. Nope. Nothing until 8:24pm. Well, okay. Are we guaranteed that flight? Yes, unless it cancels. Gee thanks.

Ummm... what else can you do for us being inconvenienced? Oh, a $5 meal voucher. Nice. What can you get to eat in an airport for $5? Well, that 6oz bag of peanuts was $4.49. Yeah. That's good when you are hungry and won't be meeting up with your group for an additional 4 hours or so and they will have already eaten. And who wants to eat dinner at 10pm?

I called CP back to let her know we had a flight. She decided it was too little too late and she will get us a car. It is only about 90 minutes to drive. Now we need to let them know we will not be getting on that flight. If we just don't show up they will cancel the rest of our trip. We head to the ticket counter and talk to a lady who was nice and marked that we would not be on that late flight and tells us we are good to go for Sunday. We ask where we might use the meal voucher. Well, you need to go back through security. NOT HAPPENING! Where do we find the car rental area? She told us and we were on our way.

Ok - now to get the shuttle bus to stop for us. Thank you very much! Off to the car rental lot. Stand in line in a hot building and finally it's our turn. Sign my life way for the deposit. Learn if you don't put gas in the car they charge you for a full tank even if you only need a few gallons. And get brief directions to get on the highway - not quite enough to get us to Harrisburg though. Also, we realize each of us had taken a GPS out of our bag since we wouldn't be driving on this trip. Won't make that mistake again!!

I drive and Jennifer calls to let CM (who was supposed to meet us originally and who is now meeting us as we return the car to pay the fee) know we are on the road. She has someone else with our team give directions to get us to Harrisburg. All is good. They are heading to dinner and we will eat before returning the car. It was a nice drive and we enjoyed ourselves.

We get in to the Harrisburg Airport area and start looking for a place to eat dinner. In about 4 miles through this little township we were in, we drive past about 8 bars. Many of them we notice are across the street from funeral homes. We laugh about it but we can't find anything for dinner except Hardee's. Good enough so we stop and eat. 

We call LD to let them know we are on our way to the airport. They are about 15 minutes away. Perfect. We pull in to return the car and realize we neglected to fill it up. We head back to the gas station, fill it up and drive back. Turn in the car, walk to the building and wait for CM and LD to show up so we can pay out and be on our way.

We go in and the lady behind the counter said her passcode just expired. She tries to use the other workers and it also expired and now both computers are locked up. We step to the side while they deal with locked up computers and try to help other customers. I guess it took a good 20 minutes. FINALLY we can pay for the rental and be on our way. 

The rest of the evening was uneventful except that Jennifer and I were tired but in that mode where you just can't fall asleep. We talked until after 2am. It sure made getting up at 6am a bit difficult. Breakfast at 6:30 and head to the convention just after 7am. We had a great day, was halfway to our goal and headed to Red Robin for dinner.  Back to the hotel and had a quiet evening, going to bed a bit early.

Back up at 6am to repeat the day. We finally closed the show over our goal and got the booth packed and headed to dinner. Sometimes the GPS doesn't know the BEST way to go. Really? Must we always take detour through the worst part of town? After circling a few blocks for the grand tour we get headed to Benihana. After waiting a little bit we were seated. On the floor on a flat pillow. Getting your legs under that table was fun. We were punchy from being tired. It made for a fun evening.

We watched the chef make our dinner which was delicious, even though the chef wasn't so great with his little show. There was a mix up with a raspberry lemonade where it came to the table a touch frothy and we discovered there was alcohol in it. Lots of jokes, including how the chef might have had a nip or needed one. 

Honestly, at this point I have laughed so hard I can't even remember all that happened. I'm sure friends who were there will comment to remind me. ;) We did finish our dinner which included your choice of ice cream or rainbow sherbet. For the record, that sherbet was the best ever and several said it tasted like Trix.

Time to head back to the hotel but first another detour through the bad part of town where there were barber shops still open after 9pm, several fried chicken places within a block or less of each other, and one that would even cash your checks for you. We had to stop at Starbucks as well. Some people are addicted to coffee. 

To the hotel and find out our room keys won't work. Had to get them reissued. In the room, pj's on and a quick check on facebook and email. Learned that there was a problem with our tickets not being synced or something. Jennifer calls and learns we do not have tickets even though we have paid for bags to be checked on this flight. Evidently THAT triggered them to notify us about 12 hours later that we didn't have seats on this flight. She gets it all cleared up (we hope) and now, we are on the flights and prayerfully headed home on time tomorrow.

Stay tuned! You never know what else will happen before July 31!

Happy Birthday Sandi!

My 3rd daughter playing softball this year for the first time and having a great time.Today is her 15th birthday and I wanted to wish her a very happy birthday since I'm not at home to spend the day with her! She tells me that next week we will head to the DMV to her her learners permit. Hope she has studied hard!

More conventions... Frederick, MD - Day 1

At the car rental building

Driving around Frederick - thankfully Dennis was driving so I could take pictures. ;)

The sun setting the first night in Frederick, MD.

Convention Season in full swing

I have been privileged to work with Alpha Omega Publications over the past 5 years, representing them at home school conventions all over the southeast. This year I've had the opportunity to travel further from home and so I have been taking my camera. I've been traveling to so many wonderful places and you just never know when you'll see some sites you wish you had taken a picture of. 

I've missed a few photo ops like the laundry drying on the guardrail on the expressway in Cincinnati, OH. Boy was that a sight! Traffic was backed up just a bit on the expressway and when it broke loose that was what we saw. Sure wish I'd had the camera out already that morning!

Here are a few pictures I've taken.

Cincinnati, OH

  

Montgomery, AL - the tiny airport!

I will stop with those two conventions for now. We have had the greatest time talking to parents, helping them decide if our curriculum will work for their family and encouraging those who are brand new to home education. Home education does not have to be difficult! If you have been considering home education for your children, just know that if you are committed to giving them the best education, YOU CAN DO IT!

What time is that flight?

Well, I have had a fun couple of weeks. I traveled to Oklahoma City for a convention that was held on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 26 and 27.  My luggage didn't arrive when I did so Delta gave me a cute little care bag. They called it an overnight bag. It included detergent, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brush, deodorant, razor and shave cream, and a t-shirt. Fine but I want MY stuff. I was told it could arrive about 6:30 or it could be the 10:15 flight. Tracking showed it arrived at 6:30 but the transport would have it delivered by 3am. I told the desk to call if it was there before midnight. Otherwise I'd just get it the next morning. It arrived sometime during the night. The convention went well and the rest of my trip was fairly uneventful. 

Now fast forward to Thursday, May 5. I flew to Springfield, MO. The flight was fine (seats are getting smaller each trip and I don't mean I've gained weight either!), got my rental car, drove to the hotel and checked in early to a nice room overlooking Hammons Field. Got directions to Walmart and then headed out. I needed one item from Wallyworld and then on to the airport to pick up Esther. Pulled out the GPS and requested directions to SGF. 

I followed those directions only to arrive at a closed airport with signs saying they had moved. Well, ok then. Follow signs that aren't quite clear what the numbers mean - nothing says 2m just an arrow and a two. Does that mean go two miles up the road? Go to the second light? Second intersection? SHEESH! Of course I got "lost" and so I stopped and called my hero husband to look it up on Google and get me where I needed to be. Meanwhile, Esther has already arrived and is waiting for me so we can go set up our booth since we must open it at 6pm.

FINALLY! I make it to the airport, Pick up Esther and we head back to the hotel to get her checked in and then to the convention center to set up our booth. We are both starving but we need to get set up first. Mission accomplished. Lunch/dinner at Steak and Shake which is directly across from the hotel. Change clothes and head to the convention. 

Let me tell you that I've attended a few of these and never have I had teen pages who were so attentive and helpful! These kids were awesome! Our pallet arrived with a missing board and another that came off right beside that spot as we unloaded. There is no way we can pack our stuff back on this pallet. So a teen page found us another pallet but also considered working to fix ours if necessary. Other pages were always close by to bring water, answer questions (or go find answers), etc. They would even man our booth if we needed a bathroom break. Thursday evening we did lots of talking and showing and had lots of people say they would be back. 

Friday was a steady day. Lots of sales putting us at the close of the day about 3/4's of the way to our goal. Again, quite a few saying they would be back to make purchases the next day when their teen or husband could be with them.  After we closed up at 6pm, we headed to Lambert's Cafe Home of the throwed rolls for dinner. We had a short wait but it was so worth it! What a great place with wonderful food, great prices for what you got, and we left stuffed with lots left on our plates. If you get a chance to go, fried pork chops are awesome!

Saturday we headed to the convention, according to the information we had. We arrived about 9:45 giving us 15 minutes before the exhibit hall is to open. WRONG! They had changed times! Opened at 9:00 and closing at 6:30 instead of 6pm like was originally posted. It made for a long day and with workshops going on for some reason we weren't steady the entire day - just spurts of interest. We did FINALLY reach and exceed our sales goal right in the last hour of the day but we weren't sure it would happen. Oh, and the computer ordering system decided to dump the last order of the day AFTER the family had left the building. I knew the last name and what the order consisted of but nothing else was in the system. I remembered them discussing another booth and so I tracked down that exhibitor to get their phone number. I'm hoping the order is actually somewhere in the system after all but I'll let customer service deal with getting everything if it isn't. I just don't want to end up putting a duplicate order in for them and having their card charged twice!

Esther and I decided to try Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We had a bit of a wait but it was again worth it. Delicious! We had fried pickles thanks to a coupon Esther found for a free appetizer. Both of us ordered the 6oz steak with mushrooms on top, a house salad which was delicious with items you normally don't find in a house salad, and she had a sweet potato while I had a loaded baked potato. YUM! Again, we left very full and no room for the ice cream we kept saying we were going to get.

Back to the hotel where I saw the lights on in Hammons Field and then heard on the news they had lost a game played there that afternoon. I could have watched from my room if I'd been there during the game! After a good nights sleep we headed to the airport. Esther's flight was at 10:20 so I dropped her off and then checked in the rental car and onto my flight. Just as I got checked in I had a message from Delta that my flight had changed departure time. Instead of 11:30 we were leaving at 12:05. Also, it's overbooked so they are looking for volunteers to fly later. Ok - I'll volunteer. I'd love another voucher! I COULD have kept the rental a little longer and driven around a bit to see the sites, enjoyed some ice cream or whatever. Instead I'm sitting in a hot, humid airport!

As I sit here typing, I get another message from Delta that our flight is now scheduled to depart at 11:45. They just can't make up their mind! So, what time is that flight again? The time keeps changing on the screen I can see. At the moment it says 11:40. 

So, I fly several more times this convention season. How many vouchers will I end up with? Will I ever get a flight home that actually departs and arrives at it's originally scheduled time? I guess only time will tell. 

OH, and by the way... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!