When last I left the saga, I was in a cheesy hotel in Dallas.
My traveling companion and I could not face 48 hours there, so we "hotwired" a new hotel (which was wonderful). I went back to the airport to try to get luggage, to no avail. The ticket agent looked to see if she could get us on an earlier flight. She broke up with laughter when she saw that the next flight to Minneapolis (which held 130 seats) had 149 on the standby list! We did get to go first class.
I rented a car for 2 days (using the ALA member discount with National. It was less than $13 a day (plus fees, of course) for an intermediate car. Then it was off to T J Maxx to get something clean to wear. Then eating, drinking, and a trip to the pool.
Saturday, we went to see a movie (Evan Almighty ... a light fluffy comedy) and head to the airport. More drinking in the airport and then first class seats home.
Our luggage was actually at the airport and not too hard to find, and then a cab ride.
Today looks and feels a lot better. In total, the trip took 84 hours from when we left downtown DC. We stayed in three hotels and traveled who knows how many extra miles. It is good to be home again!
I've had some bad trips back from ALA conferences (one started with sitting in a plane on the Newark runway for 9 hours), but never anything like this. What an ordeal! Dallas is actually a nice city in which to live, but (perhaps like many cities) doesn't show its best side to travelers.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed meeting you at the pub-lib event at Poste.
Michael, I think you get the prize for the worst trip home from an ALA meeting!
ReplyDeleteDude, had you rented the $13/day car at the beginning of all that, you could have had a real Road Trip (only 18 or 19 hours long) and you could have dropped in on me & the family as an extra bonus.
ReplyDeleteWe wouldn't even have charged you for the beverages I'm sure you would have consumed, or for the room to rest up for the next leg of your trip :)