After waiting for quite some time on the curb outside the Chicago O’Hare Airport Terminal 5, the International Terminal, our Shuttle Bus for the Hyatt Regency arrived. There were several people whose planes were delayed and were being treated to this luxurious hotel by American Airlines. (It does seem kind of funny considering they are in bankruptcy, but maybe they get a good rate?) We went into the hotel, up the elevator, and got in line again, this time to check in. We asked for two rooms next to each other, and after they took our vouchers and our credit card info, we went up to the sixth floor to our rooms.
I wanted to take a shower and Brenda wanted to phone home so after about an hour we went down to the hotel restaurant and had supper with our voucher. We each had a salad and drank lots of water. We were feeling the affects of a long day by now.
We’re not quite in agreement as to when the next event happened, cuz everything seems to run together, but this hotel has beautiful glass elevators, and at some point we got on the elevator to go down to the first floor (also called LL). Brenda is sure we had our suitcase, but I don’t see that in my mind’s picture. Again, it was a very long day. We got on the elevator and I pushed what I thought was 1 for first floor, but actually we realized later it was the button to close the door. There’s a vertical line in the middle which I thought it was a “1.”
As I’m pushing the “1,” the elevator alarm starts going off really, really loud, and then the elevator starts going up! I’m like “OMG there’s a fire alarm and they’re taking all the elevators to the top floor and we’re going to have to get off on the roof and be helicoptered away!” I might have been a little overdramatic in my mind. But all I said was “Wha..? wha...? That noise....Why are we going up?” Then Brenda, who had been leaning her backside against the wall on the other side of the elevator, straightened up, and the horrible clanging alarm noise stopped. She had been leaning on the alarm! And since I hadn’t really pushed any floor, the elevator had been “called” to another floor by some hotel guests, so as the door opened to let them on, we started laughing hysterically, I mean uncontrollably, especially Brenda. She is so much fun when she laughs, but those guests must have thought we were bonkers! (Maybe you had to be there.)
We finally did get down to the lower level and after we checked out the little restaurant where we could use our breakfast vouchers in the morning, we both headed for bed. These rooms were really gorgeous. Two double beds, a table, a nice chair, big TV, little tiny balcony, too bad we were only staying a few hours. We had to get up at 4 in order to catch the shuttle at 5 to get back to the airport. They had a I-pod dock type alarm clock that I set for 4, but when it started going off in the morning, I couldn’t get it to shut off. I pushed every button on that thing, till finally I buried it under about 10 pillows and left it to itself. Brenda had asked me to be her wake-up at call at 4 a.m. which agreed to. However at 4 a.m., I was frantically trying to shut off the alarm and bury it under the pillows, so at 4:05 a.m., she called me. I think she wondered if I had forgotten her!
We arrived at Chicago airport by maybe 5:30 a.m. and then we sat down near the baggage claim and ate our breakfast. Our plane wasn’t due to leave till 7:35 a.m. After we were done eating, we went through security. So we left London at 9:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. Chicago time) on Saturday. Now it’s 6:00 a.m. Chicago time; we’ve slept some, but not a lot. We’re a little loopy and a little tired of the airport drill. It’s time to go to security again. Again another long line, this time we’re back in America, take off your shoes, take off your coat, put your own tubs on the conveyor, push them through yourself.
There were a couple of other ladies, a few years older than us, in front of us in the security line. The security agent, who was actually being nice, told the one of the ladies, who had a full water bottle in a pocket in her backpack, “Ma’am, you can’t bring that water bottle through security.” She’s like, “Just TAKE IT OUT!” He says, “Ma’am, I can’t really....” She says, “I’ve been in airports for TWO DAYS and I’m about brain dead, just TAKE IT OUT.” He obliged. I didn’t think I was brain dead, but I was about to be proven wrong.
After making it successfully through security and getting re-dressed, we walked to our gate, quite a distance away. We were going to Dayton on American Eagle, a smaller plane. Brenda asked me what gate, and I said G1A. So we found it and we sat down. It was a little after 6, we were way early. I paid for Skype internet on my computer and we started working on the blog, finishing up the entry about our Belgium day.
After we had been working for a while, I heard them paging, “Alberti, please come to the counter.” My son-in-law is Matthew Alberti, and I thought, “Wow, wouldn’t that be cool if he is traveling through Chicago at the same time we are.” After I heard them page him a couple times, “Alberti” and someone else named “Mulan,” I told Brenda, “I think Matthew’s here.” They were paging from the gate across the aisle from us, G2A. Brenda said, “I think I’ll go ask what name they’re paging and see if it’s him.”
In the meantime, I thought I better go use the ladies room. So I left my bags with Brenda and went to use the facilities. While I was in there, I looked at my watch and it was 7:25. I thought, “Gee that’s weird, shouldn’t we be boarding by now?” Hmmm. So when I came out of the ladies room, I walked over to gate G1A and asked them if the Dayton plane was late. They said, “We don’t have any plane from Dayton leaving from here.” I’m like “Whaaa...?” I looked over to tell Brenda, and Brenda was gone and so were all our bags. Now I’m so confused, have I walked back to the wrong gate? Did I misjudge how far from the ladies room we were?
Then I hear, “Laura, Laura, Laura!!” At the gate across the aisle, Brenda was calling me from Gate G2A. Around this time the people at Gate G1A yelled at me, "You’re at the wrong gate; that’s your gate." Brenda said she watched me come from the bathroom, stop at the G1A counter, look for our bags, stop, spin around, start to walk back to the bathroom, stop, spin around again and walk back to our seats in total befuddlement. What was going on?
That’s when I heard her calling me. She had looked up at the gate across the aisle and saw “Dayton” at Gate G2A. Turns out they weren’t saying “Alberti” and “Mulan,” they had been saying “Lombardi” and “Mullins” for the last half hour. The woman who was paging had a very thick French accent! (Matthew was not in the airport.)
When Brenda walked over there the gate agent (not very nicely) asked Brenda “WHERE WERE YOU? WE’VE BEEN CALLING YOU!!”
Brenda: “Right over there.”
Agent: “DIDN’T YOU HEAR US CALLING YOU???”
Brenda: “No.”
As I walked up, I gathered my bags, we got out our boarding passes and they had to re-open the door to the plane which had already been closed. But we got on. That was so weird. I have never had that happen before. I guess we were just tired or too overconfident cuz we had gotten there so early, or just very, very involved in chronicling our time in Belgium on the blog, but we never once rechecked our tickets, looked at the gate, or anything. But our God had us in His hands that time, covering for His girls!
When we got on the plane, I told the flight attendant, “I’m so sorry.” She said, “Oh don’t worry about it. Do you know how many times I’ve almost missed my plane? It happens.” She was much more understanding. Her name was Brenda!
When I got in my little seat on the Embraer jet, the same size jet we had when we left Dayton a week previous, it seemed bigger with more leg room. I think what really happened is that I learned how to travel better. I put away the pillow, the ear phones, the Kindle, the Netbook, the backpack, the purse, the MP3 player, the coat—all of it in the overhead bin. So it was just me and the seat, and I fell asleep. We woke up when the drinks cart came through, and both of us had guess what? Hot tea.
When we got to Dayton, the maintenance crew was working on something and weren’t there to bring our gate bridge, so we had to sit on the plane for awhile. Brenda called Tom who was in the waiting area to say, “We’re here, we’re really here.” Finally we got to our gate, we made one last airport bathroom stop, and we headed out to meet Tom who had so lovingly come to pick us up.
Soon we were back home and in full swing at Headquarters.
God blessed us with a wonderful trip, great accommodations, a life time of memories, lots of learning, and much laughter. Brenda is a tremendous traveling companion and we did really well, but there’s always lots of communication required in a situation like that. We worked hard to keep things clear between us and make sure the other was blessed.
One thing I forgot to say, when we were leaving Dayton airport and were walking toward the baggage claim, on the other side of the aisle, going the opposite direction —toward the departure gates were 4 women, talking away, “OK, the bed and breakfast is the first stop and when we get there we can....” Brenda kind of stops, turns her head to look at them and said, “Laura! There are FOUR of them!!!” [What she was saying was “Imagine the communication required to keep things clear with FOUR people.”] Have fun, ladies!
1 comment:
Melsie said:
NOOOOOOOOOOO! I don't want it to end! :) I'm laughing so hard my gut hurts! Thanks for taking the time to tell your story along the way. It has truly been a joy ride! Love you ladies!!! Welcome home.
Post a Comment