This year in our planning for Drum Corps season, Bro decided that he was tired of just going to Indianapolis, so I asked him where he'd like to go. He decided on Denver. I agreed, remembering what a great time we had in 2004 for Finals. So I proceeded to book a hotel via priceline.com, and inadvertently booked for an extra day. Oops. Yes, I got the hotel I wanted for a good price, but it's non-refundable, so I kinda screwed myself over. So then I had to ask for an extra day off, bummer. ;)
Flash forward (ha!) to today, and I checked the weather. Uh-oh: thunderstorms for tonight, isolated showers for tomorrow and Saturday. May I remind you that drum corps is largely an OUTDOOR activity? Oh, well, we'll see what happens. We've been through that before, in Orlando, and, actually, in Denver.
I drove to ONT and got my bag checked, noticing that my flight was delayed 35 minutes. Well, that's not too bad. Then we got up in the air, and as we were approaching DEN, the pilot announced that we were in a holding pattern because the airport was closed due to thunderstorms. When somebody tells me that something is closed, I figure that they'll just open the next day, so that worried me. But we were only in the holding pattern for about 10-15 minutes (I don't really know, because I forgot my watch at home). Then we landed on the tarmac, we had to sit tight for awhile before a gate became available.
We finally were able to get off of the plane, and I took the train to the main terminal to get my bag. When I saw the signs, I thought, "Uh-oh. I wasn't listening when they told us which baggage carousel number I was supposed to look for. Wait. Did they tell us the number?" Luckily for me, I know how to read. I found the screen that showed the baggage carousel for my flight, which was number 8. Lots and lots of bags were going around, and none of them were mine. I heard an announcement that I could have sworn said #8, and then said that oversize baggage like crates and lightning rods and golf clubs could be found across from Carousel 8. Wait. Lightning rods?! Do people actually transport those, or was the guy just making a joke about golf clubs and I missed the sarcasm? Anyway, my bag never showed up, and I kept seeing the same lonely bags go around, waiting for their owners. The screens above the carousels were not helpful at all, just notifying what planes had arrived. Since Southwest also uses Carousel 7, I checked there briefly, but didn't see it. I went back to #8: no new bags. So I decided to really look at what was at #7, and finally saw my bag. I started to chase it until I realized it would come around again eventually, and I wasn't in any hurry.
Bag in hand, I headed to the Hertz shuttle to get to the rental cars. I noticed that the driver's name was Troy, and the manager's name was Tim Burton. This made me a little scared, wondering what kind of creepy adventure I had just begun. When we arrived at Hertz, I followed a lady out the front door of the bus, which was not sheltered from the rain, unlike the exit that I should have taken, which had shelter. Then I went inside and saw that there were self-service kiosks, but wasn't sure if I should use them because I had reserved through AAA. I got in line to talk to an agent, but one of the employees was advising us all that self-service was available, so I tried that. The kiosk available was one with a phone, not the computer-only kind. I sat on hold for awhile without even talking to anyone, then a regular express kiosk opened, so I went to that one instead. Things were going fine until the very end, wherein the screen told me that they couldn't give me a car, and that I needed to talk to an agent. Oy. So I went back to the original line. The lady that had been directing us was surprised to see me, because she had been there with me until it looked like I was good to go with the express kiosk. I figured that technology was not happy with me today, so it was no big deal. I checked in with the agent and walked to the space where the car was parked. I don't know why I couldn't go down the correct aisle in the first place, so I walked around a bit before finding the car. When I got to the car, I was about to open the trunk, and realized that I didn't have my luggage. I walked back to the rental building and didn't see it anywhere, then realized that when I had walked out the front door of the shuttle, I didn't reach over to get my bag. AUGH! I waited for a shuttle to arrive, but it wasn't the same driver. Luckily for me, I had remembered Troy's name, and told this driver, whose name is Mesfin. He said that Troy was on a break, but he would check his bus. Nope, not there. Again, luckily for me, Troy was in the rental building taking his break, and he said that he had brought it to the Lost and Found in the same building. He nicely retrieved it for me, and I thanked them both very much.
I went back to the car, and looked at the directions that I had printed. When I'm going somewhere unfamiliar, I try to get more than one set of directions because different sites give different instructions. I realized that I had 3 sets of directions that gave me 3 different exits to use to get to the hotel. Yikes! Technology again was being mean to me, and I couldn't get to the hotel site directions on my phone, so I picked the simplest instructions. Mind you, it was dark and rainy, so I was anxious about the drive to Downtown Denver. I made it just fine, though.
I handed the car keys over to the valet because now Jenn has spoiled me for all Starwood hotels, and I didn't feel like parking it myself. I checked in, ordered room service (a yummy broiled green tea-infused salmon on pan-roasted sweet potatoes and spinach), and now I have time to relax before going to sleep, because I've eaten way late and can't go to sleep quite yet.
Wow. I wasn't planning on blogging about tonight, but how could I not? It all started because I was such a doofus about the dates when I booked this very nice hotel. I hope that the weather does get better, because Bro flies in tomorrow afternoon, and we want to be able to actually watch the shows for which we have tickets, you know? Wish us luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment