i'm still alive

I was able to get a hotel room, so I called to figure out the deal with getting there. I asked if they have a restaurant or something at the hotel and he said, "no, you should probably eat at the airport first." (Rebecca asked if that meant they were out of food or there was no restaurant. Turns out they were out of food.) So I headed a few terminals down to Macaroni Grill and enjoyed a nice glass of Prosecco and dinner that wasn't terrible. 

I headed to where the shuttle was supposed to pick me up. Over an hour later, several calls of confusion, and very wet legs and luggage the shuttle showed up. All of the shuttles have painted ALL over what hotel they're going to. I don't know how I missed their sign. 

It was typed in like only a 42 font and taped to the window. How dumb am I for missing it every time it passed? 

We are about halfway to the hotel when people start turning around and going back, and we all start trying to figure it what's going on. Well, the road was flooded! There was a mustang stuck in the road with water up to the windows. I threw it out there that maybe we should turn around. You know (those of you that love in Texas) all of the tv ads that say turn around, don't drown? Apparently they don't have those here in Chicago. This dude drove through it full speed! I don't know how we made it through without stalling out. 

I made it. And my hotel isn't that bad! No toothpaste though. Oh well. 5 more hours and I'm heading back to the airport. Who knows, if you're lucky there will be a continuation of posts tomorrow.

chicago trip

I have been lucky. I have never really had a terrible flight experience beyond the occasional delay for an hour or so. Until this stinkin trip. On my way here the compass on the plane wasn't working so we had to wait for over and hour for them to get a new one. We then take off and land in Chicago. But wait, a lady from the back yelled "why are we in Rockford? We should be in Chicago!" I thought it looked more farmy than usual, but thought she was just being funny because of the compass issue. She wasn't being funny.  We were in Rockford and didn't land in Chicago because of weather. 

In case you were wondering, Rockford (home to the Rockford Peaches from A Leage of Their Own) is lovely this time of year. Although I'm basing this on just this picture. We sat there for about 2 hours looking out at blue skies. 

We finally land and do circles around the airport and, no joke, park off to the side. We taxied and sat longer than it took to fly from Rockford. It was ridiculous. 8 hours later I made it to Rebecca and Michael's. 

You might be wondering why I'm telling you this? It would be because I'm heading back to Austin tonight, and when I got to the airport almost all flights but mine were cancelled or delayed. Not long after, mine was cancelled. 

Because of really bad weather (and an early flight) it would be a nightmare getting back to Rebecca's and then back to the airport in the morning. As I wait to try to get a hotel room this starts happening. 

There's a possibility I'm sleeping here tonight folks. Get ready for a possibly amazing live blogging session. And if not, oh well. At least you've enjoyed this much.