Thursday, July 28, 2011

FANTASTIC trip, interesting ending...

            After many weeks in DC, I had the impulse decision to fly to Kansas to see my boyfriend.  Come to think of it, I’m not even sure I mentioned it to my parents because it was so impulse (surprise, I just got back from Kansas!).  Charlie and his cousin’s were playing a mini concert at a bar/restaurant, so with the help of his parents, I decided to surprise him.  I bought the ticket earlier this week on a whim, and got on a plane on Friday morning.  I went down to Union Station and caught the MARC train, thinking it would be faster.  I think I accidently purchased a ticket on the Amtrack, so it was $14 and I had to wait (this is a common trend in my life, trial and error).  The night before leaving for Kansas, I thought it was a brilliant idea to go out to Cactus Cantina with my volleyball team after playing… lets just say a few too many margaritas made it not a pleasant morning. 
The margaritas came back to haunt me around 8 am when I got on my first flight from Baltimore to Philadelphia. Small plane + hungover + I get motion sick = nausea at its best.  When I got to Philadelphia, I decided to eat my hangover away.  I ate an insane amount of food.  My layover in Philly was a couple hours and instead of doing my homework the night before, I  had gone out with the volleyball team. So, during my layover, I started working to get my online homework done.  Thankfully, I got most of it done before boarding my plane to Kansas City.  On the plane I wrote some of the paper that was due, but I needed the internet for some of it, so I stopped and went to sleep.  Once in Kansas City, I was picked up by the “Seaport Airlines” and they took me to a different airport that was about 10 minutes away.  While in the van going there, I asked the driver how big the plane was.  The response, “9 passenger.”  UM WHAT!?!  All I know about planes that tiny, is that they tend to crash and EVERYONE DIES.  When I got in the little building to check in, I was amazed by the procedure.  It went as follows-
Worker: “do you have any hazardous materials, firearms, or anything else that should not be on a plane?”
Me: “um, no”
Worker: “ok please place your bags on this scale.”
***Notice there was ZERO security.  I did not even walk through a metal detector.  So not only am I getting on a TINY plane, I could be getting on a plane with a psycho that has a gun, or a bomb, or something crazy in their suitcase because NO ONE LOOKED!!!!!!!
            I got in the plane and said a prayer that was something along the lines of “please God, do not let me die.”  In addition to the utter lack of security, you are allowed to use your cell phone and electronic devices during all times during the flight.  Um, what?!  The flight went fairly smooth until we began our decent.  We hit turbulence that was frightening.  Once again, I said a little prayer.  I have never been to thrilled to reach Salina, Kansas.  Charlie’s mom picked me up from the airport and took me to a hotel.
 While at the hotel I got the rest of my homework done. Around 8 PM, Charlie’s cousin picked me up and we went to grab some food before surprising Charlie.  This whole time I was texting him to “break a leg.”  I’m so sneaky. They began playing at 10 PM, so around 10:15 PM I walked into the restaurant/bar.  IT WAS PACKED.  It was awesome to see how many people came out to watch them play! I didn’t want him to see me before I was closer, and I didn’t want him to see me while he was in the middle of singing a song, so I hid behind some tall guy for a little bit.  During a pause during a song, I popped out from behind the tall guy and tried to make eye contact.  When he saw me, his jaw literally dropped.  He took a double take and sat there dumb-founded. J He got up from his chair and made his way through the crowd to give me a hug.  It was adorable!
That night is when life threw me another curve ball… around 4 am, the hotel fire alarm began going off.  It was not your average loud fire alarm, it was BLASTING.  I FLEW from my bed.  Once I opened the door to my hotel room, I glanced around and everyone on my floor was also in the hallway.  Then the alarm went off.  I went back to bed… only to be awoken AGAIN anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.  It went off for maybe 10 seconds, then turned off.  After about the 6th time that this happened, I called the front desk, FURIOUS!  I asked them if the alarm was going to stop going off.  I also said that it was ridiculous and that I should not have to pay full price for the hotel room.  The front desk woman took half off my hotel room, and I went back to bed.  Pam, Charlie’s mom had booked the hotel for 3 nights for me, but after the fire alarm fiasco, I decided to check out.  I went down to the front desk and told them that I should not have to pay for breakfast either (Pam had bought me breakfast in advance).  So, the hotel took half off the hotel room and I got free breakfast.
Saturday and Sunday I spent time with Charlie.  As usual, we ate a lot of food (I have been informed he gained 5 lbs while I was in town).  It was a really good time.
Monday… things became interesting.  The day started off normal.  I woke up and watched a tv show while Charlie prepared for a video interview.  After his interview (which lasted 1.5 hrs!!!), we began our drive to Kansas City for me to catch my flight.  All seemed well, it was a sunny day and traffic wasn’t bad… until we hit a detour that had us pull off onto a one lane country road.  I 70, basically the ONLY way to get across Kansas, was closed!!!!!!  Closed for 20 miles!!!! We were only going 5 miles an hour because traffic was horrendous on the detour.  I started freaking out at this point because we had planned exactly as much time as we needed to get me to KC.  I called the airlines asking what happens if I missed my flight.  They informed me that it would be minimum $175 to change my ticket.  We realize there is no way that I am getting there in time for my flight.  So we turn around and I start calling airlines to find out if anyone has a flight to the DC area before 9 am Tuesday morning (I needed to get to work).  I find out that the reason I70 is closed is because some INSANE Arkansas man decided it would be a fantastic idea to leave chemicals in a hotel room in Junction City, Kansas and call 911 to say that he left them there.  The highway was closed because they pulled him over on the interstate and brought in the FBI, robots, and the bomb squad to make sure he didn’t have anything hazardous in his truck.  IDIOT.
Anyway, we end up stopping at a McDonalds to try to figure out what to do.  Should I fly to KC from Salina?  Nope, I would still miss my flight.  Should I fly out of Wichita?  Well, there was a flight to DC, but it would take 12 hrs to get there.  Charlie calls his dad who is amazing at travel planning.  He looks up flights for me to fly into DC, which is funny because he was already in DC for a medical convention.  He finds me a flight out of Kansas City at 6 AM Tuesday morning to get me into Baltimore at 9:30 AM (NOT CHEAP).  So I stay at a hotel and fly out at 6 AM.
Chris, Charlie’s cousin, picks me up from the Baltimore airport and drives me directly to Rockville to work.  So I rolled into work wearing Capri sweats and a t shirt looking like hell.  I had not showered, hadn’t put in my contacts, or put on makeup.  I wanted to go to sleep, but went into work and stayed until 7:30 PM.
Overall, it was a fantastic trip with a very interesting ending….

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