On the road again

As you read this, I am in Cincinnati, working my buns off on a Building Blocks(sm) study. I love what I do, which is great, and I travel a lot when we’re busy. Abby was mad at me today (yesterday) when I dropped her off at school. She wouldn’t even let me carry my suitcase downstairs, instead preferring that her father do it. Precocious, I say!

In any case, this is not my first trip through Cincinnati. Back in 2008, I was routed through here when there were severe storms up and down the Easter Seabord. I was trying to get to Minneapolis (which isn’t really all that close to Cincinnati), with two traveling companions. Let’s call them Pat and Pam, since those are their names.

Our flight was already delayed before we got to the airport. We enjoyed a long lunch at Chili’s in the gate area and listened as our 1:00 flight got pushed further and further back. Finally at a little past 4:00, our flight was officially cancelled and we were instructed to find a courtesy phone or gate agent. I leapt over 3 suitcases and a random toddler to grab a phone at a nearby bank of phones. I explained quickly that there were three of us, we all needed to get on the same flight, blah, blah, blah.

Since EVERYONE ELSE was calling, it took the phone lady a while to arrange a flight for us, but she did. A 5:00 flight to Minneapolis, connecting through – you guessed it – Cincinnati. We ran around the whole terminal like crazy people and got to the new gate at just about 4:50. They didn’t start boarding this 5:00 flight until quarter after, but we all three got seats. Mine was in the last row, a seat that would be a window seat, except that they don’t put windows back that far. Have I mentioned the claustrophobia?

We pushed back from the gate and the pilot turned off the engines. Apparently something had not cleared its mechanical check and the flibbertygibbet was stuck in the whatchamacallit. And they needed to complete the paperwork. The plane got hotter and hotter, when all of a sudden, the lights came back on!! We were saved! We were totally going to miss dinner with friends like we’d planned, but we’d get to Minneapolis that night. Joy! Rapture!

Then the pilot came on and said that they needed maintenance out there again. Apparently the schmuck sitting in seat 19a thought he heard a funny noise. And rather than tell him to shut the hell up, the flight attendant alerted the captain, who called maintenance. They turned off the engines and we sat in a slowly darkening plane, waiting to be given the green light. Have I mentioned my irrational fear of the dark?

We finally (FINALLY!) pushed back again at around 7:00, waited our turn to take off and landed in Cincinnati at 10:00, after the airport is technically closed for the night. The airline handed us hotel and meal vouchers plus tickets for flights to Minneapolis in the morning. We were scheduled to be on a flight at 6:00 that routed us through ATLANTA and didn’t land in Minneapolis until 11:45. Our clients were due to meet us around 10:00, so obviously, this was not such a viable plan.

As I was crying (bawling? sobbing?) into my phone to Brian, begging him to wake up our travel agent (who’s a good family friend) and get this all straightened out, a gate agent took pity on me. He opened up a screen at the gate and re-booked us on the 8:00 DIRECT flight that would arrive by 9:45. Not quite enough time to meet our clients at 10:00, but not making us super late either.

We repaired to our hotel for some dinner and as much rest as we could get. We stayed at the Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell, KY. “Old English” theming was everywhere, with suits of armor langushing in hallways and conference rooms named after characters in the Canterbury Tales. I wish I was kidding. The only thing not “old timey” was the pool, which was antique in its own way. However, the beds were clean enough, the restaurant open 24 hours, and, well that’s about all I can say about it. But if you’re ever stuck in the greater Cincinnati area and/or have a burning need to sleep in the state of Kentucky, this just might be the hotel for you.

In the end, we got on our better flight, got to the field and worked, worked, worked all day. The client was pleased and the study went well. We never did get dinner with our friends, though.

The moral of the story? ALWAYS leave plenty of time in your travel plans. And pack light! And if you’re staying in a hotel with suits of armor in the hallways, it’s kind of fun to take pictures of your friends draping themselves all over the supposed knights.