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North America » United States » Missouri » St Louis
June 23rd 2010
Published: June 24th 2010
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I was a bit disappointed at missing out on the opportunity to be bumped last night. Being as late as it was I was looking forward to the idea of decompressing with a good nights sleep in a nice hotel room with cable TV and dinner on the airline. That and the $400 voucher was nice to look forward to. However, it seems there were a few no-shows so the offer was not followed up on. What was weird was that as they were boarding the plane I asked a counter clerk several times whether I was still to be bumped. She gave me a perplexed look and said she didn't know what I meant. I asked if the flight was still over-booked. She said she had never heard that term before.

I used a hotel lot near the St. Louis airport to park my car, as the past experiences of city bus travel back to my neighborhood were unpleasant, to say the least. Plus I was hesitant to impose on friends and if I had left my car at home I would have accumulated numerous parking tickets. It was just easier to pay the modest charge of $60 per month, far less than any other option and leaving complete freedom of movement from the moment I touched down.

I was hoping that the hotel still ran its shuttle after midnight and was very pleased to see that they were. I dropped my bags at their front door and went in to speak with the desk clerk. My brain was rather fuzzy after 25 hours of travel. I told the clerk I was there to get my car and wanted to be sure I was paid-up and that they knew I was leaving so there were no additional charges on my card. He said that the payments were one-time month-by-month, not open-ended. After some back and forth he graciously and without any prompting on my part waived the second month's charges.

I got into my car and was rather surprised that it started without hesitation after sitting for two full months. However, when I put it into gear it wouldn't move. I double-checked to be sure there wasn't a boot. I was forced to rock the car back and forth a few times as if in a snow drift and finally just dragged the front end a few inches until the rust on the brakepads came loose. On arrival home I noted that my house was seemingly intact and I collapsed on my bed in a haze, baggage still in my car.

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25th June 2010

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