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Published: July 16th 2017
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Susan and Pam meet me at SAS and we load up Susan’s van with my stuff and head off to the airport. I tell Susan and Pam I actually was driving out of my neighborhood this morning and realized, I didn’t have my phone. I was lucky I didn’t have to drive back too far. Well, I did forget the maps. Oh well, we will find some along our route as we know we will be in areas where we won’t have reception. I guess I was stuck on stupid this morning. We park at the extended lot and lugged our luggage to the shuttle. The airport was non-eventful, but our flight took off a bit late. No big deal, we made time up in the air.
Susan and Pam told me about their adventures driving to Raleigh. As they were getting close to Greensboro, they thought they saw the Goodyear blimp but NOOO, it was a Walmart Blimp. Who knew? A little further down the road Pam thought she had been shot when a rock hit the window (at least a million miles an hour) and scratched the window. It seems they did have a bit of excitement on
the drive in.
After grabbing a bite to eat in the airport in MSP we boarded our flight to Portland. On the gang way we saw a Delta sign, “Keep Limbing”. I think they aren’t Climbing anymore. ;-) We each watched the movie Gifted and laughed some. As we were getting closer into Portland, Pam sees some beautiful mountain scenery. The sun was low and the colors over the mountains were breathtaking.
After we land and get our luggage we head to the rental car agency for our van. I had to stop at the front desk to give them my new credit card. You see I lost 2 of my credit cards about 2 weeks ago. No, not on the same day. I knew I would probably find them but after 2 days, I hadn’t so I called. They cancelled them and yes, 3 hours later I found the first one and 2 days later the 2
nd one. Oh well, still couldn’t use them.
We then headed out to get the van. The attendant drove the van over but not before we had to yell stop. There was a cone behind the van and he was going to run over it. After he delivered the van, we started to load it but couldn’t get the seat down without the seat belt dividing the back seat. Picture this, 3 middle age women tugging on the seats trying to get them to unfold. Finally we get them to unfold so that we can unbuckle the seat belt. Now, that was the hardest seat belt to unbuckle, we had to use my fingernail clippers and press it in, Once that was unleashed, we could fold the seats flat so that we had the full back to load our stuff. After loading I walked the van to make sure no damage, but it was dark (more on this in tomorrow’s blog). So Susan drives while I enter the hotel info into the GPS. Where is she going? Susan, the exit is that way. So now she is backing back down the aisle to get to the exit. We show our contract and exit the scene. Now, the hotel is not far but we basically did a big 8 to get there. We head east, drive about 1.5 miles, take a left, head west about 1.25 miles, turn right to head back about 1 mile. All the while we could see the hotel, BUT that was the only way to get to it. What a mess.
Now, the hotel, was a Sheraton and yes, we were using points again… First there is a temporary entrance to the lobby. The lobby entrance is under construction. I get out to check us in. Ok, the temporary entrance is the entrance to the conference area and there was some kind of Latin business conference that had just finished. There were hundreds of people and I wasn’t sure how I’d get around everyone – all Latin American heritage and most speaking Spanish... After weaving down halls, I finally made it to the lobby and got us checked in. Pam and Susan were unloading the car and putting the stuff on the cart. We did wonder how we were going to get the cart thru the crowd, but by the time Susan and I parked, most of the crowd had dispersed. Off to our room where we promptly crashed – you see it was 2:30 in the morning (east coast time)..
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