Out of pocket…No phone, no lights, no motor cars….
Okay – it wasn’t that bad but I was without internet access this week. I had to go to a conference in beautiful Banff, Canada and I didn’t take my lap top with me. The last time I flew, Homeland Security wasn’t the most accommodating and I didn’t want to give them any reason to hold me up (e.g. body cavity search) so I tried to travel light. I had hoped to post while on the road but I couldn’t get the hotel’s internet television to work.
The conference was very good, the scenery fabulous and the hotel reminiscent of Hogwarts castle from Harry Potter (will try to post pictures at some point). The trip home, however, was a total a$$ pain.
Travel trauma
One delayed flight turned into a canceled flight, which meant I had to fly standby for another flight, which of course was delayed…yadda yadda yadda… So long story short, my flight was so late I was suppose to get home 8pm last night but didn’t get home until 3:15am this morning. Yes folks – 9 hours of travel trauma in the Chicago airport will make you a wee cranky.
I have many funny stories to post about my trip but I am a walking zombie today so I will only tell you one.
MOOSE!
While taking the airport shuttle from Banff to Calgary I chatted with a young woman from Japan who was vacationing with her family. We talked about the weather and the mountains and traveling – as much as her English would allow her seeing as how my Japanese is limited to domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.
I commented about the wild life and said I had wanted to see a moose but had not. She said, “Ah!” and held her hands up to both sides of her head, fingers spread, “Moose?” I repeated the gesture - the international sign for moose - and said, “Yes…moose!” This of course set us off giggling for several minutes. I am very happy I could do my part as a goodwill ambassador.
I am at home today recovering and catching up on my work e-mail. I still have some pics from the University of Iowa homecoming. I will post those later.
DMG over and out…
Pictures: www.wikipedia.com
5 comments:
I so feel your pain about traveling back from Canada to the U.S.
While I didn't have a delayed flight, I was nearly late for the plane, despite arriving at the Calgary Airport three hours in advance.
Full story at my Airport Report.
Welcome home!
Delayed and mancled flights are a nuisance. The Quipper needs to schedule his flights carefully so he is not stuck at some out of town airport when the band has a gig!
At least you have some great stories. Was the Japanese family familiar with the Styx song? ;-)
Ga! 9 hours in O'Hare (I'm assuming it was O'Hare; had it been Midway, you'd no longer be with us here on this earth)is enough to turn Mr. Rogers into Hannibal Lector. Glad you made it back safe.
No...internet..for a ....week? *Shudder*
Dan - Thanks for your airport report. Very informative! I will use it before I book my next flight which hopefully won't be for awhile.
Marie - I don't know if they knew the song or not. I didn't ask cuz I didn't want to cause an international incident by mispronouncing anything in Japanese. ;-)
ND - Yes, it was O'Hare....or as I call it now O'Horror. That's the last time I use Chicago as a connecting city. Being off line for so long was okay...*twitch!*. My days were pretty busy but it would have been nice to hop on line before going to bed.
DMG!
What a riot! MOOOOOOOSE!!!!! ^^^O^^^
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