I scheduled a Michigan facility with two Ohio ones. This included one day for travel from Kalamazoo to Columbus in the middle of the week and required me to not get home until Friday night, but it got the visits in without messing up two weeks.
The week started out with me wrenching my back getting on the shuttle bus from the parking lot to the terminal as I tried to flip my bag onto it's side with a smart little wrist maneuver. The second I did it I knew I was in trouble. I made it to Kalamazoo by bracing my back with pillows and having excellent posture, but was in significant pain throughout. It was supposed to be a quick connection in Chicago, but wasn't (as usual). We changed gates a couple of times and ended up being over an hour late leaving. In addition, the flight was oversold and they were begging people to take a $250 voucher and coupons for a hotel and meals to take a flight in the AM. I'm not really sure if it was oversold, or if the weather was creating problems. It was stormy and VERY windy and they kept talking about weight restriction changes. The crowd didn't look that overweight to me, but maybe when the wind is blowing additional weight is a problem? Anyway, I wasn't giving up my seat...my back hurt! As always, there are people in the crowd making a scene. This time is was a woman who kept carrying on that, "They just don't care anything about us." (Yes, that is definitely the problem. The gate personnel just don't care.) I really felt sorry for her husband. He wanted to take the voucher and stay over, but she was so into making a scene he couldn't even get her to listen to the options. At some point, they finally disappeared. I had left to get a Frappuccino at Starbucks and when I got back they were gone. And they were still asking for volunteers to give up their seat.
They finally started announcing that the last four people who bought their ticket would be bumped. That caused a stir. I wondered where I was on the seniority ticket buying list. I had scheduled about three weeks prior and felt safe. When they announced the names to 'come to the counter' I was happily handing my boarding pass to the gate guy and heading down the walkway.
My night in Kalamazoo was terrible. I don't think I slept over 15 minutes at a time and repositioning was major effort. I had no medication other than Benadryl, Claritan, and Levaquin. I stopped at Walgreen's the next morning and bought some Ibuprofen. That helped some, but I was pretty miserable most of the day. I stood at the table part of the time to read charts rather that sit down, because it didn't hurt as bad. By the end of the day I decided I needed to go to Urgent Care and get stronger meds if I was going to survive the week. I only had to wait about two hours and got a prescription for Tylenol #3. It was snowing and blowing and I had boots with heels. Getting in the car was a production as I had to lift the left leg in and then try to reach the door to close it. I was afraid to take two pain pills as my plane left at 6 AM and I didn't want to oversleep, but I did sleep better and made it to the airport without incident. I had to change planes in Chicago and had time for breakfast. Did you know Macaroni Grill serves breakfast? I had an Italian omelet and it was quite good.
When I arrived in Columbus, it was snowing. I was headed to Canton, which is a two hour drive. As I headed north it kept snowing more and more and I really did not want to drive the whole way in a blizzard. I called Molly and asked her to check the weather on the internet. She said as I went north I would run out of the snow, and I did, until the last 30 miles into Canton, when it started up even heavier. I stopped at Wal-Mart for Diet Coke before checking in to the hotel and got a muffin at Panera. I really intended to check in, rest, and go somewhere for supper, but instead took two more Tylenol #3 and slept from 3 until 6:30. At that point, I ate the muffin and watched Law and Order reruns until I went back to sleep.
The drive back to Columbus on Thursday evening was without snow until about the last 10 minutes, but by morning the car was covered and it was snowing steadily. You guessed it. My flight on Friday evening was delayed leaving Columbus and I missed the Chicago connection by minutes. Flights out of O'Hare are always delayed 30 minutes to an hour, but not Friday. The one time I need for it to be late, it leaves within 15 minutes of when it is supposed to. I was rebooked on a 7:45 AM flight for Saturday morning. I got a room at a Renaissance Inn near the airport and made the best of it.
I was up at 5 AM, showered and got ready to leave the hotel on the 6 AM shuttle. As I started to leave the room my phone rang. It was American Airlines telling me the 7:45 flight was canceled and I was rebooked on a 9AM flight. So I ordered breakfast from room service and wrote reports.
Home looked wonderful!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Montana?
Last Monday I headed to Chicago to provide a 3-day Mock Survey. Great week!! Same client all three days equals only one report. Great hotel and didn't have to move. Home early Thursday afternoon.
It didn't work. I arrived at the facility only to find out another Polaris consultant had arrived about an hour earlier and had started the survey. Since this was supposed to be one consultant, three days, there was obviously a problem. I called the boss to let him know we were both there. He said he would check and call me back. We checked our e-mail and discovered she had been assigned on December 7 and I was assigned the facility on December 17. We decided to just proceed with both of us working the survey until we heard different. We would plan to finish on Wed, which would provide the client 4 days in stead of the contracted 3, and I would get to come home on Wednesday afternoon.
It didn't work. Victor called back around 4 and said he found out what the problem was and that it was 100% his fault. (We already knew that) He asked me how I felt about going to California to do a three day Mock Survey--Wed, Thur and Friday. Okay, I guess. So he said he would contact the client and get back to me. When I hadn't heard by 5 I figured I was headed home on Wednesday afternoon.
It didn't work. He called me back at 6 and said I was going to Montana. .....Montana? I wasn't excited about this adventure. Tuesday morning I started checking flight prices. It was going to be over $1,000 to get a flight from Chicago to Montana and back to Kansas City. Good news. Now I figure I AM headed home on Wednesday afternoon.
It didn't work. He talked with Travel and got the price down to $950 and I was headed to Kalispell, Montana Tuesday afternoon. There was a semi-blizzard going on in Chicago and flights were averaging delays of around 2 hours. I only had 1 1/2 hours to connect in Denver, so figured there was no way I would make the connection and called Marc and Susan to arrange for a bed for Tuesday night. But God must have been part of this plan. My plane left Chicago only 45 minutes late and I made it on my connecting plane with somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes to spare. I landed in Kalispell around 11. It was cold, but clear. The lady at the car rental desk gave me directions to the Hampton Inn. Unfortunately when I arrived, she had sent me to the Holiday Inn Express. I went into the Holiday Inn and asked where the Hampton Inn was. The clerk was very pleasant and understanding and provided me with good directions. I checked in and was in bed by a little after midnight.
Once I was there, it was really okay. Just the thought of all that travel and potential for disaster was a bit daunting when viewed from Chicago at noon. But it worked out well. The facility was nice and the staff great. We had a semi-blizzard there on Wednesday and low cloud cover on Thursday, so I didn't see the mountains, but I've been to Montana. And, since I had to go to Montana on a moments notice in the middle of snow storms, I thought I should get that assignment next summer when they are due for their next visit. So I'm planning to head back there in August and will plan a bit better, with a little down time to actually see the mountains. Kalispell and Columbia Falls (which is where the facility was located) are at the base of Glacier National Park. It should be a great trip.
It didn't work. I arrived at the facility only to find out another Polaris consultant had arrived about an hour earlier and had started the survey. Since this was supposed to be one consultant, three days, there was obviously a problem. I called the boss to let him know we were both there. He said he would check and call me back. We checked our e-mail and discovered she had been assigned on December 7 and I was assigned the facility on December 17. We decided to just proceed with both of us working the survey until we heard different. We would plan to finish on Wed, which would provide the client 4 days in stead of the contracted 3, and I would get to come home on Wednesday afternoon.
It didn't work. Victor called back around 4 and said he found out what the problem was and that it was 100% his fault. (We already knew that) He asked me how I felt about going to California to do a three day Mock Survey--Wed, Thur and Friday. Okay, I guess. So he said he would contact the client and get back to me. When I hadn't heard by 5 I figured I was headed home on Wednesday afternoon.
It didn't work. He called me back at 6 and said I was going to Montana. .....Montana? I wasn't excited about this adventure. Tuesday morning I started checking flight prices. It was going to be over $1,000 to get a flight from Chicago to Montana and back to Kansas City. Good news. Now I figure I AM headed home on Wednesday afternoon.
It didn't work. He talked with Travel and got the price down to $950 and I was headed to Kalispell, Montana Tuesday afternoon. There was a semi-blizzard going on in Chicago and flights were averaging delays of around 2 hours. I only had 1 1/2 hours to connect in Denver, so figured there was no way I would make the connection and called Marc and Susan to arrange for a bed for Tuesday night. But God must have been part of this plan. My plane left Chicago only 45 minutes late and I made it on my connecting plane with somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes to spare. I landed in Kalispell around 11. It was cold, but clear. The lady at the car rental desk gave me directions to the Hampton Inn. Unfortunately when I arrived, she had sent me to the Holiday Inn Express. I went into the Holiday Inn and asked where the Hampton Inn was. The clerk was very pleasant and understanding and provided me with good directions. I checked in and was in bed by a little after midnight.
Once I was there, it was really okay. Just the thought of all that travel and potential for disaster was a bit daunting when viewed from Chicago at noon. But it worked out well. The facility was nice and the staff great. We had a semi-blizzard there on Wednesday and low cloud cover on Thursday, so I didn't see the mountains, but I've been to Montana. And, since I had to go to Montana on a moments notice in the middle of snow storms, I thought I should get that assignment next summer when they are due for their next visit. So I'm planning to head back there in August and will plan a bit better, with a little down time to actually see the mountains. Kalispell and Columbia Falls (which is where the facility was located) are at the base of Glacier National Park. It should be a great trip.
Friday, February 8, 2008
It's a Blizzard
Last week I commented that travel had been pretty routine. No canceled flights. No lost luggage. Not even interesting and/or unique people to share. Well, that all changed this week when I was scheduled for Iowa and Omaha.
I started out on Monday, headed up 35 with the destination to be Cedar Rapids, Iowa. First I planned to go to David and Debbie's and have supper with them at this great little German Restaurant in Story City. It was 68 degrees in Kansas City when I left at about 2:00 About Cameron the temperature dropped to 45 over a 10 mile stretch and the fog rolled in. The fog lasted about 40 miles, then the temperature dropped to the mid thirties and the fog cleared. The road was fine, but there sure were lots of cars in the median and ditches as I drove through southern Iowa. About Des Moines, the fog came back and as dusk came upon me, I decided that I would skip dinner and go on to Cedar Rapids. Fog isn't fun in daylight, but I sure didn't want to be in a foggy dark any longer than I had to. The German Restaurant will be there next time.
I arrived in Cedar Rapids around 6:30 and made myself fill the car up before I went to the hotel. When I checked in, I discovered I was at the wrong Holiday Inn Express. I was at the one they usually scheduled me to be at, but for some reason this time the reservation was at the OTHER Cedar Rapids Holiday Inn. Fortunately, they called and negiotated for me to stay where I was.
I completed the visit and left early because it was starting to snow and 8-10 inches was predicted. Well, it arrived. I drove across Iowa on I-80 in the middle of it. What should have been a 4 1/2 hour drive at the most ended up taking 7 hours. There were times I though I should stop and find a hotel, but finding the exit and changing lanes seemed scarier than just staying in my lane and moving along. Des Moines was the very worst. The snow was heavy and there was a lot on the road already. I couldn't see the lane markings on the road, and was nervous about making the exit East to Omaha. Then add all those semi's into the equation and I was gripping the steering wheel with both hands and praying for steady nerves.
I arrived at the facility in Omaha around 9. When there I usually stay at a guest room at the facility instead of a hotel. Remember.....it's Super Tuesday. I get to the room and find I have NO TV!! Actually, I do have a TV. It's an elderly one, with a twist knob to turn it on and rabbit ears for reception. (Elderly TV in an elder care facilty....get it?) Unfortunately, the only channel I can come close to receiving is CBS with Katie, and she really annoys me. I did try to watch her, but that channel kept fading to snow, so I just gave up and went to sleep.
Heading home the next afternoon, the sky was blue and the roads were clear. It's is just amazing that we can erase such a storm so quickly.
I started out on Monday, headed up 35 with the destination to be Cedar Rapids, Iowa. First I planned to go to David and Debbie's and have supper with them at this great little German Restaurant in Story City. It was 68 degrees in Kansas City when I left at about 2:00 About Cameron the temperature dropped to 45 over a 10 mile stretch and the fog rolled in. The fog lasted about 40 miles, then the temperature dropped to the mid thirties and the fog cleared. The road was fine, but there sure were lots of cars in the median and ditches as I drove through southern Iowa. About Des Moines, the fog came back and as dusk came upon me, I decided that I would skip dinner and go on to Cedar Rapids. Fog isn't fun in daylight, but I sure didn't want to be in a foggy dark any longer than I had to. The German Restaurant will be there next time.
I arrived in Cedar Rapids around 6:30 and made myself fill the car up before I went to the hotel. When I checked in, I discovered I was at the wrong Holiday Inn Express. I was at the one they usually scheduled me to be at, but for some reason this time the reservation was at the OTHER Cedar Rapids Holiday Inn. Fortunately, they called and negiotated for me to stay where I was.
I completed the visit and left early because it was starting to snow and 8-10 inches was predicted. Well, it arrived. I drove across Iowa on I-80 in the middle of it. What should have been a 4 1/2 hour drive at the most ended up taking 7 hours. There were times I though I should stop and find a hotel, but finding the exit and changing lanes seemed scarier than just staying in my lane and moving along. Des Moines was the very worst. The snow was heavy and there was a lot on the road already. I couldn't see the lane markings on the road, and was nervous about making the exit East to Omaha. Then add all those semi's into the equation and I was gripping the steering wheel with both hands and praying for steady nerves.
I arrived at the facility in Omaha around 9. When there I usually stay at a guest room at the facility instead of a hotel. Remember.....it's Super Tuesday. I get to the room and find I have NO TV!! Actually, I do have a TV. It's an elderly one, with a twist knob to turn it on and rabbit ears for reception. (Elderly TV in an elder care facilty....get it?) Unfortunately, the only channel I can come close to receiving is CBS with Katie, and she really annoys me. I did try to watch her, but that channel kept fading to snow, so I just gave up and went to sleep.
Heading home the next afternoon, the sky was blue and the roads were clear. It's is just amazing that we can erase such a storm so quickly.
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