Quite the trip!

The second flight from Chicago to Syracuse was a puddle jumper, the kind with just 3 seats across. When we got to Chicago everything was delayed a couple of hours – no surprise there. There was a big storming coming through so they actually moved our flight back up so it was only 1 hour delayed. They boarded about 5 plays in rapid succession. Which was easy because they were the small ones that loaded directly from the tarmac. Ummm… no red carpet. We taxied out to the runway and it started bucketing down and some major thunderstorms moved in. The pilot came over the intercom and let us know they had just shut down O’Hare airport. We did not go back to the terminal… no…. we sat on the runway. We were already in queue to take off, so we waited. And waited. And waited. The storm passed and one plane took off – we were supposedly 3rd in line. And we waited. And waited. Then the pilot came back on the intercom and said the plane that just took off had too hard of a time, so they shut down the airport again. And then it began to storm again…. Hail, jagged lightning, the works. 3 hours after we LEFT the gate, we heard planes taking off again, and again, and again. We thought for sure we were good to go. THEN the pilot came out of the cockpit and went back to the bathroom. Bad sign. Apparently they had cleared flights headed north, south, and west. But east was the way the storm was moving. Finally, after sitting closed up on the runway for over 4 hours, we took off. The flight was rough, and we were never able to clime above the storm, so the lightning storm was pretty amazing.

I got to the Syracuse airport about 1:30am. The rental car desk closed at midnight. So I had no car. I paid $75 for a taxi, not sure how I was going to get to work or how I was even going to get a car. I went to the taxi, and the sweetest scruffy, pinchable old man got out, and I told him I wanted to hug him! He said he’d willingly oblige. Haha. We chatted and laughed all the way to my hotel in Skaneateles. He helped me take my bag inside, and there was no one around. We looked around and called out a few times, but no one came up front. He said he’d have to take me home with him (okay… sounds creepy, but it wasn’t). Finally the little old clerk came out, took me to the bar to get a diet pepsi, and then showed me to my room. By this time it was nearly three am, and I had to be up in 3 hours. And I had no car.

Okay… the hotel. It was built in 1807. It is really like a big bed and breakfast. The building sits directly across from the Skaneateles lake, and it has nothing to disrupt the view. By the way. Most of the surrounding area gets their water from the lake. They don’t filter it. It is supposed to be one of the cleanest lakes. Whatever – the drinking water smells like fish. The hotel is FILLED with antiques, the floors are wood, and it has an awesome inverted barrel ceiling in the foyer.

My room had a huge rope bed that was literally 4 feet off the floor. Do I even have to mention that I fell out of bed when I went to expel all that diet pepsi I drank? The furniture was neat.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed, went down for one of their famous breakfasts complete with fresh orange juice, hot coffee, homemade granola, and a fresh from the oven croissant. Oh and some stanky fish water. I sat looking out onto the lake. The front of the hotel has huge glass windows that can be completely opened in the summer. It was very windy and a storm was blowing in, but the water looked as blue as I had remembered it.

I got a taxi to work. The driver was really funny, very tattooed, and very pierced. I got to work in time for my first meeting, and I settled in for a morning of meeting after meeting. I finally made it downstairs to reunite with my buddies, but I could only spend an hour with them until I had to go to another meeting. At 2pm, one of the guys, Paul, was sweet enough to drive me to the airport so I could get a car.