Did JT ever make it to the arena?
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
Ah... hell no, it was the worst of times.
The plane left MN late, allegedly because the runway construction has restricted the taxiways, and the planes can't get to the gates quickly. So I got to Midway about 40 minutes late. Then, Dollar Rentacar had a huge line (so did all the other rental counters... don't know what was up). Bottom line, I finally got the car about an hour later than I expected to be driving out of Midway.
But the worst of it was when I asked whether Yahoo's directions (take 55th St east to 94 and head south) was the best, or whether I should go down Cicero to pick up 294 instead. I got told that I-80 was closed due to the flash flooding, and that everything eastbound was moving at a snail's pace.
The best suggestion was to go down Cicero to 294, take that only to Illinois-1 (Haster Ave?), take that south to US-30, and go across to I-65 in Indiana before coming back up north.
Two hours after I had
planned to be on the road from Midway, I was about 5 miles south of the airport, still on Cicero.
I-294 was backed up and full of semis... I managed to sneak in front of some of them to get over to the right hand lane, and took the exit for IL-1. Eventually, I got down to US-30, and turned to the east.
It wasn't "too" bad along US-30 until we got up near IL-394, which is, I think, where the interstate traffic was being "officially" detoured. Traffic came to pretty much a complete stop, except for the ambulances that were coming back from the east, and then returning to where I was headed, going in the oncoming lanes because it was the only way for them to move. I foolishly set the trip odometer, and my watch, so I could see how fast I was moving. Half an hour later, I had moved 0.6 miles. At that rate, I figure I would have gotten to South Bend somewhere around 4AM.
When the seven (!!!) ambulances headed back east for a presumed
third pickup of people (what the heck happened there??), and about the time the Gophers won game three, I decided that it wasn't worth it to head east any further, even though I had a pre-paid, non-refundable hotel room waiting for me. I turned around and headed back to Chicago.
A couple minutes before 7PM, I stopped in at Brown's on Cicero Ave, got a roast beef and italian sausage combo meal, and called NWA to see if there were any flights leaving Midway back to the Cities. There was an 8PM flight, and without thinking about it too long, I told them to re-book me.
Then, I realized that I was about 5-1/2 miles south of the airport, on a 35 mph road in Chicago. Oh well.
At 7:30, I made it back to the car rental dropoff, told them that I knew the gas tank wasn't filled up, but too bad for me, and went into the airport w/out picking up a receipt.
I got lucky, and there was no one at the NWA counter in front of me, and almost no one in front of me going through security. I jogged along the slidewalk, and as I got near the corner of the concourse right before gate A5, I heard my name come over the speakers as someone who needed to show up... now.
The nice gate agent took my boarding pass, was about to scan it in, and then said "oh wait, you're Elite" and issued me a first class upgrade. (Thank you!) I got back in to MSP at 9:30PM.
So bottom line, I paid for the airline ticket, the rental car, and a night's hotel room so I could drive approximately 25 miles on congested roads, and drive 25 miles
back along empty roads (except for the last part of that) without seeing a bit of volleyball.
Oh well... such are the burdens of a road tripper.