Wednesday, June 13, 2007

More Road Blocks on the Way to South Barrington

Waiting for a later flight is not so bad when there's gummy bears involved. Even if they're gangsta gummies. Of course it would have been better had there been Starbucks too, but one can only hope for so much change in the world.


Our flight finally arrived. Apparently things were going tough in New York because lots of other flights were getting canceled and the air lines were trying to buy off people en route to the Big Apple. Nobody offered us anything.

The airplane that finally arrived was small. Really small. When the call came, it was something along the lines of, "Zone 1 please present your tickets for boarding."

One guy gets up.
"OK, everybody else may board."

That was me and Matt and Tori. OK there were a few more, but it was small. Conditions were cloudy, so the ride was a bit bumpy. I started reconsidering whether I should have eaten all of the gummy bears at once on an empty stomach. After an hour in the air, I was no longer wondering. It was a bad choice.

Finally we get to O'Hare. My friend Lisa had gotten us an outstanding deal on a rental car. Some rental place we've never heard of. On the receipt there were instructions that you MUST call them when your plane lands and they will come pick you up. So we waited on our bags to arrive at baggage claim, and I called them. They said they would be there in a few minutes. Out we go to the pickup station just outside of the baggage claim area. The National Bus goes buy. Enterprise. Budget. Another National. Another Budget. Enterprise. Enterprise. No "Ace Car Rental" anywhere.

Where are these guys?

After 20 minutes, I started to get restless. Were they that far away? I called them again. "Where are you guys?"

It was hard enough to understand the guy with the thick accent anyway. I think all people who deal in the service industries should be required to speak Southern. But I just couldn't hear him on my mobile phone with all the rental car busses whizzing by - none of them carrying an "Ace Rental Car" logo, by the way.

Finally I was able to make out what he said. We were in the wrong place. We needed to go to the Central Transport Station.

What the heck is that? And where is it?

Go back in side the baggage area, and follow the signs.

I went back into the baggage area. Every sign had directions to the Transport Station. Every one of them were pointing in a different direction. Finally we settled on one, went down an escalator, and into an underground tunnel walkway. It was fairly well lit, sort of like a subway tunnel. But there was nobody else anywhere around. Not a soul. We walked for 10 minutes, following the directional arrows. It felt like the airport was long behind us. Once we rounded a turn and there was a lonely man playing the sax. I could see why he was playing the blues. This place was depressing. And he couldn't be making much money. Maybe he just got lost down there so he started playing.

I started to wonder if we were in the sewar system beneath the city.

Finally we came to some elevators that led us up to ground level. We were in what looked like a bus terminal. We walked through the waiting area and out the door, and there was a very kind man standing in front of a white van that said "Ace Rental Car". We all started to cheer and clap. He loaded up our luggage and whisked us away from The Matrix.


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