Driving to and from the convention
From New Orleans, LA to Detroit, MI
(States we drove in: Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan)
Needless to say, our trip to the convention was eventful if not downright tiring. Tiring for Chaco and I at least. It was my first real car trip where I not only drove, but I had to deliver cargo at a certain time. The drivers were: David and Chaco, Jesse and Rebecca. D/C had to take a rental car up to Little Rock, Arkansas to pick up the second mobile van (big white dodge van). The rental car was real nice, a pontiac or something like that. Smooth. We also had Teddy who was coming with us up to Chicago for his vacation time there. When we got to Arkansas, Chaco and I got to stay at his uncle's place. 7 hours of sleep later, we get to the office to pick up the van. About an hour of chattering and measuring about spacing in the van, All three of us drive up to Chicago, IL with Teddy doing most of it. We spent the night at Ted's friend's place in the city right down the block from Chinatown. Ate dinner at Mayflower... good food. Unfortunately for me, the friend had a real friendly cat and I'm allergic. I managed not to sneeze more than three times and only two puffs of inhaler. So for the rest of the next day I sat in both driver and passenger seat looking like I'm trying to get over a bad cold. After saying bye-bye to Ted, we had to drive to Lake Geneva, WI through the worst traffic and construction congestion in our 23-25 years of history: I-94 Chicago, IL. We finally pick up the rickshaws midday... two bicycle type of rickshaws (look it up!). After no more than half an hour of loading it up, we head up to Detroit going back through Chi. Ugh. The traffic got us restless and in a bad mood. By evening we were in a bad mood with each other about this or that blah blah blah. Finally had to find a motel-6 in Ann Arbor, MI when we found out our “Wayne State U. rooms are not ready yet”. After a full night's sleep in a NICE bed (not a couch or the floor), we push on to Wayne State U where we end up circling the campus for 35 min trying to find out where the hell we were supposed to be. Finally found parking, the people, and where we had to report. Immediately I got into helping to stuff folders. Let the running around begin!
(J. and R. managed to get there ahead of us even though we were a day ahead. They only needed to go right up to Detroit with the van starting in New Orleans. There were two vans in case you weren't sure.)
From Detroit, MI to New Orleans, LA
(States we drove in: Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)
I have to say that the drive back to New Orleans was a LOT easier than going up. C/D and J/R switched vans (but personally I was hoping to switch drivers in case Chaco and I got into yelling into each other's ears about who what where when why how since we can't hear well when driving. Things went fine luckily). All we had to do was drive straight back to Nola without stopping for pick ups or drop offs. We were too exhausted at the end of Monday so we stayed one last night in WSU. Around 9:30 am, we head out and made very good time since there was rarely any traffic. Pretty boring even with the ipod playing per person (didn't have any speakers to set it up with). We eventually make it to Athens, Alabama around 8 pm or so... and stayed for dinner and a motel. Got a decent amount of sleep and left around 8:30 am. Got to Nola around 2 pm while being stuck on the I-10 bridge for an hour due to an accident from the heavy rain. When we pulled up the the office lot, we had to bring boxes in, but our driving trip was basically over (unless you count driving the empty vans back to the old office parking lot where the ASI “Acorn Services, Incorporated” team still uses them for their work). Back to the usual routines!
(States we drove in: Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan)
Needless to say, our trip to the convention was eventful if not downright tiring. Tiring for Chaco and I at least. It was my first real car trip where I not only drove, but I had to deliver cargo at a certain time. The drivers were: David and Chaco, Jesse and Rebecca. D/C had to take a rental car up to Little Rock, Arkansas to pick up the second mobile van (big white dodge van). The rental car was real nice, a pontiac or something like that. Smooth. We also had Teddy who was coming with us up to Chicago for his vacation time there. When we got to Arkansas, Chaco and I got to stay at his uncle's place. 7 hours of sleep later, we get to the office to pick up the van. About an hour of chattering and measuring about spacing in the van, All three of us drive up to Chicago, IL with Teddy doing most of it. We spent the night at Ted's friend's place in the city right down the block from Chinatown. Ate dinner at Mayflower... good food. Unfortunately for me, the friend had a real friendly cat and I'm allergic. I managed not to sneeze more than three times and only two puffs of inhaler. So for the rest of the next day I sat in both driver and passenger seat looking like I'm trying to get over a bad cold. After saying bye-bye to Ted, we had to drive to Lake Geneva, WI through the worst traffic and construction congestion in our 23-25 years of history: I-94 Chicago, IL. We finally pick up the rickshaws midday... two bicycle type of rickshaws (look it up!). After no more than half an hour of loading it up, we head up to Detroit going back through Chi. Ugh. The traffic got us restless and in a bad mood. By evening we were in a bad mood with each other about this or that blah blah blah. Finally had to find a motel-6 in Ann Arbor, MI when we found out our “Wayne State U. rooms are not ready yet”. After a full night's sleep in a NICE bed (not a couch or the floor), we push on to Wayne State U where we end up circling the campus for 35 min trying to find out where the hell we were supposed to be. Finally found parking, the people, and where we had to report. Immediately I got into helping to stuff folders. Let the running around begin!
(J. and R. managed to get there ahead of us even though we were a day ahead. They only needed to go right up to Detroit with the van starting in New Orleans. There were two vans in case you weren't sure.)
From Detroit, MI to New Orleans, LA
(States we drove in: Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana)
I have to say that the drive back to New Orleans was a LOT easier than going up. C/D and J/R switched vans (but personally I was hoping to switch drivers in case Chaco and I got into yelling into each other's ears about who what where when why how since we can't hear well when driving. Things went fine luckily). All we had to do was drive straight back to Nola without stopping for pick ups or drop offs. We were too exhausted at the end of Monday so we stayed one last night in WSU. Around 9:30 am, we head out and made very good time since there was rarely any traffic. Pretty boring even with the ipod playing per person (didn't have any speakers to set it up with). We eventually make it to Athens, Alabama around 8 pm or so... and stayed for dinner and a motel. Got a decent amount of sleep and left around 8:30 am. Got to Nola around 2 pm while being stuck on the I-10 bridge for an hour due to an accident from the heavy rain. When we pulled up the the office lot, we had to bring boxes in, but our driving trip was basically over (unless you count driving the empty vans back to the old office parking lot where the ASI “Acorn Services, Incorporated” team still uses them for their work). Back to the usual routines!