US Roadtrip - part 1 (of many:)
First things first...
No matter how I try, I simply can't make a small selection of travelphotos, even for a short introduction post, oops. Before I take you along on our roadtrip, I have to get the shaky start of this trip off my chest. If you kept an eye on my Twitter, you already know about this and I did mention it briefly in a previous post, but here's the whole deal. Feel free to skip the babbling and scroll down to the first set of photos. Or the second set, if you don't care for the prologue;)
On Sunday-evening August 2nd I was all packed and ready to go to bed early when I checked my mail for the last time. Good thing I did, because there was an e-mail from United Airlines stating that my flight to Chicago on Monday morning had been cancelled due to "flight crew availability"; I originally had a connecting flight to Cleveland, where tmn1966 would pick me up.
The message said I had to find alternative flights through the website, but there were none available on Monday anymore. First opportunity was departure on Tuesday, but the website refused to confirm my new intinerary.
Most of Monday was spent on the website, app and phone with United and I finally managed to book a new intinerary through Newark and Chicago to A/C, close to tmn1966's home.
However, I was not assigned a seat and while waiting to board I was given yet another itinerary, straight from Amsterdam to Chicago with an earlier connection to A/C. This reduced my lost time with 4 hours (to a total loss of 23 and a half hours) so I decided to take that route. I asked if they could recheck my bag to the plane I was going to be on and the lady at the desk assured me they would, but... yeah.
When I finally arrived in A/C I found tmn1966 waiting at the bagage belt, but... no bag. I of course reported this right away and everybody kind of expected it to be on the next flight. Except it wasn't. And it didn't come on the early morning flight on Wednesday either. In fact: United had no idea where my bag was, because the system told them it was rescanned in Amsterdam but that was 'impossible'.
I decided not to wait on yet another flight (which turned out to be really smart, because United didn't find my bag until Saturday!! They called us on the road). I made a list of items I would need to go on the roadtrip and tmn1966 took me to Walmart where I could find ALL THE THINGS \o/.
So we had lost a day to chill and get to know each other a little better, but shopping together did take care of the latter at least *grins*
In the end we left only two hours later than originally planned.
Who's ready for photos?
Sunday, August 2, 2015
I made T. and me pillowcases (for all the grubby motelrooms on the road;) and I had been collecting all the clothes and other stuff I wanted to bring on the bed in my guestroom for the past few weeks.
Before packing for real I moved everything to the couch in my livingroom; I put all the carry-on stuff and clothes to wear for traveling on my love-seat.
You didn't think that would all fit, did you? HA! I was all packed before I found out my flight was cancelled (see babbling above).
Instead of going to the airport on Mondaymorning, I now took a train in the afternoon to sleep over at my brother's in Amsterdam, so I could catch my new -very early- flight on Tuesday.
Monday, August 3, 2015
With my backpack at the trainstation and with brotherdearest Hans & his girlfriend Benthe on Monday evening; they did a good job distracting me from the woe of leaving a day later;)
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
OF COURSE it rained, of course. This is around 5.20 a.m. after I walked from my brother's apartment to the busstop for the first airport bus, that got me to Schiphol in half an hour, yay.
After checking in (still no seat number, but I did get a boardingpass) I walked around the airport for some artsy photos of lamps and a Nijntje shop (her international name is Miffy;)
Not my plane, because even though United started boarding, I still didn't have a seat number. When they finally called my name I was told they overbooked and they asked me to give up my seat; they offered me an alternative flight straight to Chicago, that would cut 4 hours off my already ridiculous delay. Boarding on that flight had also already started, so I had to run to the other gate, trusting the promise of the lovely lady behind the desk that they would take care of my checked in backpack... Made it! Goodbye, Netherlands!
I limited the photos of airplane food, but had to show you this 'breakfast'; it was supposed to be heated I think. (My book is covered in plain paper because the cover is too hideous). HELLO, CHICAGO! (I'll get back to you in a week or two;)
A toilet seat condom. Not my idea of hygienic, really (very sticky), the huge amount of water makes it feel like I'm peeing in the pool. (Not even gonna think about number twos). Hey, look at my tiny plane!
No really, it was a VERY tiny plane, I had a seat right next to the toilet (I feel there is a theme here, I promise this was the last toilet-photo until Texas at least *grins*). HELLO OHIO!
Touch down! From now on everything will go smoothly, yes?
NO. Of course my bag didn't make it, duh. (see full report on that above) On the bed in tmn1966 lovely guestroom is everything I had with me. (So glad I bought T. a little souvenir on the airport, I was mostly bummed I couldn't hand out all the presents, especially those pillowcases, hrmpf)
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
But I had fangirl hugs and T. gave me the best welcome gift: a tin full of a bathbombs and bubblebars from Lush <3. After a bath, burgers (with Baconator fries, so gross, so GOOD;) and a trip to Walmart I had EVERYTHING I needed to start our travels... (photo is a sneakpreview of our first motelroom:)
After a final photo in front of T's awesome wall, we were READY TO GO!
Part 2: the worlds biggest windchime plus fangirl meet ups in Ohio and Illinois...
No matter how I try, I simply can't make a small selection of travelphotos, even for a short introduction post, oops. Before I take you along on our roadtrip, I have to get the shaky start of this trip off my chest. If you kept an eye on my Twitter, you already know about this and I did mention it briefly in a previous post, but here's the whole deal. Feel free to skip the babbling and scroll down to the first set of photos. Or the second set, if you don't care for the prologue;)
On Sunday-evening August 2nd I was all packed and ready to go to bed early when I checked my mail for the last time. Good thing I did, because there was an e-mail from United Airlines stating that my flight to Chicago on Monday morning had been cancelled due to "flight crew availability"; I originally had a connecting flight to Cleveland, where tmn1966 would pick me up.
The message said I had to find alternative flights through the website, but there were none available on Monday anymore. First opportunity was departure on Tuesday, but the website refused to confirm my new intinerary.
Most of Monday was spent on the website, app and phone with United and I finally managed to book a new intinerary through Newark and Chicago to A/C, close to tmn1966's home.
However, I was not assigned a seat and while waiting to board I was given yet another itinerary, straight from Amsterdam to Chicago with an earlier connection to A/C. This reduced my lost time with 4 hours (to a total loss of 23 and a half hours) so I decided to take that route. I asked if they could recheck my bag to the plane I was going to be on and the lady at the desk assured me they would, but... yeah.
When I finally arrived in A/C I found tmn1966 waiting at the bagage belt, but... no bag. I of course reported this right away and everybody kind of expected it to be on the next flight. Except it wasn't. And it didn't come on the early morning flight on Wednesday either. In fact: United had no idea where my bag was, because the system told them it was rescanned in Amsterdam but that was 'impossible'.
I decided not to wait on yet another flight (which turned out to be really smart, because United didn't find my bag until Saturday!! They called us on the road). I made a list of items I would need to go on the roadtrip and tmn1966 took me to Walmart where I could find ALL THE THINGS \o/.
So we had lost a day to chill and get to know each other a little better, but shopping together did take care of the latter at least *grins*
In the end we left only two hours later than originally planned.
Who's ready for photos?
Sunday, August 2, 2015
I made T. and me pillowcases (for all the grubby motelrooms on the road;) and I had been collecting all the clothes and other stuff I wanted to bring on the bed in my guestroom for the past few weeks.
Before packing for real I moved everything to the couch in my livingroom; I put all the carry-on stuff and clothes to wear for traveling on my love-seat.
You didn't think that would all fit, did you? HA! I was all packed before I found out my flight was cancelled (see babbling above).
Instead of going to the airport on Mondaymorning, I now took a train in the afternoon to sleep over at my brother's in Amsterdam, so I could catch my new -very early- flight on Tuesday.
Monday, August 3, 2015
With my backpack at the trainstation and with brotherdearest Hans & his girlfriend Benthe on Monday evening; they did a good job distracting me from the woe of leaving a day later;)
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
OF COURSE it rained, of course. This is around 5.20 a.m. after I walked from my brother's apartment to the busstop for the first airport bus, that got me to Schiphol in half an hour, yay.
After checking in (still no seat number, but I did get a boardingpass) I walked around the airport for some artsy photos of lamps and a Nijntje shop (her international name is Miffy;)
Not my plane, because even though United started boarding, I still didn't have a seat number. When they finally called my name I was told they overbooked and they asked me to give up my seat; they offered me an alternative flight straight to Chicago, that would cut 4 hours off my already ridiculous delay. Boarding on that flight had also already started, so I had to run to the other gate, trusting the promise of the lovely lady behind the desk that they would take care of my checked in backpack... Made it! Goodbye, Netherlands!
I limited the photos of airplane food, but had to show you this 'breakfast'; it was supposed to be heated I think. (My book is covered in plain paper because the cover is too hideous). HELLO, CHICAGO! (I'll get back to you in a week or two;)
A toilet seat condom. Not my idea of hygienic, really (very sticky), the huge amount of water makes it feel like I'm peeing in the pool. (Not even gonna think about number twos). Hey, look at my tiny plane!
No really, it was a VERY tiny plane, I had a seat right next to the toilet (I feel there is a theme here, I promise this was the last toilet-photo until Texas at least *grins*). HELLO OHIO!
Touch down! From now on everything will go smoothly, yes?
NO. Of course my bag didn't make it, duh. (see full report on that above) On the bed in tmn1966 lovely guestroom is everything I had with me. (So glad I bought T. a little souvenir on the airport, I was mostly bummed I couldn't hand out all the presents, especially those pillowcases, hrmpf)
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
But I had fangirl hugs and T. gave me the best welcome gift: a tin full of a bathbombs and bubblebars from Lush <3. After a bath, burgers (with Baconator fries, so gross, so GOOD;) and a trip to Walmart I had EVERYTHING I needed to start our travels... (photo is a sneakpreview of our first motelroom:)
After a final photo in front of T's awesome wall, we were READY TO GO!
Part 2: the worlds biggest windchime plus fangirl meet ups in Ohio and Illinois...