Quick Trip

This past week I headed back to Cincinnati for a quick business trip. It was kind of an under the radar sort of trip. Since I knew I wasn’t going to have time to see people, I didn’t bother telling anyone other than family that I was coming back. In order to make sure I had a car while in town, I flew in to Louisville and drove up to Cinci. I was so excited to travel again.

Then again, the trip has its normal share of mishaps that are so common with travel. I had no idea that my flight wasn’t direct. It didn’t say anything on my itinerary, so I was a bit dismayed to find that I had to go to Chicago. We flew into Midway rather than O’Hare, which was nice. However, once we got there we ended up having to switch planes. Not sure why, but whatever. So then next flight was a bit delayed, of course. Once we finally landed in KY, I was already an hour behind schedule. I still needed to drive another hour and a half to get to the hotel.

I had a small bit of drama with the rental car too. Louisville is a relatively small airport, so no need for a shuttle to the rental cars. Instead, I picked up the keys and schlepped out to the parking lot. I got in the car and couldn’t get the keys in the ignition. So there I am trying to jam the key in, looking for some sort of button or some indication of something I may need to do in order to get the stupid key in. As I sat there ready to blow my top, I am thinking that I am going to have to get my bags back out of the car and head back to the stupid counter.

As luck would have it, 2 guys were getting in to a car next to mine and I decided to ask for help. I didn’t like it, but I had to be the damsel in distress and hope they could figure it out. The guys were super nice and after trying to put the key in the ignition and having the same problem I did, one of them looked closer at the keys and determined that I was trying to start my Hyundai with keys to a Chevy. Turns out the Chevy was parked right next to me. So now what? My contract said I had the right car, but I had the wrong keys. I debated for a couple of seconds before deciding to go ahead and go back and get the right keys rather than just take the other car. Plus, the Chevy was some huge SUV that I didn’t want anyway. So back I went.

I finally got on the road and got to the hotel at midnight. I think I was supposed to be there at 10. Anyway, these are the little things that can really put a person off traveling. Luckily, the control freak in me recognizes that when it comes to business travel, “surrender and release” is the only way to get through it. There was nothing I could do about any of it other than to accept and move on, so that’s what I did. Otherwise, the trip was fine.

I was able to meet my Dad for dinner one night, but basically that was it. I was back out again on Friday to come home. I suppose I could have stayed the weekend, but for whatever reason, it didn’t even occur to me to stay when I was making the travel plans. This coming weekend my nieces will be in town. Stay tuned….