Without any more interuption...here is the final installment...dun dun dun...
Day #8 (Sunday) Part 2
So after we left the airline counter and start walking towards the exit to look for the shuttle bus station. It was a long walk, at least it seems to be. Every step just add more pain to my feet. The additional 50 pounds or so between my camera bag and the rolling duffle certainly isn't helping the situation. I guess I have an OCD about the new rolling duffle. I just refuse to put the new wheel onto the ground so instead I choose to carry it on my shoulder.
Once we got out of the airport, it took us a while to find the shuttle bus station and it wasn't exactly a short walk either. By then the sky was already dark and we were stranded in a strange city. All we can do was look for sign and hope it will lead us there. Thankfully, even it was in the middle of February, temperature at Atlanta was only cool and not cold. DW and I, both were wearing a sweatshirt, just enough not to freeze ourselves. After a few try, we finally found the shuttle bus station.
The station was pretty big. Each terminal has it's own designated shuttle for its' particular hotel. So we kept walking and look at the terminal sign hoping we can find the Comfort Inn shuttle soon. Of course, it has to be on the other end of the station. Once we thought we found our shuttle bus and trying to board, the bus driver stopped us from getting in. He looked at our vouchers. It turns out our vouchers was for Comfort Inn South. The shuttle he drives is for Comfort Inn North. Arghhhh!!! Either the woman behind the counter never told us about the difference or we were just not paying any attention at all. Luckily, the shuttle terminal we suppose to get on is only a few more terminal over. It wasn't bad. Once we got there and saw the sign for Comfort Inn South, I thought I was about to pass out because the shuttle isn't there and my feet were hurting really bad. What can we do?? We sat at the bench and wait and wait and wait. I can't even remember how long we wait before we see the shuttle pull in. While we were waiting, there was a young woman in her early 20s asked us if we were waiting for the shuttle to Comfort Inn South. I said, "Yes". She then proceed to seat down and told us her flight "problem". I forgot where was she flying out of. I only remember she was trying to get home at Harrisburg, PA for a break from her internship program. Some how the airline kept screwing up her flight and they kept bounce her flight to all over the country.
Anyway, the shuttle bus finally arrived. We all boarded the bus and soon we left the airport. The hotel was only about 15-20 minutes or so from the airport. Everyone on the bus were staying at the same hotel. So obviously, once we got off the bus, there was a line at the hotel front desk waiting to get check-in. The lobby seemed nice, so I thought... They even have a Mexican restaurant right by the lobby. (Not exactly my kind of restaurant but I can tolerate.) It took a while for our turn to check-in. By the time we got our key and got into our room, it's already 9:30pm. It was an unexpected long day.
Once we got into the room, I dropped everything and took my shoes off to checked my blisters. It was hurting like a SOB. I can see my left foot blister looked like a water pocket. My right foot was a little better but equally painful. Once we settle in, we discovered this is a hotel from "HELL". DW was freaking out. There were holes in the carpet, I meant you can actually see the concrete floor. (These pictures were taking by DW.)
Stain spots on the bed sheet.
Rust stain under the toilet and in the bath tub as well.
DW was not a happy camper. But due to our situation, we can only make the best of the situation and deal with it.
I reluctantly to washed my face from the sink and my feet from the bath tub because I just felt so dirty. After I cleaned myself up a bit, I felt a little better. Then DW cleaned herself a bit and we were hungry. So we took the elevator back down stair and starting to walk down this long hallway to the Mexican restaurant. Suddenly I heard a voice saying "There are two coming down the hall." What the...I turned around and looked, there was nobody behind us. Then as soon as we turned the corner, there was a security guard talking on her 2 way radio. I looked around more closely, that's when I notice there were surveillance cameras all over the hallway ceiling. I am afraid to ask what had happened at this place.
So we thought we might able to get something to eat the the Mexican restaurant at the lobby with our $7 meal vouchers. Guess what?! They were about to close because the place close at 10pm. That goes our dinner idea. So we venture out to try our luck. Once we step out of the hotel front door, there isn't a whole lot of options we can choose from. Either A, go to a local bar next door and get drunk out of our mind (which is probably a better idea) or B, go to KFC for something quick which is also next door. We choose option B.
But again, they were cleaning and getting ready to close once we walked in. The guy behind the counter still serve us. At that point, we both already lost our appetite. All we want was 4 fried chicken sliders and a couple of small sodas. That's all. Not too complicated...so I thought. This was the conversation between DW and the guy behind the counter.
Guy behind the counter: How may I help you?
DW: I would like to order 4 fried chicken sliders and 2 small Pepsi to go.
Turn around and look at the oven. Guy behind the counter: We only have 5.
DW: Huh??
Guy behind the counter: We only have 5 sliders left.
DW: But I only order 4.
Guy behind the counter: I just want to tell you we have 5 left.
DW: (Scratch her head) All I want is 4 sliders.
Guy behind the counter: Ah...okay.
I was watching this from the side line scratching my head. I don't know I should laugh or cry.
Then of course, the guy has to reheat the chicken while he was cleaning the kitchen and mopping the floor. At least we are getting some very "clean" chicken, right?? It felt like forever for him to get the sliders ready. Once we got our so call "food", we left immediately and back to our room. The sliders actually taste decent but I just don't know how "clean" it was. Given how tired we were, we just want to have something in our stomach instead of starving.
After our "meal", DW called the airline and ripped them a good one. I can honestly say I can't blame her. I have stayed at high end hotel from Hyatt, Hilton and Ritz Carlton for business trip to some pretty sad shape hotel like Red Roof Inn or Ramada. This is by far the worst place I have ever experienced. Luckily, she has unlimited minutes for weekend on her cellphone. She must be on the phone for good 30 minutes telling them about the delay, the next day switch, how the lady behind the airline counter treated us and put us up at hotel from hell. At one point, DW mention we were on our way home from Disney vacation and we were never treated this way. I believe the response she got was "We don't have service like Disney." In the end, the airline only to offer a $75 credit towards our future flight. I am not sure if we would ever fly with this airline.
We were a bit hyper afterward so we end up watched TV until close to 1am. Then finally, we both fell asleep. I didn't even bother to change my clothes, not that I have anything to change anyway since I have no luggage. I slept with my clothes on top of the comforter. The overnight kit that the airline gave us has some paper thin night shirt in it and I didn't even open it. I can't bear to sleep under the sheet with the stain. If I could, I probably would sleep on the floor. But with the holes in the carpet, that's not an option either. Needless to say, we did not have a good night sleep.
Day #9 (Monday) The final frontier!
Who would've thought a 7 days Disney vacation would turn into a 9 days ordeal.
Since our flight is @ 7:30am, we set our alarm at 4:30am so we can take the shuttle back to the airport at 5:00am. However, even we slept at 1am, I woke up at 3:30am. I basically stare at the ceiling for an hour. By 4:45am, we couldn't wait to leave the room with barely a rinse on my face.
The shuttle bus arrived at 5:00am and there were a few airline pilots on the bus also. We got to the airport at about 5:15am. First thing we did was go to the airline counter to confirm our names were on the flight in the system. Once we did that, we then went thru the security and head to the gate. During the security check, DW went thru without any problem. I, however, was not so lucky. They had me went thru this chamber, raise my arm to have a full body scan.
Yikes!!! It was kinda cool though like I was in a sci-fi movie. After my camera bag and the rolling duffle went thru the X-ray machine, the TSA agents were making fun of me on how much stuff I carried while DW only had 1 backpack. Those TSA agents were pretty funny and chatty. I guess at 5:30am, I am the only entertainment they got. LOL...
Once we got to the gate, (obviously it was empty) we sat by the door. By 6:30am, the gate began to get crowded. I think by 7:00am, they start boarding people. Armed with our boarding passes, we waited patiently for our section to be called. Once our section was paged to board, I handed over our boarding passes to the lady.
She said, "You can't get in yet."
I said, "What do you mean?"
She said, "Your boarding pass is not valid for this flight."
I explained, "We miss our connect flight last night and the airline transfer us to this flight then reconnect back home."
She said, "The airline must release your name from the missing original connect flight and then we can board to this flight."
By then, it's already 7:15am. I was so frustrated of the whole situation especially sitting there since 5:30am. Thankfully, there is another lady behind the check-in counter offer to help and see what she can do. She seems to be the supervisor of that crew. If it wasn't her, this would've been turned from disaster into destruction. All I saw was this lady behind the check-in counter keep typing on her terminal and pick up the phone to called whomever to confirm release of our name from the original flight. By 7:25am, she squared away everything for us and we were good to go to board the plane. We were the last two passengers to board the plane. Of course, there wasn't much room left for the overhead storage since we board so late. At that point, I don't really care how I stuff the rolling duffle up there. I just reshuffle other people's bags and shove my rolling duffle in there then close the door. The camera stayed by my side and I usually kept it under the seat in front of me.
Finally, at 7:30am sharp, the flight left the runway and headed to the sky on our way to Detroit. (I swear, I felt like I was in the Home Alone II movie or doing the reality show, "Amazing Race".) I couldn't pull my DSLR camera out of the bag but I was able to get my old P&S camera out to get a shot of the takeoff. If you look at the background, I believe that's downtown Atlanta.
The flight was uneventful. We were over Michigan a little after 9:00am. I took a few more shot while we were over the Lake Erie.
We landed at Detroit airport without any problem. The plane headed right to the gate as soon as we landed. However, Detroit airport was huge. It felt like forever before we get to the gate. By the time we got out of the gate, it was already 9:30am. Our connect flight to Allentown was at 9:50am. We checked the monitor and identify which gate we need to go. Once we determine our direction, let the race begin.
Of course our connection has to be on the other end of the airport. So we ran as fast as we can and we have to ran thru this tunnel under the airport that looks almost like a time tunnel. Very weird. I ran and limp at the same time because my feet were already in the full pain mode. DW told me why don't I put the rolling duffle down to lighten the weight I carried so I can just pull it since my feet hurt so much. My OCD side of me refuse to do that because I don't want to dirty the new wheels on my rolling duffle. DW just rolls her eyes at me and called me weird. Yes, I am that weird and stubborn.
It took us a good 10 minute of full throttle running to get to the gate. Our boarding pass went thru without any hiccup this time. Even the lady at the check-in told us we still have 10 minutes. Once we boarded the plane, I have to check-in my rolling duffle at the entrance because this flight is much smaller and the overhead is not large enough to accommodate. They gave me a tag to wrap on the handle and that was it.
Again, we were the last two check-in to this flight. Finally, now I can rest. At 9:50am, our flight left Detroit and on our way back to Allentown. The flight landed at Allentown airport at 11:00am preciously. Hurray!!!! We made it. We don't care if we were the last two passenger to leave the plane. Once we got out of the plane, I picked up my rolling duffle immediately. But now what, where do we picked up our luggage. So we went to asked the guy who work behind the airline counter. (There is something to be said about the workers who work at small airport. They always went out of their way to help people.) This guy looked up our name in the system. He even went to the back to checked our luggage wasn't there. He said our luggage should be coming out at where all the other luggage came out from our flight at Detroit.
So we went to the luggage claim area and found the terminal with our flight number. Unfortunately, we don't see our luggage and it's not a big flight. There isn't really a whole lot of luggage came out of this flight. I said, "Oh boy! This is not good." DW offer to go back upstair and see what she can find out since my feet just can walk that much any more. After she left me for about 10 minutes, I saw a young girl who help us to check in when we were leaving for Disney 9 days ago walked pass me by. She went to one of the offices next to the terminal where I was standing next to it. She then came out with these 2 pieces of luggage with a sign tag on one of the luggage. I recognize right away that was our luggage. I flagged her down and said, "Those are my luggage." I think she recognize me from over a week ago. She said, "Do you mind if I leave this with you because they are "HEAVY". I said, "Sure. You can just let my wife know I have the luggage and she can just come back down." Before the young girl left, DW already already came back down and saw our luggage.
Apparently, the luggage arrived Allentown the night before and they held it at one of the room. I guess they don't normally have incident like that.
Finally, we got our luggage and all our bags and headed over to the parking lot to load up our car. Once we got on to the highway, we both felt hungry. (I wonder why??) We stopped at one of my favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch. Nothing fancy or exotic dish. We just want some common Chinese food. That's all.
After our lunch, then we headed back home right away. At about 1pm, we were finally home. I turned on the water and took a hot shower right away. Can't stand myself after no shower for over 24 hours. I couldn't even unpack our luggage. We just left everything at the family room. As soon as I got out of the shower, I splatter myself on the couch. Switch on the TV and felt asleep. I believe DW was on the phone left and right calling all her friends trying to give them update on what happen on our trip.
All I can say is...after 12 hours of delay from the original schedule, I am just glad disaster is finally OVER!!! Zzzzzz...
I just got the SX10IS Now I need to learn how to use it better.
from start to almost finish. Now please, 
post that last installment. FYI, you did a FANTASTIC job on your TR. Of course I/we all loved the pictures. How could you not? And then the writing style is brilliant. Thank you for making Disney real to me. The first and last time I went was way back in 1990 when I was in college. Now I have a family of my own. Your TR is the inspiration to make that trip happen. Not sure when, but maybe one day soon. They are still young, they won't be 3 until September so maybe in a few years. Can I wait that long? 
You'll just need to go back with DW before then and do another TR. 
