Chicago Travel 5
7:56 am
My attempts to keep EST while out here have been mildly successful at best. Going out drinking doesn't help that cause. Certainly feeling it this morning. Time to shower up and get ready to head home. Looking forward to seeing the family again. The trip was good but I miss home.
8:23 am
All showered and packed. Time to check out and find me some breakfast. Going with jeans and sneakers for travel today.
8:36 am
Did another Potbelly stop for a breakfast sandwich. Including the $1.55 Starbucks coffee it was $5.05. Some stuff is really friggin cheap out here.
9:17 am
In the office now. I took my time drinking my coffee to just relax a bit. Today could be long, especially with Ohare's bad record on air travel. I'm supposed to land at 7:20 but from the sounds of it I'll be lucky to see that happen.
Have a few more builds to do this morning which really should help solidify this week's work. It's been a solid week.
1:38 pm
In a cab to the airport now. Giving myself 3 hours and change because there's apparently a lot of traffic these days due to consrtruction. I like Chicago but not enough to stay another few hours if I miss my plane.
Got free lunch today which was nice because the company buys for everyone on Fridays. So we all sat together and talked over lunch.
I didn't get as much done today as I had hoped. There were a lot of problems with the build from yesterday so we battled back and forth with it and finally it was time to go so one of the other guys took over while I jumped out to catch a cab.
2:10 pm
Pulling into the airport already, almost no traffic at all. So I have about 2 hours to kill before we board. Since I did online checkin I didn't have to wait in the huge line. I got to walk right up and go through while 200 people stood in line waiting.
There's a flight to Newark that leaves here at 3:30. I'm going to try and see if I can hop on that plane. I'm sure it will be full but why not try?
2:52 pm
Put myself on the wait list for the 3:30 flight. No idea what the chances are but it striked me that I'll get to Newark during rush hour traffic if I do make this. Maybe I should just chill and be happy to get there later. Then again this flight has now been bumped to 3:40 so if I wait for my actual flight it may end up being much later than expected.
3:08 pm
Woo hoo! I got a seat on the 2:40. Turns out I was 6th on the standby list, out of 25. Wait, now it's 2:51. At least I see the plane and the passengers getting off. And I have my new boarding pass. So it's all more real now. Somehow I managed to get a window seat too.
3:31 pm
Sitting on the plane now. Got the emergency door row so I have 2 feet between my knees and the seat. Leg room is huge. I was talking to a man and woman who both got standby on this plane, and who were both on the same plane I was. They say that plane is never on time and 2 weeks ago didn't leave until midnight. Damn!
Incredibly we seem to be about to roll at 3:45.
4:08 pm
Now sitting on the runway waiting because all air traffic to Newark has been stopped temporarily due to congestion. In theory the original plane I was supposed to board should be boarding in 6 minutes though I'm sure it's also delayed.
4:16 pm
The traffic half at Newark has been lifted and we should be in the air in 5 minutes says the Captain. Aye aye, Captain. We should get there as expected, roughly 6:00 pm. We actually hit the ground, really hard, at 5:59.
6:52 pm
All done, back home. Saved at least 1:20 with this flight, probably more. When I looked it up it turns out I saved 1:47 of time as my original plane was 30 minutes late.
All in all, it was a very good trip. I'll probably be back before long but not for quite as long of a trip.
My attempts to keep EST while out here have been mildly successful at best. Going out drinking doesn't help that cause. Certainly feeling it this morning. Time to shower up and get ready to head home. Looking forward to seeing the family again. The trip was good but I miss home.
8:23 am
All showered and packed. Time to check out and find me some breakfast. Going with jeans and sneakers for travel today.
8:36 am
Did another Potbelly stop for a breakfast sandwich. Including the $1.55 Starbucks coffee it was $5.05. Some stuff is really friggin cheap out here.
9:17 am
In the office now. I took my time drinking my coffee to just relax a bit. Today could be long, especially with Ohare's bad record on air travel. I'm supposed to land at 7:20 but from the sounds of it I'll be lucky to see that happen.
Have a few more builds to do this morning which really should help solidify this week's work. It's been a solid week.
1:38 pm
In a cab to the airport now. Giving myself 3 hours and change because there's apparently a lot of traffic these days due to consrtruction. I like Chicago but not enough to stay another few hours if I miss my plane.
Got free lunch today which was nice because the company buys for everyone on Fridays. So we all sat together and talked over lunch.
I didn't get as much done today as I had hoped. There were a lot of problems with the build from yesterday so we battled back and forth with it and finally it was time to go so one of the other guys took over while I jumped out to catch a cab.
2:10 pm
Pulling into the airport already, almost no traffic at all. So I have about 2 hours to kill before we board. Since I did online checkin I didn't have to wait in the huge line. I got to walk right up and go through while 200 people stood in line waiting.
There's a flight to Newark that leaves here at 3:30. I'm going to try and see if I can hop on that plane. I'm sure it will be full but why not try?
2:52 pm
Put myself on the wait list for the 3:30 flight. No idea what the chances are but it striked me that I'll get to Newark during rush hour traffic if I do make this. Maybe I should just chill and be happy to get there later. Then again this flight has now been bumped to 3:40 so if I wait for my actual flight it may end up being much later than expected.
3:08 pm
Woo hoo! I got a seat on the 2:40. Turns out I was 6th on the standby list, out of 25. Wait, now it's 2:51. At least I see the plane and the passengers getting off. And I have my new boarding pass. So it's all more real now. Somehow I managed to get a window seat too.
3:31 pm
Sitting on the plane now. Got the emergency door row so I have 2 feet between my knees and the seat. Leg room is huge. I was talking to a man and woman who both got standby on this plane, and who were both on the same plane I was. They say that plane is never on time and 2 weeks ago didn't leave until midnight. Damn!
Incredibly we seem to be about to roll at 3:45.
4:08 pm
Now sitting on the runway waiting because all air traffic to Newark has been stopped temporarily due to congestion. In theory the original plane I was supposed to board should be boarding in 6 minutes though I'm sure it's also delayed.
4:16 pm
The traffic half at Newark has been lifted and we should be in the air in 5 minutes says the Captain. Aye aye, Captain. We should get there as expected, roughly 6:00 pm. We actually hit the ground, really hard, at 5:59.
6:52 pm
All done, back home. Saved at least 1:20 with this flight, probably more. When I looked it up it turns out I saved 1:47 of time as my original plane was 30 minutes late.
All in all, it was a very good trip. I'll probably be back before long but not for quite as long of a trip.
Labels: business travel, chicago
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