Travelogue

Many of you know that I attended a music convention in Chicago the week before Christmas. No, I don't know why Rory allowed the Army to book that particular trip, but I really did fly out on Monday the 15th with a return flight scheduled for Saturday the 20th.

Most of the week was bitterly cold - thank goodness the convention had contracted a shuttle service between the hotel where we were staying and the hotel where the convention activities were going on. The convention itself was great, with performances by some OUTSTANING groups. I'm talking about everything from middle school bands up through the US Army Field Band (and every other level in between). But this blog isn't about the weather or the food or even the music ... it's about the TRAVEL.

Saturday continued a string of VERY cold days, but the music was awesome. (Search on YouTube for MIDWEST CLINIC to get a sampling.) Of the six from our band who had attended the clinic, three of us had modified our flight itinerary so we could hear the final group - a community band from Japan. One guy had flown out the day before, one had a very early flight and the other was at the airport. During the concert we started getting text messages: the early flight was delayed 1.5 hours, the later one delayed even longer. By the time the concert was over two of our wives had received automated voicemails from United Airlines that our flight had actually been CANCELED. So began the string of events.

We had already checked out of our hotel, but we decided to head back there to pick up our stored bags before heading to the airport. We then got smart and decided instead to start calling around to gather more info. If we went straight to the airport and the flight was canceled, then United would have put us up in a hotel. But maybe there were other options, such as flying a different airline or to another city and taking the train. John got himself into the 25-minute "hold queue" on his phone while I canceled our shuttle back to the airport. I checked with the concierge to get a phone number for Amtrak to check on our options.

Amtrak was a dead end - every route from San Francisco or Seattle in to Portland was already completely booked between that time and Monday night. (Turns out there was an Amtrak derailment in Portland over the weekend, so that would have been even worse if we had found seats available and taken them.) John finally got through to United and was told we would be rebooked, but the earliest available flight was Monday night. A little more digging revealed that ALL flights into Portland had been CANCELED by then. The guy on the early flight had apparently been on the last one allowed to take off. The second airport guy had been moved into a hotel until his Monday morning rebooking.

After contacting our full-time admin staff we were told to simply do whatever we needed to, and they would amend the orders later on. We were able to book rooms in the hotel (apparently Matt and I got the last available non-smoking room) and hauled bags back upstairs.

So there we were with at least two extra days in Chicago. At the concierge's suggestion we stopped by a place called "HotTix" that sells same-day tickets for a discount. Thus we were able to get tickets for that evening's 10pm show by the Blue Man Group. Sweet! The next day (Sunday) John found two more shows in town, and Matt did one as well. Not a bad way to pass the time!

By Monday we had figured out the right websites to monitor flight status at PDX. Many of the other airlines were still canceling flights, but the first United flights of the morning reported delays then departure. Good sign. Eventually we got word from the guy on the morning flight that they had departed, but ended up making an extra stop in Seattle. Something about needing additional fuel ... I still don't have the whole story. Anyway I got some work done from the hotel room until our checkout time, and then ended up spending another three hours working from an over-stuffed chair in the hotel hallway. Deadlines ...

Finally our time had arrived. Our shuttle got us through rush-hour traffic and to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Good thing, based on the lines at the United counter when we got there. Of course after waiting in the huge line we were told we needed to hit the "Special Services" line instead, so they could waive the baggage fees (special military deal). Eventually we got all the bags checked and made our way through security. Wouldn't you know ... that snow globe I was hand-carrying is not allowed in the cabin. I guess TSA gets a little uppity when they can't test the liquid inside those sorts of things, so I couldnt' take it with me. Since it was 6:30 on a Saturday evening there wasn't much chance of me finding an open Post Office or UPS store either. I ended up back in that "Special Services" line asking to have this little box put on the plane as checked baggage. That scored some interesting looks from the ticket agent. But she took the box, made me sign a waiver in case the globe was damaged, and we figured out a way to attach the luggage tags.

I caught up with the other two guys with just enough time to wolf down some pizza before heading to our gate. I noticed that the signage all indicated that gate was for a flight to Harrisbug, but the reader board and our boarding passes said that was for our flight too. By about 8:00 before our 8:19 scheduled flight an agent came onto the intercom and said the plane scheduled to fly to Portland had just landed. Unfortunately the plane current at the gate was in the way. "Either they'll push off this plane and yours will arrive here, or we'll change gate assignments, or we'll all just be stuck here. I'll let you know." Poor airport humor I guess. They ended up changing our gate assignment.

At the next gate there was also a plane already there. But after only a few minutes it pushed off and ours moved in. I think it was about 8:20, and the NEXT flight scheduled for that gate was supposed to leave at 8:45. Well, that didn't happen. Our 8:19 flight got moved back to 8:34 then 8:50 and finally to 9:09. Interesting that they posted lists of standby passengers as those folks were given seat assignments ... there were 70 people hoping to board. We talked to one guy who had come to the airport on Saturday, but after the flights started to be canceled he saw standby lists of over THREE HUNDRED. It was a relief to finally board.

The flight itself was fairly uneventful, at least compared to everything else that happened.

As we taxied to the terminal at PDX the first officer told us over the intercom that there would be "no reason to hurry to pick up checked baggage... something about too many bags and not enough people." The meaning behind that statement became very clear after wading through the mass of folks sleeping anywhere and everywhere throughout the concourse. The bag claim area is downstairs, and I am not kidding when I estimate there were over 1000 people down there. Between all the carousels, in just about every available square foot of flooring, were rows and rows and ROWS of baggage. The area where the oversized bags are picked up was stacked to the ceiling. I'm talking about THOUSANDS of pieces of luggage. Thus "too many bags." I overheard one of the few baggage handlers mention to a co-worker that he was probably the only full-timer on duty that night, making me think the rest must have been part-time or seasonal help. Thus "not enough people."

With nothing to do but wait for our bags to emerge from the black hole in the wall, we inched up closer to the carousel to wait. And that's what we did - wait. And wait. And wait some more. Eventually we saw some bags come out that were from flight 371 ... the flight from Chicago to PDX scheduled two hours AFTER ours! Huh? Turns out that when that flight landed they didn't have a gate available. So while it was sitting on the tarmac the under-staffed baggage crew unloaded the plane. So all those bags started coming out but there was nobody there to pick them up! Finally the handlers carved out a bit more floor space and started stacking up that luggage too.

Finally our bags started to emerge. I was fortunate that mine came off early, and a cheer went up from the crowd when they saw me grab my bags. I got lots of "Hey buddy, what flight were you on?" and "You came in from O'Hare, right?" as I squeezed through the masses. Since it was well after the last Blue Lot shuttle for the night, I proceeded to the Red Lot bus and waited some more. (Usually there aren't that many people, so the Red Lot bus does double-duty.) After all that I finally got back to my truck, or what I could see of it anyway.

The week had dumped snow, laid down sheets of ice, and the plows had cleared the bus path leaving a nice mound behind all the cars. The space between the truck and the adjacent car had filled up with blown snow that was up to my knees. There was a "snow side" and an "ice side" and I was lucky that the driver's side only had snow. Not sure I would have been able to get my key into the door on an "ice side." I fired up the defroster and got to work on the snow. Of course I don't have an ice scraper in the truck (don't ever need one), so all I could really do was wait for the vehicle to warm up. The windshield wipers had become encased in ice so they weren't moving - I tried lifting them up by and, and pulled up a chunk of ice off the windshield with it. After awhile I tested the power windows, and on the passenger side (the "ice side") the window actually DID go down ... leaving behind an intact layer of ice! Pretty cool.

So about 2:00 I could finally see out the windows. I put the truck in reverse and moved about a foot. That's when I hit that snow bank from the plows. Okay ... I moved back to the front of the parking space and tried to gather a bit more speed. Another few inches of progress. This went on for about 20 cycles before I got the back tires over the drift. A few inches at a time, rocking front and back, slightly turning the wheel each time, I finally coaxed the truck out of the parking space and pointed the right direction. Sheesh.

The roads in Portland weren't actually that bad. Those familiar with the area might remember "the hill" on I-205 heading towards Oregon City, where the freeway crosses the river before going back down the hill and making a right-turn towards I-5. That's about where things started to get bad. I am not convinced that the crews had actually plowed the freeway at all, as the roads were either snow-packed or ice-rutted. Where the snow pack was in place it was so bumpy that any speed above about 25mph was rattling teeth loose. The ice ruts were something like the tracked cars at an amusement park - once you were in the ruts it was VERY hard to get out of them. That was the situation from Oregon City all the way THROUGH Salem.

Between Wilsonville and Woodburn is a 24-hour gas stop, and I pulled in about 4am. The attendant was slow in coming over as they were helping the tanker truck get situated to refill their underground tanks. He finally did and said "I hope you didn't want any gas!?!" Something about handing the guy a sign went through my mind, but I refrained. Instead I replied that indeed I was hoping to purchase petrol for my motor coach. Then another guy pulled in to the pump behind. "Well, we've been working for an hour to dig out the connection for the tanker and we're really low on fuel. But I guess I'll just pump for the two of you." Fine by me.

The rest of the trip was uneventful but slow, I got home about 5am. Since I needed to upload several hours worth of work I tried to VPN to the office, but of course there was some security update that I needed first. Too bad Windows Update found thirteen items to download and install, which I had to do before I could connect. So it was about 6:30 when I finally got to bed.

Anyway that's some of my memories of Monday's travels. If I remember any other pertinent info I'll make updates here.