The Little Wedding Chapel

While driving around trying to find the local Walmart, I was reminded of Detroit's Midwesterness by some of the roadside attractions, such as The Little Wedding Chapel.

Apparently some sort of franchise, The Little Wedding Chapel has five locations throughout Michigan. Why go through a real church when you can rent a fake one?

Dale Earnhardt Pajama Pants

Although the Detroit Metro area reminds me of Newark, NJ and its suburbs, there's a Midwesterness thats unique to this area. Like Dale Earnhardt pajama pants and a complete sewing and clothing pattern section at the Walmart.

Its Lost

I tried to inquire about my luggage. The results: NWA doesn't know where my luggage is according to its website, plus, despite the fact that I gave their attendant my DL to copy my address, she completely screwed it up...I now live on "DOOD" Street.

Calling both Northwestern and Delta got nowhere too. The reality is that I may never see my luggage again.

It was time to go shopping in the Detroit Metro area.

Adventure: 1st Day Finals

By the time I picked up my rental car and drove to the hotel it was 5:00 am. It was probably a good thing that my luggage got lost because I was too tired to lug it to my room anyway.

Adventures: Detroit MC

Take off from Logan was rough. Once in the air I realized Patricia was sitting in front of me. We exchanged pleasantries.

I sat next to a woman who missed her connection to London. She'd just converted from PC to Mac and was playing with her new Macbook laptop. We had a nice chat trashing Microsoft's incompetent, crappy products.

Except for a mid-flight granola bar incident, the flight was uneventful. We landed at 1:20 am but didn't deplane until 1:45 am when the airport finally decided to deploy the gate walkway extension.

On the earlier flight Patricia and I inquired about our luggage. The attendant assured us the luggage would "follow us" to the Detroit-bound plane.

However, upon arriving at the baggage area, Patricia and I were greeted by a vast expanding sea of luggage throughout the concourse. Luggage who's owners hadn't made it on their flights. At this point Patricia and I parted ways. I think she found her luggage. I was unpleasantly surprised to find that mine was in Boston at Baggage Claim #3.

Despite the NWA terminal advertising ("Delta and NWA have merged and it's business as usual!") Delta and NWA's systems aren't integrated, so although the Delta baggage claim could tell me where my luggage was, I'd have to file a claim with NWA's trashy baggage office down the concourse to actually get the bag on a flight.

By the time I finished this  procedure it was 3:30. Time to catch the shuttle to my rental car.

Adventures: Boston

Since Boston's Logan was still such a mess there was a theory on the plane that we may not have missed our connections after all.

Upon deplaning at Logan the flight attendants told Patricia and  I that if we hurry to NorthWestern at terminal E (we arrived at Delta in terminal A)  we might still be able to catch the now 3 hr delayed flight, despite what Delta's automated flight info said.

The captain asked if passengers not on connecting flights could wait for the 20 of us who did to get off before they got up into the aisle. The minute the door cracked open everyone got up at once and stuffed themselves into the aisle.

I'd made no formal agreement with Patricia that we'd team up. Somehow she'd made it off before me and was waiting when I deplaned.  Logan was packed with disgruntled travelers. The race was on to get to Terminal E.

After asking 4 airport workers one finally provided coherent instructions - we had to catch Terminal Bus #11 outside by the taxis.

We ran down the escalator to the taxis. Of course buses 55, 42, 12, 16, and 9 showed up first. All going everywhere except to the lost terminal of E.

Finally 11 arrived and we jumped on. As it meandered thru 3 stops each at terminals A, B, C, and D, I thought for sure we'd miss the flight and I'd be sleeping on an airport bench, just like the holiday rituals I'd seen on the news all these years. Maybe I'd get on TV!

When the doors opened at Terminal E, Patricia and I sprinted the 1.5 miles thu the huge NWA area only to be told to "hurry up" to gate E2B, about 3.5 miles at the other end of the terminal. But first, we'd have to go thru security. Again.

Upon arriving at the gate a humorless agent reprinted our boarding passes. I was the last  person on the plane! Confronted by an NWA attendant who was also humorless, I was ordered to stow my bag asap so we could "take off".

We sat on the runway for another 2 hrs.

Adventures: Delta is Incompetent

2 minutes before our scheduled boarding time Delta changed the gate from 28 to 1, on the other side of the terminal.

I helped the old woman to the new terminal. It took forever and when we got there we were last in one of 2 huge disorganized lines. The woman had been coughing since I met her, but now she was starting to have coughing fits so I went and got some water.

As we waited we made friends with a guy traveling from Dubai. He was totally not dressed for the weather. He wore a white cotton tunic suit and embroidered sandals with mother-of-pearl inlays. I wondered what he'd do when he got to Boston. Would he walk in the snow with his sandals or did he have mother-of-pearl embroidered booties in his carry on? I was getting tired.

The flight was delayed - 15 min, then another 15 min, then another. I was getting worried I'd miss my connection to Detroit.

One of the lines at the gate was for people from (I guess) that woman's earlier flight that got bumped and had no seat assignment. Tons of people; crying babies, sullen teens, baby boomers, foreigners. What a mess.

We finally got to board. The old woman did indeed have a first class seat (good for her) and looked really relieved and less tired. We said goodbye.

I sat next to a woman named Patricia who was trying to get to Detroit  and some sarcastic British guy who kept interjecting himself into my conversations with the woman and flight attendants. He kept saying "The problem with Americans is..." Many times during this flight I had to squelch the urge to belt him.

At the last minute Patricia and I tried to deplane because the attendants thought we'd missed our connection, But it was too late, and we ended up sitting on the runway for 90 minutes before finally taking off.