Friday The Thirteenth.... I'm Just Glad It's Over

Obviously this was written the first night of our trip to Oklahoma for the family reunion.

So far, this has been The Trip From Hell. It all started out well enough. Our plane left on time, then it all quickly went south. As soon as we got on the plane we were informed that there was no air-conditioning and, sitting in the middle seat, I was the happy recipient of dripping condensation for the hour long flight. Fine. So much for ironing my outfit, doing my hair and putting on makeup. Pffft! We changed planes in Dallas without even time to grab a quick bite to eat. By this time it was 9:30 PM, so we decided we'd just stop somewhere on the way to the hotel. Unfortunately, the moment we landed in OKC it began raining in torrents that you could not even see beyond, with unbelievable thunder & lightning in every direction. Which, of course, meant that Southwest Airlines could not allow their baggage people to unload our luggage until it was over. So, 45 minutes later they had like a 7 minute window to unload 4 planes of baggage. Amazingly, we did finally get our bags. Huge Kudos go out to all of those people who worked to get us out of there!

While we were waiting for the bags we decided to go ahead & get our rental car. Fine. That was fairly easy to accomplish. I was not looking forward to walking with my bag to the car through the rain, so the car agent tells me there is a walkway tunnel to the parking. Those were sweet words to my ears. We proceed to follow his instructions on how to do this, but being the travel Doh Heads that we are, we can't find it. So, we had to walk all the way back to the car counter. At this point the car agent realizes that he's dealing with a couple of Mental Midgets, so he decides to walk us all the way there, then he leaves. That might have been fine if our assigned car had been parked in its assigned place, but it was not. Fifteen minutes of looking and we finally find it. (This is where I begin making Marge Simpson sounds instead of speaking.) We drove for 30 minutes in a torrential downpour to our hotel, which should have only taken 15 minutes.

Now mind you, I looked online for a week to find a 4-Star hotel that allows smoking, for Mr. Snooty. As I check in I remind the desk clerk that I had requested a smoking room and he informs me that as of 2 weeks ago, they are no longer a smoking hotel. Oooops. I knew I was in trouble. I went back to the car and told Mr. S and he was not a happy camper. We finally get to our room and I start pumping Mr. S full of dry martinis and he was asleep in no time. However, not before he informed me that he was going home in the morning. Okay, I could live with that. I didn't want to ruin his entire Father's Day Weekend, which he had planned to spend watching Tiger & The Others play in the US Open.

As soon as he fell asleep I tried to get online when suddenly the electricity went out, leaving us with only the WiFi lighting of the computer screen. Ooops again. I went outside to see if it was just us but sure enough, the entire hotel was pitch black. No generator for backup power. In Oklahoma City of all places. The storms here are legendary. Whatever. Apparently, a drunk driver had taken out the hotel's power source with his car. The clerks at the front desk had no idea when *they* would get it back up & running. I stood outside for a long time & talked with the lady from the room next door who was there with her family for her daughter's softball playoffs, trying to qualify for nationals. (I think that's what they were) They were from Modesto, CA and she got about as much sleep as I did, then they left for the fields @ 6:00 AM.

I was finally able to get to sleep in spite of Mr. Snooty's snoring and no air conditioning and slept a whopping 3 hours. The first thing I did when I awoke was check the electricity and it was still out. We hurriedly packed up in the dark and got away from there as quickly as possible. I think the only things left behind were Mr. Snooty's khaki shorts that he was going to wear to the reunion. Neither one of us was willing to go back & retrieve them. Luckily, they had a nice, big Target close by.

I took Mr. S to breakfast at a place called Beverly's Chicken-In-The-Rough which I loved when I was growing up. We were not disappointed. I had something for breakfast that I had not had since childhood... Pigs In A Blanket, which is little finger shaped sausages rolled up in blueberry pancakes. After eating that, I could barely walk out of the place.

Since Mr. S was already feeling better I suggested that we ask the waitress where we might find a smoking hotel. We Scored. We went further down Northwest Highway to a Holiday Inn Express, but they were booked. (No doubt they were full of those from our hotel.) However, the desk clerk was kind enough to call & make us a reservation. We are now in Edmond (I think it's almost part of Okie City now.) at the Holiday Inn Express and Mr. S is staying here and going with me today to the reunion. Whew! That was a really close one. As much as I wanted him to go with me, I didn't want to ruin his Father's Day weekend. So, we are now preparing to leave for the family reunion which is starting at Noon.

To be continued tomorrow....

I'm still thoroughly exhausted and while I was waiting to see the podiatrist today, I became very ill, as if I'd eaten something bad. They had to call Mr. Snooty (who was having lunch at the Petroleum Club) to come & get me and now my car is still there. This has been the first time I've been out of bed (It's 10:00 PM now) since I collapsed at the doctor's office and I never even got in to see him.....