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Monday, May 15, 2023
A Travel Day
Spokane to Seattle to Chicago
Up at 2:00am (Gah!) and out the door at 3am. Baolu drives me over to GEG
(Spokane Airport). Fairly crowded when I arrive at 3:45am. TSA Pre-check is a
breeze and there's quite a few folks waiting at the gate. I'm on the 6am shuttle
to Seattle. Very nice Embraer 175 jet with 2x2 seating - quite comfortable. I
guess Alaska has done away with all their prop planes as I didn't see any in GEG
or Sea-Tac.
Our flight arrives early and, of course, Sea-Tac is a mob scene. That's two
years of repressed traveling for Americans from you-know-what and it is pleasing
to not have to wear one of those stupid masks.
To Chicago, I'm traveling Comfort Class in a brand new 737 Max that smells like
a new car.
I'm on an aisle seat and the center seat guy is an "elbower" as he plays with
his laptop. Right in my ribs. I foil his rudeness by grabbing the safety card
from the seat back and push it down between us. Once we reach cruising altitude,
the seat belt sign is turned off and I discover the padded, left side of the
belt makes an even better "block" of his elbow.
I think he and his partner on the window are a bit "light in the loafers", but
I'm not sure. They sure went to the bathroom together enough -- three times, by
my count.
We touch down at O'Hare and taxi for 14 minutes before reaching our gate. I
collect my suitcase from baggage claim and eventually run into Mark -- who
arrived on a different flight and was at the gate just next door!
I had reserved a Budget Toyota 4 Runner (or similar), but wound up with a Ford
Edge, a sort of crossover, station wagon type thing.
Man, O'Hare is huge -- the rental car lot was the largest I've ever seen. Had to
ride a tram to get out there.
We found our way to the
Rosemont Giordano's
pizza joint that I had been raving about to Mark. This one was....not up to
interstate standards. The staff seemed confused about what to do with us. Mark
said we wanted a booth and this was just out of their level of comprehension.
A fellow in a tattered sport coat and ascot Mark quickly dubbed, "Guido" asked
if we had been helped. We said "No", so he simply turned and wandered away.
Mark saw Guido move a table about 3" to the left. Guido was walking around like
a big shot, but not doing anything constructive.
More confusion from the waitress about where we would sit. Finally, we just
walked over to a booth and sat ourselves down. Then they forgot about us. Mark
said, "I swear, Once you turn 65, you're invisible!".
Mark finally "did a Dad", got up, and went over to get us a server. We ordered a
Medium deep pizza to split between us and ..... it was not as good as the
downtown store. It arrived kind of cold and the cheese had solidified.
Next stop was the liquor store where I picked up a Jack Daniel's for the trip
(Mark had grabbed a Duty-Free Crown Royal from the Vancouver YVR airport).
We had a heck of a time finding a Wal-Mart to buy a flat of water. The nav
system kept directing us into the alley behind the store. Nearing our hotel, we
saw beautiful Wrigley Field. Nice neighborhood here too, with most of the area
fixed up and "gentrified".
So here we are at the Best Western Hawthorne Inn. As we walked into the lobby we
were set upon by a vicious, barking dog. It was subdued by some sort of bum who
was sprawled on the floor with all his worldly possessions in a backpack. I'm
not sure if he was the boyfriend of one of the girls at the counter or not. When
we went out to get our luggage, you had to walk by him, smoking these gawd-awful
cigarettes. He angrily glared at me as I passed, pushing my suitcases on a cart.
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