So I got home and logged on my work email to check my flight details and saw that my flight was at 630am to Atlanta. That was a holy eff moment. LOL. It's 535am and I am supposed to be at the airport for a 630am flight. I am effed!!! I haven't even packed. Nothing like waiting to the last possible minute to take care of things that could have easily been taken care of the day before. So anyways I find a suitcase and do a whizbang job of filling it up. When I got to Toronto I discovered that I forgot a toothbrush, nail clippers, long sleeve shirts and a belt. Made sure that I had enough underwear with 8 pairs for a 4 day trip.
It is now 555am and I'm back on the road to GSP for my 630am flight. This is not going to work. I wonder how much this will cost me to get a new flight. Pretty sure that I drove as fast as I could to get to the airport without getting nabbed for speeding. Fortunately I was able to park closer to the terminal at the new sky-level at $6 a day.
So now I am at a Delta kiosk feeding it my credit card to get my boarding passes and lo and behold my flight really was at 730am and I am actually there an hour and ten minutes early. LOL. Calmness descended upon at that time. I actually had time for breakfast and another coffee. Yay!
I had a decent breakfast and got some much needed caffeine into me and proceeded to board my plane. Okay not my plane, Delta's plane. Turns out I have a window seat (ugh) and my aisle of three seats is filled and the guy in the middle seat is not exactly tiny and has staked his position for this flight. This is not going to be a good flight. I pretty much spent the flight leaning forward as I could not lean back as my shoulders wouldn't fit into that space. Thank goodness this was short flight. I love air travel when one is 6'5" something and weigh 270lbs. I really need to slim back down to my normal 225lbs. It's great that I quit smoking a year and half ago but did I really need to get that 7 months pregnant look going. LOL.
Anyways made it to Atlanta and promptly had to pop a back pain pill just so that I could walk to my next flight. I had close to a 2hr. layover for my flight to Buffalo so more coffee is required pronto. I've come to the conclusion that being in an airport especially one as busy as Atlanta's is not my cup of tea or better yet cup of joe.
The flight to Buffalo is uneventful and I had an aisle seat so that was a little more comfy as I could actually put my legs in the aisle at times. Had another coffee on the plane along with those biscottis that they give you. Damn those cookies are good. I could eat those all day long I think. Yeah right that would do wonders for my weight.
It is now past 1pm when I get to the National rental car counter and get my relatively new Nissan Sentra. Kind of a small car but it does afford me more leg room in the driver's seat than my Sorento. Surprisingly so. Only thing I didn't really like is that after driving a crossover for close to 4 years, I felt like I was on the ground when I was driving this car during my 4-5 days there.
So I get my car and get out of the airport and promptly get lost. LOL. Even with the garmin that was working at this time. Turns out I was following signs for the American Niagara Falls and not the Canadian one that is right next to Buffalo. I was going out of my way by about 15 miles it seems. Anyways I made it to the Canadian border via a different route and paid around $5 in tolls which I had never done in my previouse border crossings.
I do the customs thing and then get myself on my way to Toronto which is 90 minutes or so away. I then discovered that when I tried to enter the airport hotel address into the GPS thing it wasn't working once I crossed into Ontario. Wonderful I am going to spend the next week getting lost if I don't get that going. I have zero and I mean absolute zero sense of direction. This will be fun.
I noticed a visitors centre (Cdn. spelling haha) and I was able to get a couple of maps to get me to the hotel. I managed to get myself to the Four Points Sheraton next to the airport after dealing with the QEW, 401 and 427 traffic. People drive these highways every day. Holy eff Batman, that must not be fun!
I checked myself into the room and then unpack so that I hopefully won't have to iron anything and that is when I discovered what I forgot to bring. Great now I have to find a pharmacy to get the much required supplies.
Before I do that I decide to stop into the hotel bar lobby and grab a good old Canadian beer. I get myself a Rickards Red draft and that went down right quick. I got engrossed into the news coverage of Jack Layton's passing which had happened earlier in the day and called out for a refill. I didn't know much about Jack Layton but from what I saw in the coverage, I saw that he brought a lot of hope in the average Canadian. Kind of the effect that Barack Obama had on many of us a couple of years ago. That was a letdown though. More on that on a future blog though. The ongoing GOP leadership or lack thereof is stoking my political thought processes once again. Anyways back to facts Jack. I asked for my bill and then nearly fell of my chair when it came to $19.04 for Two Rickards. $9 a beer plus 13% tax. OMG. This is insane. WTF. Who pays these prices? That is absolutely crazy. $9 for a regular homegrown beer. I was going to have find a place to buy a six-pack for the rest of my trip as I can't expense that anyways and if I am paying for it, I am not dropping $57.12 for a six-pack at the hotel bar on this trip.
This my tale of Two Rickards!
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