I spent this past weekend in Cleveland, working. A coworker and I had to update a bunch of Internet Appliances that we support, that are all located in the luxury suites of the Cleveland Browns football stadium. So Friday morning I was up 3:30a.m., to catch a 7a.m. flight out of BWI. I say I was up at 3:30: Actually, my dumb dogs had started barking about 1:30 and as a result, I never really got back to sleep.
So the alarm goes off at 3:30a.m. I head for the shower, cursing the dogs for my lack of sleep the entire time. Get myself out the door and on the road in good time. Make it to BWI just before 5, only to realize that there is absolutely no parking. For some reason it never occurred to me to check on parking. Yeah, sure, I know this is the busiest travel weekend of the year. But do you think I stopped to wonder what all those people did with their cars while they were flying? Apparently I assumed they were magically transported back to their homes, leaving me plenty of parking.
Well, obviously not.
So every single parking garage is full, every satellite lot is full...and I'm running out of time to check in for my flight. I dial the radio to the local am airport station, and get directions to the Amtrak parking garage of all things. Manage to find it, grab a cab and get to the airport. Made the flight, and everything was fine after that. Except the landing; I think Captain Kangaroo was piloting the flight, as we bounced 3 times when we landed. That, or we were shot down.
Friday we spent all day at the stadium updating the appliances. We finally got done around 5, and started looking for our hotel. It's only a half-mile from the stadium. It took us over an hour to get there. Why? Because every friggin road was blocked off for some sort of winter festival. We ended up going through a police road block just to get to the hotel.
The hotel itself was damn nice. The Hyatt in Cleveland was pretty posh and expensive. Breakfast alone was 12 bucks. Eeep! But hey, the company is paying for it, I'll live it up.
Saturday was spent watching the winter festival parade, checking out the Cleveland Library which was right across the street from the hotel, and hanging out in our rooms. Sunday was game day, and it was our job to wander around the stadium by the luxury boxes, making sure no one needed any help. And truthfully, we spent a good deal of the time in the press box. We had these passes that got us anywhere in the stadium. Hanging out in the press box was pretty cool. It was neat to see faces I recognized from the TV.
So Sunday evening, we headed back to the airport for the flight home. It's a good thing it's a short flight, because the plane was CROWDED. I'm not a small guy, so naturally, I got stuck in the window seat. Which isn't as bad as getting stuck in the middle seat, like the guy next to me did. He was about my size, so already I knew it was going to be a cramped flight. I was getting my seat belt on, and putting my book in the seat back pocket in front of me, when I heard the guy on my right say "Oh geez, I hope he's not sitting next to me." I looked up the aisle, and here comes this 6'4", 300lbs dude. He was BIG. And sure enough, he sat in the same row as me and the other guy. I'm surprised the plane didn't fly tilted to the left.
As it turns out, the big guy was Kris Jenkins, who plays for the Carolina Panthers. He had some business in Baltimore, which is why he was flying this particular flight instead of flying home. He was a pretty nice guy and I even got his autograph.
So we finally landed (no hopping down the runway, thankfully), get on shuttle bus, get to the car, and start heading home. I-95 was bumper to bumper, but that wasn't a surprise. I finally made it home about 10:30, kissed the wife, and went to bed.
I think next year, I'd rather go to my moms. :)