The first part of the drive was going very smoothly. With my iphone open to the map and my gps set, we were on our way to the next hotel. We got within a few minutes and I saw it....DETOUR AHEAD. Oh no! I HATE detours, especially on the freeway in Chicago. I had NO idea where to go, which road to follow, and apparently I must have missed my detour because I came up to the road I was supposed to take and had to just keep driving. The bridge was out so obviously there was no way I could take it anyway!
So now what do I do?!? I've missed my exit and instead of going left, now I was going right! My gps and map would have got me back on the road but they had no idea the road was tore apart so I had no clue what to do. In 4 lanes of (fast) traffic and no exits that lead anywhere except other freeways, I had no idea what to do! I took a few exits in hope it would lead me somewhere I could pull over and figure out where I was....and it eventually did....
...when I drove into the airport terminals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was like "this is not good!!...this is not good!!..." Terminal A, terminal B, pick up, drop off, buses only, yadda yadda...which lane to choose?? Lanes everywhere, buses, cars, airplanes flying overhead, trains passing by...and me trying to figure out where I can go to find to think for 2 seconds. I'll admit it too that by this time, I was pretty much panicking. I am IN the terminals of one of the major airports and I have NO IDEA how to get outta here!! But as crazy as it sounds, I did have time to think to myself "Oh man, if my dad is "watching" me on latitude (an app where he can see where I am by where my phone is), he is going to be calling me soon asking why in the world I'm in the middle of the O'hare airport! :)
So I pulled over and rolled down my window to ask one of the airport employees how to get out of here and get to the road I needed to be on. i knew I was close, but had no idea how to get from A to B without going back over the bridge that wasn't there. She was no help. She kept saying which roads SHE takes to get to work. Uh, really?? I'm not asking you how you get to your job, I'm asking how I get to my hotel! She flagged down some other guy (thankfully) and he gave me very simple directions. I just needed to follow this road out, take this exit, and the exit for the road I needed to be on should come up quick.
Perfect. Except one TINY problem. I missed the first exit. Yeah.
NO NO NO NO NO!!!! Not this again!!! ARRRRGGG!!! I'm going in the wrong direction and can't just do a u-turn!! Seriously frustrating. The kids, in the meantime, (because you all remember that I have my beautiful brood with me this whole time) have been so extremely patient and quiet, thankfully. But by this time, they were starting to ask 'are we there yet?' since I had orginally said that it should only take a few minutes.
So I saw some bigger building with parking lots off the freeway and thought if I could just get to one of them, I could look on the maps, find out where I was, and get back. I pulled off, turned into one and saw that the lot I was in was a hotel. So I plugged in my address I needed to get to and found a route! But I had one problem, I didn't know which direction I needed to go out of the parking lot!! Dumb, I know, but by this time I was so turned around it wasn't even funny. Really, it wasn't. So I called the hotel we were going to be staying at.
"I'm by this street, how do I get there." "Oh, just follow that up to this one, and your here." Perfect. But I didn't really know which road that was. (Remember, I am in a city that has roads EVERYWHERE, even in places where it doesn't seem like roads should be.) So just to be sure, I pulled up to the hotel whos lot I was in, instructed the kids to stay in their seats and that I would be right back. I ran in and asked the nice and patient man how to get to this certain road. I musta sounded like an idiot bc I repeated which way I was supposed to go about 28 times, but I HAD to be sure.
I got in my van and prayed to God we could find the road without a problem and finally get to our hotel. LO AND BEHOLD, we did!! WHOO HOO!!! FINALLY arriving 2 hours after leaving our previous hotel (should have taken about 30ish minutes). I thought there was NO way I could instruct Nathan how to get here since I had no idea how I even got here but after putting the addresses in my phone, I found a route where he didn't have to get onto the freeway and we were only 6 miles from his work!! Although 6 miles in Chicago is about a half hours time...but at least he won't miss any exits :)
Here are a few pics of our room that we call home. It's not exactly the Marriott but it's definiately not as bad as the trailer we stayed in last August! We love the openness of the room and the floor space is amazing!! The boys share the pull out couch double bed (little tip: you can fit more little bodies on a bed if they lay across the bed rather than how you would normally lay on a bed :) Just in case you too had to fit your family of 7 into a hotel room with 1 bed and 1 couch for an extended amt of time :), Ariella sleeps on the floor on a blanket and Jaeger sleeps with me.
The kitchen is great and obviously HAS counter space which our previous hotel did not, which makes for making meals for the family WAY easier. The table is only a 2 seater, but Nathan says it makes him feel like we are on a date when we sit there and eat supper together. Awwww..that's sweet. But, yeah, ok...I'll use my imagination. The kids sit on the floor and eat on the coffee table that we now keep by the counter in the kitchen for easy access.
I unpacked Wednesday and Thursday was already Nathan's last day for the week! Wow that went by fast! Didn't even feel like he hardly worked! 4 day work week, what's that?? Next week he will be going to 5-10s but having him home for 2 or 3 days, especially since me and the kids are in the hotel all day, is SO nice!
Today we ventured out to a children's museum. It was fun but let me just say two words: Spring Break. You know that scene in Toy Story 3 where they are at Sunnyside daycare and all the toddlers come bursting into the room, running everywhere, playing with everything???...Yeah, that's pretty much what it was like :)
That will be my next post :)
1 comment:
WOW , great space for a hotel, indeed. It will work.:) And look at the counter space you now have. Big difference from the last hotel. I totally have been there as you know with the packing, unpacking, coming, going, where? when? now? WOW. brought back memories. I must say the Rv is so much nicer than the moving hotel thing. I think you told me that in Virginia. I love you and hope you can stay put for a little while. To rest from all the previous moving.:)
Post a Comment