And we're off!

Thursday, September 22, 2016
Houston, Texas, United States
Tonja here: Finally the day has arrived for us all to converge at the Embassy Suites in Grapevine. I can't wait to see my two best buds! Deb has been in the area since Sunday visiting with her beautiful 3-year old granddaughter, Macy (as well as Macy's parents, Michael & Misty, of course). I'm thinking she's probably about ready to chill about now?! Mary's driving up from Pearland this morning with plans of staying over a day after Deb and I travel back home. I'll be flying up this morning. I'm trying out a new non-stop van service - will see how that goes.

That did not go well. At all! Pickup time was 8:15am (for a 10:20 flight). Super shuttle had called the night before confirming my pickup time, but said I need to allow an additional 15 minutes due to possible traffic issues. Was not happy about that and also the fact that I could not change my pickup time to 8:00 (when I originally made the reservation). So 8:25 rolls around and I call - all automated of course. The robot tells me my van is within a mile from my house. Ok, that works. I call again at 8:28 - "van is still within one mile." Ok. At 8:32, I call and wait for a real person. Van is within 0.11 miles of my house and by the time I hang up, it is within 0.01 miles. I wait. At 8:40, I had to make the decision to drive myself (horrors!) to the airport. I get half a block from the house and they call saying the driver is trying to find my house. I let them know that I'm on my way to the airport, so they can cancel the reservation. 25 minutes late and no phone call from driver. That's just bad service! The drivers for their black car service text/call when they're close by and usually arrive early. It's worth the extra bucks!

So, by now, I'm stressing big time. And I realize that I had not looked up which gate my flight leaves from. I was thinking I was on a small plan...which usually means Terminal B. There are no lights from the time I get on the freeway until the parking garage at the airport and I'm a firm believer in not using my phone while driving. I need to get used to Siri commands, but I wasn't sure I could navigate the United App hands free. So, at the last minute, I call Mark to look up my flight. Right at the Y, he tells me which terminal to go for. Whew! That was close. If I had chosen the wrong one, it probably would've taken me an additional 10 minutes to get to where I needed to be. It's been a while since I've driven to the airport. As I was snaking my way up in the parking garage, I got off at Level 4 - sign said Valet to right and parking to left. Why I did not choose valet is beyond me. Of course, "parking" is taking me further away from the terminal. I hunt and hunt for a space, grab my bag and I go searching for the elevator. I'm so far away I have to get off on a floor which connects me back to Terminal C. Luckily, there was no line at check-in and they didn't boot me off the plane since I was within the one hour window of departure.

Got through security and I had a whopping 15 minutes to spare before boarding time. We know what that means! Time for a quick Bloody Mary to start my girls' weekend off right! Flight has gone smoothly and we're about to land now. Hopefully Mary's drive up is going well and I will get to see my Buds very soon!!

Got to hotel via shuttle (that's another story!) from DFW only to find out they won't release any rooms until 2:00pm even if they're ready. I'm starting to remember why we prefer Marriott over Hilton. I decide to go to the bar and have that 2nd Bloody Mary that I missed out on this morning. The bar is full but there's a lot of empty tables. I was first told I had to sit at the bar if I was not ordering food, but they finally allowed me to sit at one of the empty tables. Bloody Mary is pretty darn good! All is well now!

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