Andrea goes to Tampa....

So Tuesday began as a normal travel day. I was anticipating safe travels for my first trip for the Capstone. The plane was at the gate, on time, we left, on time, and we landed EARLY. Now, I didn’t say we land smoothly, but we landed safely. All was well. I prayed for our flight prior to and many times DURING the flight…you see I don’t like turbulence, not even a little bit. My heart ends up in my throat and I white knuckle the arm rests. I could see the clouds from outside my window, I knew the clouds were causing the turbulence, but I still had a sinking feeling every time we went bump bump bump. My prayers were answered when we landed and we were safe. What I failed to pray for was our taxi ride from the airport to our hotel. Holy Guacamole did I pray hard during that taxi ride! Curves that had 25mph speed limits were taken with two wheels on the ground at 60 mph. I could not even look down, literally, as it would make me sick. Imagine how it is when you’re on a roller coaster and try to look down….yea, that’s how our taxi ride was.

So, we made it safely to our hotel. We arrived at the front desk simply wanting to check in, place our bags in the room and freshen up prior to the welcome reception. Apparently that was asking too much. As it turns out, the lady who made our reservations made them to begin on Monday night, and since we weren’t scheduled to arrive until Tuesday, we obviously did not show up on Monday night. (I’m not sure how you make flight reservations for Tuesday, but then hotel reservations for Monday, but alas, that’s what happened). So, since we were a no-show, they cancelled our rooms AND booked them for other people AND they were sold out. So now we are in Tampa, safe & sound, but have no where to stay. Thankfully the METI staff was more than accommodating and provided us with “whatever we wanted” to eat and/or drink while we waited. They then put us up in the hotel across the street, which was an Embassy Suites, and it was a MUCH better deal! We all had suites with a living area separate from the sleeping area, free breakfast – and I’m not talking about croissants and cereal, I mean made to order omelets, eggs, sausage, bacon, bagels, toast, cereal, fruit, potatoes…..and I could go on. They also had free happy hour every night….not that this was utilized, it’s just the point.

The rest of the conference was wonderful and I am now awaiting my flight back to Birmingham. I am praying it is totally event free and praying we will arrive prior to the bad weather that is anticipated for tonight. Currently our flight is delayed.