Thursday, July 21st, 2005:
Journey to the age of wind...
I stayed up late till 4 am getting all the last minute things done like stickers and brochures.
Then I finally went to sleep and got up at 8 to get to the airport for my 11:50 am flight out.
I managed to leave before 9:30 am but had problems getting parking till the shuttle driver helped me
in Economy parking. I got to thru all the security and all with what I thought was not enough time to leave
and get to the plane but I got to my terminal and nobody had boarded even though it was like 20 til. Unfortunately
for me, Continental apparently had "puddle jumper" type planes which suck to the max. I got the wrong seat even
though it was still a window seat because some lady traded with someone because she had kids. I had no problems
since the seat was on one side by itself and the lady had the side with two seats together. Plus the seats were
so narrow I didn't fit in them very well. I'm just lucky it wasn't Southwest. So the flight was a little uncomfortable
but I made it to Houston to catch my next plane which would take me almost 2 hours later to the age of Wind, Chicago.
I don't recall much about Houston, other than the neat shuttle train between terminals, but I do remember on the
flight from there to Chicago. It was turbulent and very shakey because of storms between there and my desination.
The seats were definitely roomier but then it was United Airlines so I was happy. When I showed up in O'hare I was
exhausted from lack of sleep but I was happy. I trudged out with my carry ons which included the number one item
we needed for Mysterium, a data projector, and went to found my other piece of luggage was not there. Not sure why
but Continental was running late from Houston even though I hadn't been delayed and I had nothing but a single shirt
extra to use for the next day. I think I waited a good 2.5 hours before I left for the hotel. Someone told me I could
take the ELL but I hadn't taken one since Toronto and wasn't sure how that worked. I bought my pass and made my way
to the nearest attendent. He told me how to get where I needed and off I was. It was rather scary and being exhausted
as I was I just went along with it. I jumped on the first train w/o much of a problem, missed on connection when I
finally got off and needed to transfer to the next one. During the first train on the red, I saw some people in front
of me with a PC. The guy worked for Eriksson and was doing tests for signal quality in the tunnels. :D I thought that
was cool. I had just read about that recently. Then I transferred, got on a blue line for one stop and made it to
Harrison. If I had known, I'd have gotten off at Clinton with blue and it would have been like a block from the hotel
as opposed to Harrison stop which was like 8 blocks from the hotel. I was so tired, everything was heavy and it was
hotter than I had thought it would be. So much for weather.com being right. It said the weather was cooler. :P
So I start to walk and I walk maybe a block and pass a couple whom I ask about hotels. They tell me plainly all the
hotels are on the other side. Then I noticed that the signs all said 600 S Harrison. I'm totally bummed and tired.
I see a Starbucks and wait outside but no taxi's stop. I wave but they're either all full or just in a rush. I go
inside the Starbucks, get some water and ask about taxi's up the street. Then suddenly all the taxi's are passing again
and empty. This guy comes in and orders something, I step aside talking to the SB people... The guy goes "you need a ride?"
and I just ignored him a moment then he said it again louder and adds "I have a taxi." and then I see him pointing outside
and there is the most beautiful yellow taxi I'd ever seen... of course I was tired so anything would have looked better
than walking at this point. LOL I go out with him, thank the SB people, and I'm off to my hotel. I get to the Holiday Inn,
I pay the cabbie, I drag myself into the place and there is a lobby and
Ran is sitting there. LOL I was the happiest
person on Earth! I honestly thought I was going to show up alone. I was so happy. Ran was there and I think Hannah and
her Dad and some others I forget. I get checked in, I tell them about my bag missing, and I get upstairs and start
getting settled in. I come back down and more people have shown up. There's these two guys, One is tall with black hair a
beard and a black hat and his friend who's about the same height, with long red hair in a braid. They remind me of
SCA people which I think is something they were later talking about. Ran seems to be the only one who hadn't eaten so we
go and eat at the hotel restaurant called Auerelios. Then go back and talk to people for hours in the lobby.
Really late in the night, early morning, Tresah showed up and didn't have her luggage or her room ready yet so I offered up
my extra bed. I think we ended up in bed around 2 am almost 3.
End of transmission, Day 1...
