Here I Go Again (Part 1)
OK I started writing this on 5/4/06 on my trip to Ohio and didn't get to finish it till today 5/17/06 on my trip to Texas.So, as I'm sitting here watching Blade II for the umpteenth time I think back to how shitty this week was. It started out as any other on Monday and on Tuesday, but apparently this customer has one of our newest units, the SlotServer and he can't get it to work. What sucks for me is that this customer is Protctor and Gamble, the biggest manufacturer of cleaning chemicals and brands. They make Tide and Downy among others. So since this is a big account and it's gonna suck if our first new unit fail, I find myself on a fucking plane out to Ohio.
Flying to the east coast sucks ass. I've gone twice now and with SouthWest it's always the same. A short hop and then a LOOOONNNG boring one. This time, I land in Chicago for a 2 hour lay-over before hitting Ohio. Unfortunately the pizza place at the airpot sucks ass. But there was a good hotdog vendor there so it ended up ok. The fligths suck and they are long. Normally, a movie would put me through it, but my laptop only holds a charge for about 30 mins. I think I wanna get a video player for my Palm or something for next time. Anyways, with the time delay, I end up losing a whole fucking day traveling to the east coast.
And to put the shit-cherry on the sundae, I get a message from the Sales guy that I need to go to Baltimore to visit another customer's site. Now I'm annyoed because I barely brought enough clothes for this one trip to Ohio. Oh well, I'm half way there already.
The plan for Ohio is that I have a window from 6am to 2pm to get this working for the customer. The site is in Lima, about 2 hours away from everywhere in Ohio. Since I gotta be there by the ass-crack of dawn, I decide to drive to the hotel in Lima. Ohio sucks as far as driving anywhere. The freeway I have to take is like 40 miles long, there are no street lights anywhere and all around me is random houses and empty farmland. Since the freeway sucks so much, I'm basically using the compass in the car to figure out I'm still heading in the right direction.
I finally get to the right town, but they do a shit-job of labeling their streets, I get kinda lost twice before I get to the hotel. So I left Cali at 10am and finally get to my hotel by 10pm. SUCKS. Luckily there is a Waffle hut near the hotel so I can at least get a late dinner. I get back and hurry up because the customer is going to pick me up at 5:45, ya know, 245 back home. Ugh this job sucks sometimes.
The next morning comes, and of course I'm dead tired. I got to the site and work out some stuff. The customer isn't the most helpful and I was able to get some stuff done. I then leave and work my way back to the airport at Columbus. Luckily it was easier to get there during the day.
I get to the airport and ship my ass over to Baltimore. I take the hour+ flight and land. From there, I rent yet another car and drive to the next hotel. It takes me about 45 minutes and I end up driving to York Pennsylvania. This place is very nice, and built on a golf course. It would have been cool to play a round there. I end up getting there at around 8 and get some dinner at the Irish pub in the hotel. 3 Dollar Hot Wings are awesome! I then had some smoked Scallops which were good.
I then chill and get some sleep. I can't wait to get done with this trip and go home.
The next morning, I go down to the breakfast buffet at the hotel (which I was told was complimentary), eat some and then I know my ride is showing up. Now, I wasn't sure if it was really free, but I left anyway. I get a pretty nice tour of old York Penn. There are some really old school brick buldings and refineries there. We get to the company and find that the problem is on their side, and I see they fixed it in about 10 mins. I hang for another 20 mins or so to check in with the office and then we go to Lunch. I bought a flight at 3 to take me home. We go to an early lunch and get some kick ass crab chowder and a fried soft-shelled crab.
I then get another tour of downtown York and finally get to my rental car. I make the drive back and barley get on the plane on time. Now I get the long ass flight back home across the country. One stop off in Tenn, then in Phoenix, then Ontario and finally back home. This flight totally sucked ass because I had to stay on the same plane. This meant that when the plane landed, I didn't get a layover, just 20 mins before we were up in the air.
But it all worked out, I finally made it home. For now until my next trip.
posted by Adam @ 9:20 PM
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