Useless Advice Free to Friends

Last week I spent a five days at Kohler Waters Spa which was heavenly.

Unfortunately, I'm home from the spa this week and back to work.



So here's the deal.
After having an absolutely delightful and wonderful dinner with queenydiva on Wednesday night I drove back to Kohler for my last night at the spa. Since I didn't have to check out until noon, I could enjoy the morning at the spa. Indulge in a nice lunch and then have my final treatment - scalp and hair treatment and style. It was wonderful.

and that was the beginning of the end.

As I was leaving the spa, they said to drive carefully because of the storm moving in. Oopsy, my flight was in 3 hours, and it was an hour's drive to Milwaukee.

I left the spa and it was raining and sleeting? freezing rain?
Whatever, I just had a great style done on my hair (you couldn't even see the roots) and it was about to be washed out by the deluge of rain.

In my car and headed to Milwaukee, thank god heading south meant that the air was warmer and any hint of freezing rain or snow.

About a half hour out of Milwaukee, American Airlines called me to inform me that my flight was canceled and that they could rebook me on a flight out of Milwaukee at 10:26am on Friday getting me home to Raleigh/Durham by 4pm. I, of course, informed the airline representative that flying out on Friday wasn't really acceptable since I had to work on Friday.

So I started to think about how I could get home, and asked about flights out of Chicago. Good there was a 7:05am flight out of Chicago O'Hare in the morning they could get me on. When I floated the O'Hare scenario, the rep from American asked me if I could get to the airport that night, if so he had a seat on the 7:45 he could book me on.

The conversation went something like this:
"You mean the seat I was booked on"
"No, you don't have a seat on that flight, but if you think you can get to the airport I can book a seat for you."
"What do you mean I don't have a seat on that flight? that was my connecting flight home?"
"oh, well, when your flight out of Milwaukee was canceled, the remainder of your flight was canceled."

whatever...

So I got booked onto the Friday flight from O'Hare... okay now I've got to deal with the rental car and the hotel.

So I called Hertz to tell them I wanted to return the rental car to O'Hare instead of Milwaukee airport. They said, no problem it would be another $587 dollars. EXCUSE ME?!

So I had to take the car to Milwaukee airport to "return" the car, where I could then re-rent (the same car) for a single day for a one way rental to O'Hare, at a SIGNIFICANTLY lesser cost.

Okay, Hotel next, right?

So I have like 145,000 Hilton point for living half the last year at the Hampton Inn for the last year. That sounds like a lot, right? Not exactly.

I call Hilton and ask them what they have near O'Hare. They inform me that there is a Hilton at the airport, right there on the property. It's only 41,000 points for a room for the night. EXCUSE ME?!

So I say, what else do you have of Hilton properties in the area - like a Hampton Inn, perhaps?

oh, sure, there's one a mile from the airport, only 21,000 points - well, not a perfect world, but a bit better than 41,000 points.

So eventually, I get to Chicago by 8pm and check into my hotel (which is under renovation). By now the rain is POURING. So dragging my suitcase into the hotel, my hair is history.

So 7am flight, I still have the rental car to return, security... that means a 4am wake up call...

What did I do earlier this week? it's all a blur by the time I've cleared security and trek to the gate.

Home by 10:30am...

back to work...

So, despite the horrific return home, the week in Kohler was wonderful.

And after a conversation with queenydiva we decided that instead of these hotels where "cons" are held, perhaps a better time would be had by booking into a smaller SPA and have our own QAF weekend fan weekend. Think about it, it's a heck of a lot better to have a discussion on the Cancer Arc while hanging out in the hot tub or dissecting Brian's steam room scenes in an actual steam room.

So whose up for a fangirl weekend in Wisconsin next February?