Dropped her off, then carried on with Nick and Clay over to Williams County, OH. They took the courtesy car into work on a project, while Steve Fortner changed the oil in the 340. He got done, they got done, I brought all of us home.
I left right from Frankfort, and drove down to Indianapolis International. Parked my car in the overnight garage, and had a 6 pm airline flight on American Airlines out to Albany, NY, with a layover in Philadelphia, PA. The last flight in was a little delayed, about 20 minutes, but nothing too bad, so I landed in Albany at 10:30 pm. I was supposed to call the FBO on field, Million Aire, and they'd come get me, and they arranged my hotel room at the Hilton Garden Inn. Except they wouldn't pick up the phone. They are open 24 hours, but I let the phone ring non stop for 45 minutes total and nobody ever answered. So I called the Hilton Garden Inn and they sent a shuttle over for me. I get to the front desk, and she says "We don't have a reservation for you". I try my name and Glenn's name, no luck. So I find the reservation number and give her that. She says "That was for yesterday. You were considered a no show." So the FBO booked me for the wrong date. I say "Can I get a room tonight, then?", and she says "I'm sorry, we're all booked up for tonight." She calls the two other hotels right next to us, and they also have no vacancies. It is now 11:30 p.m., I'm stranded in a hotel without a room, no car, no idea where to go. I sit on their couch and I start calling hotels off my Google Maps and phone, starting with the closest, because even getting there may be an issue.
I find one not far away, the Baymont by Wyndham. The existing hotel agrees to let me use their shuttle to get over there, so I tip their driver the only cash currency I have, a $20. It was worth it to not have to walk a mile at 11:30 at night with all my luggage in the middle of Albany, NY.
The place is a dive. I knew it might be bad when it only cost $90. My door looked like it had been kicked in a couple times, and the bath tub, well, I'll show you a photo later. It was a flea bag motel. By now it's midnight, and I have to be up at 5:30 am to get a ride back to Albany International to pick up the C-45 to fly it over to Schenectady, NY, to give rides all day. So I just carefully don't put anything flat on the floor, crawl in bed and pass out for a few hours.
Wake up at 5:30, stare at the tub some more, then decide it's too long of a day, the other day was too long of a day, and I have GOT to take a shower. So I took my glasses off and just tried to let my blurry eyes not look very close, while I took a shower, and got out of there as fast as humanely possible. And now we're up to the next day's tale...
My own flying in the 340, pretty little cell
Airlining it from the back seat
My hotel room door
And my bath tub. Sure, it was clean, those are just stains. That's what I tell myself.
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