Before I begin my tale on my way back from England to my home in Michigan. I know that I promised to have the next installment the next day after posting well.....I have been extremely busy working at my 2 jobs this last week. My school job started on Wednesday & I have been working non-stop at my 2nd job when I originally was scheduled for Tuesday,Wednesday & Thursday night then come in a little later then normal after going to check the local monthly show at the shopping mall on Saturday. I got the bad news Friday as I was leaving for school that a co-worker asked if I could cover his shift for him Friday night canceling my dinner plans with my girlfriend I took it thinking Saturday I start late so I can swing by the show pick a couple of things then go to work *buzzer sound* Thanks for playing we need you earlier then posted on Saturday. Saturday I got off to a late start & drove quickly to the mall & saw my friend who I hadn't seen since my trip to Maryland back in June so I wanted to show him pictures from my trip. I only had like 20 mins to look through the show saw a couple of cards I wish I had time to pick up but I had to hurry back to the job. I worked the 9 hour shift that night without getting my lunch break cause we had a truck delivery so we had to work the truck as well the registers to keep the customers happy despite having bare shelves with 2 of us working its hard to stock shelves as well run the registers to keep everyone happy.
Sorry for that long recap on why I didn't post when I said I would. Now lets recap from Part I. I flew out to England in the summer of 2007 to visit my girlfriend at the time to see her home & take in a nice vacation in Blackburn, England. I arrived a day later than expected & got detained by customs in trying to enter England then released to her then enjoying my time despite taking in the sights & sounds of England she told me that she wouldn't want to be with someone that is obsessed with sports memorabilia I argued back it's not an obsession its more like a hobby. During my time I was lucky to get the latest book on CD of Harry Potter it was the last book of the series when it was released
This is the British cover.
The USA Cover.but the news media wasn't wanting a Muggle from America buying the first book on CD they wanted a kid who had the actual hard bound book that was the only time I was at the right place but wrong time for a book release.
So my girlfriend at the time sent me back but a week before that I had won on eBay a box of the 2002 Upper Deck 40-Man after sniping it in the last waning minutes from a Unknown Bidder at the time who sent me a message saying if I would be interested in sending them some singles if I had any extras of them along with the insert called Lumber Yard & they in return would help me with my want lists. So I gave clear instructions after explaining I was in England at the time & when I got back I would go through the box as well the other dupes I have to see if I can help them with their set. I gave my email & within 2 hours there was an email from them saying they were the guy who sent me the message from eBay here's their want list.
I can't recall whom I pulled from my box but this unknown person needed whom I sent them. I am not sure if I want to try to find these or not.So there I was back in the Manchester Airport waiting to board on my trip back to the USA thinking about the box I won was waiting for me to crack open & I was looking forward to listening to my Harry Potter CDs since I got all 7 of them during my stay & had the 7th book secured in my suitcase since I already mailed out the other 6 before I left.
My flight was supposed to go starting in Manchester to New York City to Cincinnati to my Hometown *buzzer sound* Thanks again for flying maybe next time you might be better walking back. What happened was this I took off from Manchester only to arrive in New York's LaGuardia Airport after going through customs no hassle this time I them looked up to see about my connecting flight to Cincinnati it was canceled so I ran to the nearest ticket counter asking them Ill take any flight that will get me back in Michigan I didn't care my family would find a way to get to that airport whether it was Detroit Metro to Gerald R. Ford in Grand Rapids to even my hometown just get me the HELL!!!!! to Michigan I demanded. So I got placed on the old StandBy List for any flight to Michigan first come first available. I didn't have to wait overnight since there was a flight that would go from LaGuardia to Columbus, Ohio with a small 1 hour delay to Cincinnati to my hometown I took it paid for my exchange got aboard the flight only to be told it will be a 2 hour delay to get to Columbus due to George W. Bush had to be cleared first to take off on Air Force One to get back to DC. Well.....2 hours later still on the runway waiting to take off turned out to be a 3 hours during the wait we refueled 2 times while waiting.
When will I get home I wondered. When we finally arrived in Columbus after taking a breath taking airview of the HorseShoe Stadium on the campus THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY!!!!!!! A few of us were to get a connecting flight to Cincinnati once we landed in Columbus we land only to be rushed on 5 golf carts to get from one end of the airport to the other to make our flight they were going to hold that flight since it was the last one of the night for us. After getting on that connection we arrived in Cincinnati only to be told no more flights were going out that night so again I asked about a hotel room we will be glad sir to put you in a nice room for the evening at 10pm & give you a courtesy van ride to & from the airport at 6am for your 6:30am flight back to your hometown. *Hallelujah Chorus playing* I am almost home but that's too early so I wont be able to sleep still I been up now for the last 56 Hours from my flight taking off from Manchester to Cincinnati cause if I slept I feared I wouldn't hear my wake up call from the front desk. I get to the hotel room finding out that the bar and grill in the hotel would be closing in 40 mins I was starving so I quickly got my order which the airline said they pick up any food tabs as well anything else I wanted. The put me in at a Holiday Inn which turned out to be a good thing with my carry on bag I was able to convince the desk clerk if I could get all their packs that they were giving away.
They gave me all they had available cause none of the Priority Club Members wanted anything with this perk they rather had upgraded room or points for future stays so I was excited to have something to crack open while waiting for my shuttle to the airport & while watching the ESPN documentary The Bronx is Burning Series. Which I sorta liked viewing even though I didn't see any of the previous episodes cause I came in on episode 6 of 8. The 2 people who in my opinion were great in their roles were the actors that portrayed Billy Martin (John Turturro, if they ever make a bio of Billy have him recast as him he was almost made me wonder if Billy actually died in 1989), Thurman Munson (Erik Jensen, again have him play Munson if they do his story).
Free packs of Holiday Inn cards? Big score.
ReplyDeleteA. I prefer the US cover of HP and the Deathly Hallows.
ReplyDeleteB. Just reading about waiting three hours on the runway gives me anxiety.
That is one crazy and memorable trip!
ReplyDelete