But in summary, yesterday was a crazyyyy day. This is quite the story. If you don't feel comfortable with story telling, leave the campfire right now. And we begin. The following events occur in real time. (say it with Jack Bauer voice).
Tuesday
1:00 AM: Still not asleep. Staring at wall
4:10 AM: Alarm goes off in Tulsa, OK. Spencer and I groggily get our stuff into the truck that's taking us to the airport, and I last minute grab a bagel off the counter, to eat later.
4:45 AM: Arrive at airport, check in takes almost no time. Lady at desk is very nice to me, a big B to Spencer. Probably because he hadn't showered in 5 days.
5:40 AM: Spencer and I go our separate ways. Small tears
6:00 AM: Flight leaves, I don't sleep on plane. Impossible
6:30 AM: Eat my bagel
7:00 AM: Flight 1 lands in Dallas. Why did we go South before going North? Turn phone on while taxying, realize that the rest of the world is still sleeping, put phone back in pocket.
7:12 AM: Phone dies. Panic ensues. In constant state of restarting itself. Spend 7:12-7:30 doing various T-mobile tricks- taking out battery, sim card, plugging in, etc. Nothing. Phone still restarting itself constantly. Can't get past 1/2 way through start up screen. Can't access anything. Realize that all the information about my ride from the airport and who I was supposed to call was on my phone, now don't have that.
7:30 AM: About to Mess with Texas. Need coffee, bad. No Starbucks anywhere? Was wondering why so many people were wearing Maverick shirts. Then realized that I was in Dallas, and they just won the NBA finals. Settle for a coffee from Cinnabon. WTF!
7:30-8:30 AM: Try and fix my phone. Nothing. Try to use airport wifi to get information off my email. But Dallas airport wants 10 dollars for internet use?
9:00 AM: Flight from Dallas leaves. Stop in St. Louis and hang out on plane. Change seats to an exit row. Try and fix phone some more. Flight leaves St Louis for Milwaukee. Pilot advertises some serious turbulence and keeps seatbelt sign on for 85% of the flight. No turbulence occurred.
11:50 AM: Land in MKE. Try to fix phone while waiting. Don't know who's picking me up, what kind of car, what they look like. I was supposed to call them when I landed, don't have phone or their number
12:30 PM: Get bags, start to worry just a bit. Luckily I've watched at least 8 different seasons of The Amazing Race, and my for-sure-gonna-win-the-shit-out-of-that-show spirit kicked in.
12:45 PM: Search all around airport lugging 70 lbs of bags for outdated technology. Finally found. Used one of these for the first time in a long time
12:47 PM: Call Steve. No answer. Get full reimbursement. Call Tela, she can't hear me. I yell into payphone for 1 minute trying to give instructions. I think she gets what to do, my $$$ runs out. And I go out to the curb, hoping that she could get a hold of Joe who could get a hold of the guy. Turns out that Tela, who didn't have Joe's number, tracked it down, and got a hold of him AS HE WAS GETTING ON HIS PLANE! Down to the wire. Thanks T-Crane!
12:48-1:45 PM: Sit on curb at airport, not knowing what car I'm looking for, who is picking me up, or even if anyone got a hold of the person.
1:47 PM: Someone driving a Sprinter Van with bike shop stickers drives really slow through the airport, I flag them down, just figuring. Jackpot!
1:48 - 3:45 PM: Drive around with my 16 year old chauffeur, as he gets helplessly lost trying to get back to the bike shop. Asks me for directions, I don't know! Can't use phone for maps, noticing how reliant I am on having a phone.
3:50 - 4:25 PM: Make it to bike shop, build my bike. Begin to search internet for T-Mobile Store. Still haven't eaten.
4:30 - 5:00 PM: Go out on bike to 3 different stores. Get laughed at because "T-Mobile doesn't exist around here buddy? Why do you have it?" As they held my Washington Drivers License. End up at Best Buy, and buy a 19 dollar drug-dealer phone with a 29.99 1 month plan. Use and Burn phone.
5:15 PM: Get back in Sprinter Van, drive the 1.5 hours back to the Airport to pick up Joe and Logan. Time it perfectly, because I am Rainman.
6:45 PM: Really hungry. Rallying Sprinter Van through construction zone, going BACK in the direction I came from.
7:30 PM: Pull over in some random town for dinner. Turns out to be the town that my Host house is in. Pull over to ask some Random dog-walker where we should eat, Joe Holmes says "how you doin", and she turns out to be the head of the something of the something of the town. Chamber of Commerce or some jazz. I wasn't listening, I was about to start chewing on the steering wheel out of hunger. Directs us to a Greek Restaurant owned by a Mexican man. This place served Greek, Mexican, Italian, American, and Asian foods. I went Greek. Frat life.
8:15 - 10:00 PM: Arrive at my host housing, Joe and Logan go somewhere else. Make small talk with hosts, finally get to bed.
10:01 PM: Asleep
So I made it. Turns out our phones are pretty important to us. I didn't realize how much I had on that phone, until I realized that everything I needed to get from the airport was saved on the email, on the phone. Also turns out that having phone numbers memorized is a pretty useful thing, but only if you have the persons who you need to get a hold of memorized.
I am staying in Port Washington, which is right on Lake Michigan. Today I'm going to go ride toward the lake which apparently looks like an ocean. Steve and Dan get in at some point tonight and will be staying with me, so I will have friends! Lang is being a jerk-face and is staying home. We get to use the Sprinter van for the week and it is SICK. Thanks to Attitude Cycles for the loan of the van.
Drove the s**t out of that s**t.Tweet
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