the trip - day two

I'm up at 6:00 on the second morning, packing up my bags and getting ready to leave. I'm checked out and downstairs with all my stuff by 7:00 - ready to leave to head to the office for another day of training. The rest of the crew is a little late but we still get there just as the trainers are arriving.

The training is less relevant to what I need to learn, but I took plenty of notes and tried my best. I checked my email a few times since we were online and we took a short break early on for some breakfast. The rest of the morning went slowly and we broke for lunch a little after noon. The trainers drove us over in two cars and our car got a little lost. Lunch was burgers - served outdoors right on the bay. It was really beautiful there - but my table spent most of the time talking shop. I finally said, "Look! The ocean!" - but they didn't really get it.

Lunch dragged on a bit and though I didn't really want to go back into the training room - I also thought we had wasted a bit of time. My co-worker and I had to leave to catch a flight at 6:41 and we got ready to go a little after 4:00. The driver was supposed to pick us up at the training center, but we got word that they were at our hotel - ironic considering we had to drag our bags from there at 7:00 AM that morning. One of the trainers agreed to drive us and our bags back to the hotel - but when we arrived, no driver. The trainer made some calls and a driver finally arrived - in a stretch limo. Calling himself 'the rescuer', the driver loaded up our bags and we got into the back of this well appointed, but not terribly well maintained, limo.

The delay got us on the road a bit later, and we were in traffic in a residential neighborhood. Suddenly, a gate at a house was opened and a dog ran out into traffic - right in front of the limo. We heard a thump and when I looked back, the dog was running in traffic and ran back to the house and the gate. The driver stopped the car and one of the residents came up. The driver apologized and said he would come back, but that he had to drop us off. The resident started yelling about the driver getting out or the cops would be called. The driver decided that the situation would only get worse and drove off. We managed to get to the airport in time, but it was a little close. I took my bag with me on the plane and we got assigned new seats as we boarded - giving us more room on the undersold flight.

In Atlanta we ate near the re-assigned gate - fortunately, since they started boarding early. We were packed in there for the final leg of the flight and got a bit delayed in leaving. The plane was small and there was only one flight attendant. She did a good job, but I could tell she was tired. Finally arrived at Akron/Canton airport and got our stuff together. My co-worker dropped me off at home and I took a quick shower and went to bed. Long freaking couple of days. I liked the weather - what I saw of it down there - but I was still glad to be home.

I'll have some more notes later - but it's time to get back to work...