Once again, I am stuck in Toronto.

After being excited to ride the train back to Toronto from London in First Class, I was in for a big disappointment when I realized that the air conditioning wasn’t working. What good is a piece of raspberry caramel pie and unlimited drinks if I’m sweating like a pig and unable to breathe?

To add to the drama, the train was late. I was going to go straight to Toronto and catch a cab to the airport, but according to my calculations, our arrival time into Union Station was 5:50 (if the train was on time) and if it took an hour to the airport (if I was lucky) then I would get to the airport at 7, which was really cutting it close for my 8:20 flight, which was an international flight back to the US.

Fortunately, my client was on the train as well, and he was getting off on the stop before Toronto and offered to give me a ride to the airport. So, after getting off the hot as hell train (it was about 90 in Toronto, maybe 100 on the train) it was about 5:55 (the train was running about 30 minutes late). His wife and dog had been waiting for a while, but we got into the car and sped off to the airport. They were a great couple to talk to, and although I was nervous about making my flight, at least I felt comfortable with the ride. Thanks to some tricky manuevers and smart driving, we actually got to the airport at 6:35.

However, I was having issues trying to check in. I went to the counter and they told me to enter Air Canada instead of United. I tried that, and still no luck.

Finally, I went back to the counter and the lady was like, “Oh, they’ve cancelled a bunch of flights. You might want to go to area G to talk to someone.”

Grr.

So I went to area G and lo and behold, my flight was cancelled. I guess the weather in Chicago was pretty bad so they cut off the flights. So I called reservations and the only flight I could get was at 12 noon the next day. I dreaded the night ahead of me, praying that I wouldn’t be stuck in the scary hotel that I ended up in last time.

I went to the hotel attached to the airport, which is a sweet Sheraton, but of course, no open rooms. I went to the hotel shuttle area and asked the first shuttle I saw if there were rooms, and he said yeah. So I hopped on the shuttle and decided to try my luck. Fortunately, there were some extra rooms at the hotel, and I’m in an OK hotel.

I’m supposed to be at a client site today, but there’s no way it’s happening, so I stayed up all night trying to get some work done. So I shall go to sleep now, hoping to get a couple hours of sleep before I head back to the airport again.

*sigh*

I’m tired of traveling!!!

Tags: Travel //