An Extra Long Post For A Horrible Week.

I'm back. Let's just say that the trip could have been so much better. I'll do my best to tell you why. I will tell you that this post is extra long. I apologize.

When we boarded the plane in Wichita, I thought it was going to be smooth sailing. I was in a seat by myself and had all of the room I could need. Now, when we get to Chicago (pit stop) we are delayed on the runway and have to wait for a plane to finish de-ice. Great. We have nine minutes to run to our connecting flight. Of course, we made it. Our group was the last one on. I am now sitting by a heavy guy who snored the whole way to Columbus. sigh...

When we get to Columbus, we meet up with the group from Denver. One lady reminded me of the actress Linda Hunt (she's really little and played in Kindergarten Cop with Big Arnold). This lady wasn't as old, but same height, hairstyle, and facial features. Weird. Anyway, we get going toward the rental cars and wait for my boss to arrive with our van. The van comes. It seats seven. We have eight. Okay, where is all of the luggage going? We pack everything in the van. A suitcase in the middle of the second row makes a temporary eighth seat. One of my coworkers is sitting on it. We are so tight, we can't even get our seat belts on. We get going down Highway 71. We stop to look at one of our sister stores and it looks alright. Now it has made us late for dinner. So, we get going again. We are doing about 70 mph down 71 interstate. We are having a good time. Then, I notice a girl in the right hand lane (on her phone, of course) try to get in the middle lane (we are in the left hand lane). She does not see the car there. The car clips her back left side and sends her into a tailspin. She tries to correct herself, but over corrects which sends her spinning out of control into our lane. I screamed, "Car! Car!" The girl hits the cement median and bounces off to hit us in the back left side of the van. By then we were only doing about 45 mph thanks to my lungs and my boss who was driving. We pull over to the right hand side and everyone was completely silent.

Now, I am going to stop right here and let you know that we are all okay. The only injuries sustained by anyone was the cell phone driver, who was just a little bruised. In our vehicle, I hurt my right knee and the coworker who was sitting on the suitcase had a bruise on her ass, but nothing that needed any assistance from the fine ass firemen who came to assist us.

We are left in the van, but my boss starts to freak out because we have too many people and not enough seat belts. We are asked to get off the highway and to proceed to the exit and to stop at the McDonald's. Of course, we are relieved and file out of the van. My boss calls for her backup and we send half of the group on towards dinner.

As I was sitting there, before getting to McDonald's, I kept thinking that we could have been in so much worse danger than we were. One of the Denver girls must have been thinking the same thing because she spoke up and said it. We were extremely lucky. The adrenaline was so much that when I finally got out of the van, I threw up. I couldn't help it. I kept thinking about my kid and how I am a single mom. The whole accident was in slow motion. I just remember closing my eyes and asking God, "Not now. Please, not now."

So, we fill out the necessary forms for the accident. They pull part of the van out from under the tire so we could still drive it. Can you believe it? We head to dinner. Of course, we have trouble finding it. We eventually did. It was a German restaurant in the Brewery District called Lindey's. They had excellent food and appetizers.

After dinner we head to the Hyatt. It was only five minutes away from the restaurant. thank goodness. We were all very tired from the day we had gone through. When it's my turn to check in, I give them my name. The guy behind the counter gives me a strange look. He asked if I had already checked in earlier. I told him no. He said that someone with the exact same name as mine had already checked into my room. I turn around and look at everyone. What next? He gave me a room on the top floor - 20. Did I tell you that I am afraid of heights? Anyway, it was a perfect ending to a perfect day. right?

I wish I could tell you the worst part of the trip was that, but I would be lying! During our trip, we got lost twice, I shut the car door on my co worker's fingers, I was made to eat at a Wafflehouse and also made to wear a hat as I was a Wafflehouse Virgin. On the way home we were delayed three hours. That was probably the worst part of the whole trip. We only have one flight going into Wichita. It was suppose to leave at 7:15. Luckily, the pilot who flew us from Columbus to Chicago was also our pilot from Chicago to home. We made it as the doors of the plane were closing. I guess that was one good part of my trip, right? Wrong. Because we only had three minutes to get from one plane to the other, none of our luggage made it home with us. I had to go pick up my luggage the next day at the airport.

Whew! This post is soooo long. I do apologize. Here is a picture of the van below.