It started out with us getting on the road late Saturday morning because Eric had a hiccup to take care of at the office 'quickly' in the morning. Well, wasn't so quick. We got no the road, with time to spare to make our dinner reservation, at least, and the hits just kept on coming. In the literal sense. It was really windy, and as I was driving (the rental car) up I-65, I was passing a semi when a piece of hard plastic debris shot out (from the wind) from under the truck. I had no where to go, it hit at a weird angle, but I kept driving. Didn't feel like a tire was damaged, or anything much, for that matter, and we were getting off in a couple of exists to grab a drink, anyway, so I drove another 20 miles or so. We get into the parking lot, and check to see if there was damage... there was.
Shattered lower grill (damn plastic cards!) and punctures radiator. Awesome. With it being a Saturday afternoon, all the Hertz Local Editions were closed, so Hertz had to get us towed all the way back to Indy to the airport (almost a hour away) to exchange the car. Plus, the wait time for the tow truck to even get to us. There went us making our dinner reservation.But we pushed on, anyway, figuring we'd make the best of it. We'd do a later dinner somewhere and still have a chill evening at the hotel, since we had that all set up. So we get there, and while we didn't get the special dinner we made reservations for, we still had a good dinner at Eataly. We were finally calming down a bit... well, Eric was calming down. I was over the mishap before we were even half-way to Chicago. Meh. Life happens, right? Our hotel was right around the corner, so we went to check-in. They couldn't find our reservation. And to top it off, Eric couldn't find a confirmation email. So now we're in Chicago as, like 10pm, with no hotel. Awesome. This just sets Eric off again, and he's ready to drive home. But he saw the thought of that upset me, so we jumped on the Hilton Honors site to see what we could find. As you can imagine, there wasn't much. But there was the Waldorf Astoria... and we could get in with points Eric had. So, with few choices, we went with it.
Well, turned out to be the best thing we could've done. Because it's located off the main drags through Chicago, it was quite peaceful. And if you can believe it, Eric was actually able to calm down and relax, and we both got a great night's sleep! We woke up the next morning completely refreshed, and over the tragedy that was Saturday. And even though some nasty, snowy weather was on the way, we were ready for it. But first, the other reason to be in Chicago this weekend... the Chicago Auto Show.
Eric has talked about the Chicago Auto Show quite a few time. He'd go with his dad when they lived in Laporte, and it was always just a memorable day for him. So I was looking for ward to it. And it was quite cool, actually!
There were concept cars, next year's new model cars, test tracks inside, test drive outside... I can see how you could spend an entire day here... but we were only there for a few house. We did do one of the test tracks, and I gotta say, even if I couldn't be the one to drive, it was still really cool! I would've loved to stay longer, honestly - I feel like we only got to see about 1/3 of what was there to be seen. I'd love to go back up there next year maybe... hopefully not on Valentine's Day.So as we headed out, the snow really started to come down for our drive home. Thankfully, there were no more fubars for the weekend, and we got home safely. Even with time to return the car on-time. So we salvaged the weekend, I guess. But just nothing planned went well. Maybe that's the trick... don't plan. Or maybe just stick to what we know works, which is don't leave the house for Valentine's!
