Monday:
What a weird and wild ride. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, pulled into the covered parking lot and Mr. Mangin Sun was in a golf cart. .“Follow me” and he took off, I don’t know what modifications he made to that golf cart but our poor Prius struggled to keep up. He led us to a no parking spot “No Worries, this is best spot no spots available,” loaded us into the golf cart — Phyllis choose to ride in the behind, facing backwards, and off he went.. I looked behind and her knuckles were white as can be, hair is flying backwards (forwards for her) like something out of a cartoon After he passed several cars (on the left, Phyllis said one driver’s eyes were like saucers watching us steam by) he dropped us off, shaken but in one piece at the entrance.
We checked our luggage, went through the security - I can’t help but wonder if the shoes off security walk combined with our flip-flop wearing culture is creating an athlete's foot epidemic in airports. We sat in the Southwest Airlines section and listened to the United Airlines people say how bad the weather was in Chicago and how they didn’t have any flights in or out.... Needless to say we didn’t have any problems (Go Southwest!!!). . . off the plane, walk ,walk, walk down some stairs, walk some more to get to the hotel shuttle. This is our first experience with Chicago Driving (as distinctive in it’s own way as Chicago Pizza) and Chicago gas prices ($4.59 per gallon - $1.00 more than home).
A quick turn-around at the hotel and we are off on a a very warm very crowded ride on the El (P’s first experience with a subway) only to make it Wrigley 10 minutes late (the ballgame was an ESPN Monday night game and started an hour early). Nearly all is great 5 innings in, beautiful evening and a raucus crowd, many decked out in 70's garb -a whole group of Astro's fans managed to find some of those ugly old orange uniforms - when I notice something that looks a little like rain. Next thing you know the grounds crew is rolling out the tarp while rain falls in sheets. Meanwhile everyone more than about 12 rows in front of us all the way to the front is dashing for the concourse. I bet they regret spending extra money for closer seats.
Sheets and sheets of rain, then lightning, followed by a lot of wind and severe thunderstorm warnings while we watched from under the roof. The young lady sitting next to us received a message from her mother that there was a tornado in Naperville (false). I asked how far away that was, when she said it was 30 miles I explained that she didn't need to worry - We Okies know our Tornadoes. P can't help but laugh “how do we leave Oklahoma and 100 degree weather only to run into a tornado.”
Eventually the sirens stop, then start again so we give up and enter the maelstrom of hot wet masses fighting there way to the subway station — ironically we were dry as long as we stayed at the game and wet when we tried to leave. We were quite soaked by the time we got on the train for our 20 minute ride back to the hotel.... We got off at our stop, and.... Proceeded to walk around in the rain for 20 minutes all the while knowing that our hotel was a block away, but which way — P figured out that we were on the wrong side of the street, but let me lead us the wrong way, she was wet already and figured she might as well give me a “I Told You So.”
The next morning we learned they Cubs tried but failed to get the game restarted, discovered there were 3 tornadoes in greater Chicago, one on the Indiana side, and around 300,000 people without power. What A Day.
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