And All That Jazz

More shows for the company means more travel for me, this time I'm off to the windy city, Chicago, and the not so windy city, Minneapolis. This time is a bit of a first for me, as I was off by myself with no sales guys to help me out.

Another first in that it wasn't a 6am flight out of Ottawa, either. I nice, leisurely 6pm departure time. The only problem is, now everyone expected me to be into work on Monday. WTF? No one else has ever had to come into work when they are flying...oh well, gives me more time to get ready on a work front. Plus I got to meet the new guy, John, who happens to be from Nipigon and went to Lakehead too.

Around 3:30 I finally got out of the office and headed to the airport. Breeze through customs and I'm on my way (direct flight and everything!). Not too bad. Once I get to Chicago, it's off to National for my SUV (somehow cheaper than the smallest car), and on to the Hilton. Only problem is, the salesguy didn't book the hotel for two nights, so I ended up having to scramble to find a new hotel minutes before the show started. To top it off, once I found a new hotel, I ended up breaking my shoelace in a hurry to get downstairs to the booth...definitely not my day.

The show itself went okay, not a lot of traffic, but a couple of good leads. After the show, I packed up and headed off towards the airport and my new hotel. It was honestly one of the nicest rooms I've had in a long time, with a monster TV, huge pullout couch, and kitchen. All for $100 a night. Pretty good, in my opinion. For dinner that night I tried a place called Charlie's Charhouse. Since I've never been before, I had no idea what to expect. I ordered the potato skins and a caesar salad. Problem was, I was expecting normal size portions, not a platter of potatoes (10 in all) and a salad bowl that was (I kid you not) about 14 inches across, and a good 4-5 inches deep. Needless to say, I didn't even get half way. No wonder some Americans are so big.

Wednesday saw me back at O'Hare and off to Minneapolis, where I was to meet with a customer of ours. No problems with the flight or getting to the hotel (a real dump this time), but the customer was actually in the process of moving offices, so everything was packed up, and it was decided that maybe we'd skip the meeting. Oh well, more time at the Mall of America and lounging around the pool for me...I wasn't complaining.

The show on Thursday was much better attended, and I had a few more good leads. Again, back to the mall for dinner and some last minute shopping, then a good nights sleep before heading back to Ottawa. And since the flight left at 6am, I was back at work that afternoon (seriously, I had to go). Thankfully the only work I had to do was figuring out who was bringing what hardware for the trip to Tampa the next week, and I was out of there pretty quick. Once the two guys I would be traveling showed up, that is. All in all, a long day, but with the promise of sun and sand the next week, one I could handle.