Travel day - again!

There was ZERO time for blogging yesterday.  It was a travel day.  I could confuse you all and I think I did when I posted the picture of arriving in Nashville. Yes – Nashville, Tennessee.  Is there a quilt show in Nashville?  Perhaps at some time, but not now!

It was a bizarre travel day – so many silly things.  I had completed all my projects the night before. How?  No idea, but every one of them got done. I still had the bindings to sew on two small projects but at this point, I can live with that!

I had to get to the airport a tad earlier than usual as we had to drive someone else to the airport who also had an 8 AM flight and was a bit nervous about getting there on time. Bottom line, I arrived ONE full hour before the flight was to leave. That is UNHEARD of at our house!  And not because we’re in a mad rush, no – there is no sense to get there super early.  I have a NEXUS card, I never check luggage and you can do your check-in online.  I didn’t make it to Tim’s line but that’s OK.

Patti arrived and we chatted. I should have stitched on that binding, but I didn’t.  Anyway, after ½ hour, we find that our flight is now delayed by a half hour. The flight attendant is stuck in US customs. Seriously?  They can’t expedite her through the line? Then the flight got delayed until 8:45. Still no flight attendant.

At last, we were able to board the plane which is a little jet with zero room on board so all rolling bags had to be sky checked. And it’s raining outside. Now we are on the plane, our luggage is outside and guess what? There is no ground crew to load the luggage. That luggage must have sat outside in the rain for at least 45 minutes.  I know – what the heck was going on? Based on all the airline issues lately, I was tempted to take a picture and post it, but I was on the opposite side of the plane. So this time, I was smart and I pulled out one of the mini-quilts. 16” inches square. 

At last the flight attendant is with us and the ground crew is with us, the plane is finished loading and we are good to go.  I’m still stitching. We must have taxied on EVERY runway and every slide road in that airport. Do you know that I managed to finish up the stitching just as the plane was taking off?  And you know how slow I am at blinding. We left at 10 AM!!!  A full two hours late.  GRRRRR!

Turns out there was some sort of lock down?  In customs and for the ground crew?  Seriously???   Air Canada – that was not good timing. I don’t know why we had to sit on that plane and our luggage sat in the pouring rain for so long. My bag was on the second shelf and my stuff was wet inside!

We arrived without further ado in Nashville. Not after we oohed and aahed over the HUGE homes that we could see from the air.  I wonder which one was Carrie Underwoods?

Patti and I got in the rental car and I got out the GPS so we could arrive at our destination. I plugged the address in before the GPS connected and almost had a heart attack. Over 1,000 KM to our destination. What?  NO WAY!  I plugged in a different address and same thing.  Then Patti had the brilliant idea that the GPS was NOT registering our current location – it was thinking I was back home. DUH!  She was right! Let's just say that a thousand thoughts went through my head before we figured out the problem!

We exited the parking garage and there were a few cars waiting there as their GPS clicked in. We did the same thing and within a few minutes – we were good.  AH – a two-hour drive to Paducah.  The countryside is beautiful here and everything is in full leaf!

A quick stop for a bite to eat and we were on our way again. But not before we had to get to the hotel to pick up the boxes that were shipped to me. Then to the dome where our booth is.   It took us a couple of hours to get everything set up – a few more SNAFUs along the way. Let’s just say that a quick last minute intuition on my part when I packed our boxes to ship saved our bacon and we could hang our quilts.  Each show is a learning experience, to say the least!  But we’re in the dome which is one of those inflatable spaces so there is an air lock when entering.  One door has to be closed before the other is open – I feel like an astronaut!

Oh, I should mention that I’m NOT in Kentucky as I write this. We know that Paducah is in Kentucky – right?  Well, I’m in Illinois and have to travel back to Paducah for the show.  No worries – we’re just on the opposite side of the river – the river being the border between the two states.  I’m in Metropolis, home of Superman and Harrah’s Casino which is where I’m staying!!!

On that note, I need to get out of here. A lot to do this morning and I don’t have easy access to the internet. Free WI-FI in the lobby so I'm in the lobby of the casino.  There appears to be a lot of quilters staying here.  Does that mean there will be a good attendance at the show since all the hotels in Paducah are full??

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!!