I should have known that the whole trip was going to be a gong show after the first experience Blondie and I had. Namely, getting ourselves to the airport on time, in one piece for our 10:25 pm flight.
The day started out well enough - me wrapping up loose ends at work and making sure that things were in order, Blondie picking up the car from the rental place. I had spent a few hours the night before doing all my laundry and packing my (ridiculously over-sized) suitcase. I despise coming home to a messy house so I cleaned everything up and was ready to go.
Blondie picked me up and we were on our way to Edmonton. The flights out of Edmonton were $99 each way, out of Calgary it was almost $300 each way. I think it's just a trick to get people to actually go up there.
Anyway, we made it and did some shopping at West Edmonton Mall. At 8 pm we decided we were hungry and it was a good idea to grab dinner at a restaurant. By 9 after eating our appetizer and still waiting for the salads to show up we started to panic a little. We were supposed to check in at 9:20.
We ate so fast I don't think the waitress even realized we had gotten our meals yet but we threw money down and bolted. With no road map and no sense of direction, we ended up a tad lost finding the road to the airport (which is actually 20 minutes outside of Edmonton). We finally pulled up to the airport at 9:45 at which point we were freaking out.
Blondie called the car rental place since we couldn't find them anywhere. Maybe because they weren't actually located at the airport.
FAIL.
We drove towards the rental place, me on the phone with the rental guy giving us directions, Blondie practically hysterical beside me. Luckily we ended up behind an Enterprise van and followed him into the rental place. We ran inside, threw the paper work on the desk.
"Did you girls need a receipt?"
Yeah, let's just wait the 15 minutes while you check the car over, refill the gas tank, go over the paperwork and print out that reciept. Or you know, we could try to still catch our plane
We ran back outside into the shuttle van where our driver made small talk and drove fairly fast back to the airport. Very nice guy (thanks again Terry) but he didn't really have the sense of urgency we needed.
Time? 10:10 pm, 15 minutes until take-off. So Blondie and I run to the front desk, throw our bags on the scales (mine teetering dangerously between 49.5 and 49.9 lbs) and grab our boarding passes. Blondie reaches in her purse for her passport and sitting there are the keys for the rental car.
EPIC FAIL
After debating pretending we didn't notice or calling the car rental place we decided that 10 minutes was plenty of time to return the keys, especially since the other set was all the way back in Calgary.
"Um, hi...this is one of the girls who was just in an uber hurry...? So we um, still have the uh...car keys..."
"Oh golly"
Luckily Terry wasn't too far away. We ran the keys out to him at which point he told us we would have been charged for the entire week we were away if we hadn't returned them.
Blondie and I ran through the airport (of course our gate was the very last one in the whole freaking airport) and panting and gasping collapsed into the airport chaise-lounges just as they called pre-boarding.
Wait, pre-boarding?
After checking our boarding passes we realized that boarding time was 10:25 - our flight didn't actually take off until 10:50.
We're nothing if not blondes.
The day started out well enough - me wrapping up loose ends at work and making sure that things were in order, Blondie picking up the car from the rental place. I had spent a few hours the night before doing all my laundry and packing my (ridiculously over-sized) suitcase. I despise coming home to a messy house so I cleaned everything up and was ready to go.
Blondie picked me up and we were on our way to Edmonton. The flights out of Edmonton were $99 each way, out of Calgary it was almost $300 each way. I think it's just a trick to get people to actually go up there.
Anyway, we made it and did some shopping at West Edmonton Mall. At 8 pm we decided we were hungry and it was a good idea to grab dinner at a restaurant. By 9 after eating our appetizer and still waiting for the salads to show up we started to panic a little. We were supposed to check in at 9:20.
We ate so fast I don't think the waitress even realized we had gotten our meals yet but we threw money down and bolted. With no road map and no sense of direction, we ended up a tad lost finding the road to the airport (which is actually 20 minutes outside of Edmonton). We finally pulled up to the airport at 9:45 at which point we were freaking out.
Blondie called the car rental place since we couldn't find them anywhere. Maybe because they weren't actually located at the airport.
FAIL.
We drove towards the rental place, me on the phone with the rental guy giving us directions, Blondie practically hysterical beside me. Luckily we ended up behind an Enterprise van and followed him into the rental place. We ran inside, threw the paper work on the desk.
"Did you girls need a receipt?"
Yeah, let's just wait the 15 minutes while you check the car over, refill the gas tank, go over the paperwork and print out that reciept. Or you know, we could try to still catch our plane
We ran back outside into the shuttle van where our driver made small talk and drove fairly fast back to the airport. Very nice guy (thanks again Terry) but he didn't really have the sense of urgency we needed.
Time? 10:10 pm, 15 minutes until take-off. So Blondie and I run to the front desk, throw our bags on the scales (mine teetering dangerously between 49.5 and 49.9 lbs) and grab our boarding passes. Blondie reaches in her purse for her passport and sitting there are the keys for the rental car.
EPIC FAIL
After debating pretending we didn't notice or calling the car rental place we decided that 10 minutes was plenty of time to return the keys, especially since the other set was all the way back in Calgary.
"Um, hi...this is one of the girls who was just in an uber hurry...? So we um, still have the uh...car keys..."
"Oh golly"
Luckily Terry wasn't too far away. We ran the keys out to him at which point he told us we would have been charged for the entire week we were away if we hadn't returned them.
Blondie and I ran through the airport (of course our gate was the very last one in the whole freaking airport) and panting and gasping collapsed into the airport chaise-lounges just as they called pre-boarding.
Wait, pre-boarding?
After checking our boarding passes we realized that boarding time was 10:25 - our flight didn't actually take off until 10:50.
We're nothing if not blondes.
14 comments:
haha. oh ALICE, i love your trip already.
my team is always traveling around canada, and we go to edmonton a few times a year. i can safely say edmonton is my least favorite airport of all time.
Classic and hilarious!
Thankfully it wasn't the other way around though... if it left earlier probably would have sucked on a whole NEW level!
That's brilliant. Fantastic story.
I just flew back to England for a week, and coming back to Toronto we got the message before take-off:
"Erm, we've got too much luggage stored at the front of the plane. Could sixty people move to the back during take-off? There are some seats there spare, and you can go back to your regular seats once we're in the air."
And all this, let's not forget, a few days after a Spanish plane crashes upon take-off. I was very glad for the spare underwear I brought.
But you see, otherwise you probably would've taken your time and actually risked missing your flight! Your locks served you well!
HAHA that is AWESOME! So something I would do... this is the main reason I hate traveling; the cars, parking, dog boarding, packing, unpacking... and fighting with my carry-ons in the airport bathroom. The only thing enjoyable about traveling is being at your destination; I'm not fond of the route there however!
At least you didn't actually miss the flight! And now you have a good story to tell.
What if you wore brunette wigs when you travel next? (or did Blondie already suggest this)?
The Edmonton syphillus jokes are flying!
I would have said how long until you heard a Nickelback song.
Reading this entry made my blood pressure rise a bit. This blog is very close to being dangerous for my health.
OMG HAHAHAHAHA!
I have totally been there and ALMOST missed a flight before! You girls are TOO FUNNY!
Edmonton? Really? I think I would have paid the extra $200 each way! =P
HA! Great story ;-)
HA! Totally something that I would have done. Traveling turns me into a complete ditz I swear. Okay, maybe not just traveling, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)
hahaha what a relief you made it! Sounds like something I would totally do.
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