See the Funny

Last week I wrote about the cities that I most have enjoyed traveling to and visiting over the last several years; but, I don’t want you to think that everything has been “hunky-dory”. Over the past years of travel there certainly have been times when I wondered “WHY”???

As I reflect on this trip I can now see the hilariousness of the whole situation – you may think and say to yourself or be screaming at me: “Why didn’t you just get a hotel room and wait until the next day?” On hindsight you are probably right. To the story – my boss, Pat and I were scheduled to visit a vendor of ours in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – it is February and there are no direct flights from New York to Cedar Rapids – all flights go through Chicago’s O’Hare. Pat and I make it to Chicago with no problems; however, upon getting there most flights were delayed due to a terrible snowstorm. Do Pat and I give up – NO WAY!!! Instead we spend the next 8 hours running from one terminal to the next to see on what airline we can get on to make it to Cedar Rapids.

Now I am not sure how many of you have been to O’Hare; but, this is not a small airport. If you cannot walk to a terminal you have to take a shuttle train to it. O’Hare has four terminals, about 180 gates and approximately 77 million people travel through it yearly. Get the picture – here we were doing the same thing everyone else was; running around trying to get on one of those flights out of Chicago to our destination.

Well, believe it or not we manage to get on a flight to Cedar Rapids – we finally land at 3AM in the morning and now we need to take a taxi to our hotel. There is just one taxi at the airport – it is beat up, the seats are old, lumpy sofa cushions with an odor and it reeks of marijuana. Pat and I tell the driver where we need to go – the streets are a three inch sheet of ice and we are simply swerving from side to side as he drives us. Throughout this ride Pat and I are holding each other’s hands and basically saying our prayers thinking we are never getting to the hotel in one piece.

You know how the story ends – we made it, we were able to get a couple of hours sleep before our meeting; and, more importantly we have a travel story to tell everyone.

While that story ended well I am not sure that I would say the same thing about the next one. I had been on one of my whirlwind Asia Pacific trips which usually included Singapore, Japan and Australia; however, this one also included South Africa and Morocco. I was scheduled to leave South Africa late afternoon to fly to Morocco for an afternoon meeting the next day. Upon arriving at the Johannesburg airport I could immediately tell that something was wrong because of all the people - sure enough my flight to Morocco was cancelled. What was my alternative in order for me to still make my meeting? I could fly to Frankfurt, Germany and then on to Morocco – I took it. We arrived in Morocco at 9AM plenty of time to get to my hotel, take a shower and make my 2PM meeting IF only it did not take 3 hours to get your luggage and clear customs.

I made it to the hotel a little after noon, the Hilton Casablanca – I get to my room so I could shower and change into business clothes – upon opening the door there is a fruit basket on the desk and a sea of fruit flies around it. YUCK – not eating anything from there. I manage to make my meeting and it was quite productive – now let’s have a nice dinner before I can get some sleep and leave for home the next day. The consultant I was traveling with and I decide to eat in the hotel – so we go to the first restaurant and I decide that I just can’t eat there. Each of the seat cushions looked as they were the original from 50 years ago as they were terribly stained. And although my dress should protect me from anything I was not taking any chances. We then decide to eat at the Mediterranean seafood restaurant also in the hotel – this looks much better. We have a wonderful dinner and I am looking forward to sleeping well that evening and heading home the next day.

Little did I know that Morocco would stay with me for the next six months. While there I contacted a parasite which would every now and then rear its ugly head and would have me running to the bathroom and making it my second home. I felt awful because that September I took my niece, Siobhan to Disneyworld and made her stand outside the Ladies Room for 30 minutes as I once more re-acquainted myself with the Hilton Casablanca.

I have never said that I would not go back to a city or country; however, I have to admit I hope to NEVER have to go back to Morocco.

So although I try to see the good in everything – the Pollyanna in me; there are times when that is not possible. What you have to be able to do is laugh at what has happened and that you have survived. So I am able to reflect, laugh and ruminate on these experiences.

See the funny – although it could take years.