FINAL DAY OF VACATION TURNS NIGHTMARISH BUT FINALLY HOME!

Well, it took us all day and half the night, but I finally got to bed with my wife at 1:30 this morning. I got up at 6AM on thursday, finished my packing and then went up and made breakfast for Doug to use up as much of the groceries as we could.

We were all checked out by 7:30 and on the Amtrak about an hour later. We tried to find the Blue Line subway outside of Union Station in Chicago, but after walking for about three city blocks in the rain, Doug gave up and hailed a cab. We got in line to check in with United Airlines and found huge lines - everything was clogged with people - we moved down to terminal one but found the same mess there.

Then we found out that the late morning flight to Eau Claire had been cancelled so we loitered around a while and Doug decided he wanted to check into a hotel near the airport to lounge around until the next flight to Eau Claire at 9:24 PM - He called the Hilton across the street - they were all booked up but the guy at the Hilton desk offered to book us at the Comfort Inn, which he did. He gave Doug a confirmation number, but neglected to tell him that there are five Comfort Inns in the area -- we stood outside waiting for a shuttle bus - Comfort Suites came by - I tried to get on -- was told it was the wrong bus - then we missed seeing another one -- and finally I was getting upet and started yelling at the next driver from a Comfort Inn - he asked at which one we were staying and that was the first that we foound out there are FIVE!!!

Then Doug called the guy back at the Hilton and tried to get the right bus - was told that the one we wanted was nine miles away, but because of flooding it took the bus an hour to get there!!!!

So Doug cancelled the room, we milled around for a while and then went across the street to the Hilton's lounge and a chance to recharge Doug's iPHone - wthout asking how much they were, I had two vodka gimlets and we both had an appetizer -- when the bill came, it was $73!!! The drinks were $13 dollars a piece. I paid the bill.

With the Eau Claire 9:24 PM flight still holding, we went thru security and then began the nail biting until they called our flight at 8:58PM - we got into Eau Claire at 10:45PM and of course, they lost MY luggage! (I just got it back about an hour ago).