I just got back (late last night) from my latest, and hopefully last, trip of the year. I attended a activity at my alma mater back in the UP of Michigan. I was supposed to fly from SoCal to Chicago to Houghton, however, 20 minutes before my flight from Chicago to Houghton was scheduled to take-off (it was to land at 11:37PM Wednesday night) it was cancelled due to 'bad weather'. The first flight the next day wouldn't have gotten in until 2:30PM but my session was from 9:00AM - Noon. So I rented a car and drove the 412 miles. There were some students (seniors coming home from job interviews) on the flight who also needed to get home by the next morning so I gave 3 of them a ride (the cost is the same whether the car had 1 or 4 people in it). They took turns sleeping so that at least one person was awake to keep me company. It took us 7 hours to get there and weather was only bad the last 30 miles, but it was heavy blowing snow (lake-effect snow so it was only near the coast of Lake Superior).
The problem was that when we got on the rental car shuttle at the Chicago airport the driver said that they didn't have any cars available. When I explained to him the situation that I technically had a car rental agreement, but for Houghton, and that I and the 3 students really needed to get there by morning, he agreed to see what could be done. When we go to the rental car facility he took us to the supervisor and explained what was going on and helped convince the supervisor that I should get a car (it helped that Siemens has a corporate contract with National) so after about 20 minutes they finally agreed to rent me a car under the condition that I had to bring it back on Friday (no one-way rental as they were short of cars). The bus driver stayed right there to make sure that we got a car and as he explained they always have a few extra on hand just in case of emergencies (I gave him a $10 tip). Anyway, it was a new Ford Taurus with all the bells & whistles (back up camera, Sirus/XM radio, F1-shifters, etc.) so we had lots of room.
We made it into Houghton at 6:00AM and after dropping off the kids (2 guys and a gal) at their various residencies, I checking into my hotel, showered, ate breakfast and headed for the campus and my meetings, which all went off without a hitch. The next morning I drove back to Chicago (alone this time) arriving just in time for my original flight segment from Chicago back to SoCal. Ironically, when I got on the shuttle bus back to the airport from the rental car facility the driver was the same guy who had helped me out 2 days before. He asked whether everyone made it to where they needed to be on time and I assured him that they did and thanked him again for his help (and gave him another $5 tip).
So I flew 1800 miles each way, drove over 850 miles, was gone only two nights (despite the fact that I only slept one of them) all to attend a Design contest held for Mechanical Engineering seniors where I was one of the judges (I've done this for something like 6 years now). It's always fun to see what the next generation of engineers are capable of.
OCU
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