College students experience a lot of stress. Final exams, midterms, projects, papers, classes, the list goes on and on. And no matter how much you love what you're studying, it can be a little overwhelming at times. So, what better way to alleviate some of that stress than to take a trip, right? So that's what we did! My friend and I decided to hop in the car and take a weekend trip to Chicago to see a concert and take in the city.
As simple as that sounds for two capable 19 year-olds, this trip turned out to be anything but ordinary and it was certainly not relaxing.
The day we left, I was feeling good! I had booked a nice hotel and I was ready to experience Chicago without my parents or any kind of agenda. My friend and I were driving along with our music blaring, laughing and talking and thinking about all the sights to see and things to do. When we finally arrived, however, I was informed that the days that I thought I had booked the hotel for were not the days I had thought. So, I was told very kindly by a Best Western desk manager that we had nowhere to stay and there were no other rooms available. This worker told me that I could call the travel site and cancel the booking with no charge so naturally, I call. I'm then put on hold for more time than I care to think about. When I finally do get through to a real person and explain the situation, we're able to get the room canceled in a matter of minutes.
Crisis averted, right? Wrong.
After booking a new hotel and quadruple checking the dates, we hit the road again, this time looking for a reasonably priced parking garage. The thing about parking in Chicago though, it ain't cheap! We drove the same three blocks for a good half an hour or so just looking for a place that wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg to no avail, at which point we decided to just suck it up and pay the insane $30 dollar parking fee. With the car parked and the new hotel booked, I thought we were in the clear! I mean, it couldn't get much more complicated than this!
Yes, it can.
After checking into the hotel and putting our bags in the room my friend and I decided it was finally time to explore. I had been to Chicago before so I wasn't too concerned with seeing things like the Bean and Navy Pier and he wasn't either so instead, we ended up exploring a couple of high-end clothing stores that we didn't have the money for and took a look at a local theatre company. Then, it was time for the concert so we booked an Uber because we were NOT about to try to navigate the city again.
At the concert, things started to look like they were on the upswing! we had a great time! We sang, we danced and made the most of a day that had been more stressing than decompressing. By the time we finally left the concert, it was late and we were starving so when in Chicago order Chicago Style deep dish pizza. That pizza was arguably the best part of this trip! Once we got back to the hotel, stomachs full and beyond exhausted we crashed, saying that we'd get up early the next morning for some good coffee and some sightseeing.
Unfortunately, the next morning our breakfast plans didn't go as we had hoped they would.
Instead of going out for lattes my friend found himself stuck in the hotel room vomiting. Food poisoning. From a deli sandwich, he had gotten from a gas station on the drive over to Chicago. Being vegetarian, I opted for the trail mix and oh man am I thankful I did! So, while he spent the morning spilling his guts in the toilet, I was left to run back and forth to Walgreens for ginger ale and Advil. The clerks at Walgreens got to know me very well that day. After getting my friend all he needed to not die, I called my mom and explained the almost comically bad luck we had been having. I was freaking out. My friend was too sick to drive us home to Ohio and I'm not legally able to drive so we were stuck, not to mention our checkout time was just an hour and a half away.
But my parents, being the wonderful people they are, offered to drive the four and a half hours to Chicago and pick us up. With that said, they still weren't going to get to the city until four or five. I cried and thanked them for being so flexible then went down to the front desk to ask about extending our stay. I told the woman working at the front desk all about our bad luck and she said she could extend our stay until 1:00 p.m. That's great but that would still have left me and my violently ill friend without a place to stay for three to four hours.
I didn't know what else to do so I thanked the front desk worker and walked away. That's when I ran into a friendly looking man in a suit who looked as if he could help me. So again, I explained the situation and he took me to see the office manager, Michael. Crying, I explained the day I had had to him and he had said he could give us the room until 4:00 p.m. I thanked him profusely and went to tell my friend who was still getting sick up in the room. With yet another disaster avoided and my friend being taken care of at the hotel, I went out and grabbed a cup of coffee to try to keep myself together.
Finally feeling much better about the whole situation, I gave my mom a call asking her how long she thought she and my dad would be. She then told me that they were having car trouble and wouldn't be in Chicago until 6:00 p.m. I talked to the front desk once more and explained the delay in our pick up time and Michael agreed to give us the room for another hour for a small fee. I fee and I was ready to pay it but my friend had assured me that he'd be fine in the lobby waiting for my parents so we decided to just do that. He fell asleep on a bench in the lobby with a plastic shopping bag close by while I ran around paying the bill and getting luggage together.
Finally, my parents arrived and we got everyone settled in the car and headed back to Ohio and I thought that this trip from Hell was finally behind us. Wrong again. On the way home my mom's car problems came back. I'm no mechanic but when the transmission blows in your car, I'm pretty sure that's not good! So, we drive the car to a dealership in Indiana very slowly and have no choice but to leave it there, pack all of our stuff into my friend's car and ride back to Ohio with him and my dad. We made it back to Ohio in one piece but not without quite the trip story to tell.
Moral of the story: Don't eat gas station meats.
