Trip to West Virginia

What a crazy couple of days.
I was asked to go to West Virginia with the sales manager of UIC to set up 8 new accounts that we were awarded. Reluctantly I went as I don't like to be away from the family for 4 days. They needed the expertise, so I agreed.

We got all of our travel plans set last week, got the hotels all set, rental cars etc. I left the house 730 Sunday morning. Drove to O'Hare airport. I cut it a little close, as I walked up to the terminal after I got there and got onto the plane, they shut the door and we took off.
Landed in beautiful Charleston, West Virginia. Nice 80 degrees, sunny. Everyone was in a good mood. Frank, my colleague went to get the rental car at the desk, and after 10 minutes, he looks over at me and yells, Mark! and waves me over. I'm like, cool, we're good to go.

I walk up and he has these wide eyes, and says, we're in Charleston, SOUTH CAROLINA. My jaw literally hits the floor. Our travel company totally messed up. I start to laugh, and he starts to freak out. We have an 8:00 am appointment the next day. I have no idea how I didn't notice that we were being flown to the wrong state! I looked at all my travel plans, and they just say, Charleston, never a state. UIC booked my travel, I guess I just assumed they knew where we were supposed to go. I didn't personally book the plane.

We try to get a flight to West Virginia, but it's going to be $1000 and we don't get in till 11:30 pm, and we can't afford for it to get cancelled or something. We have no choice but to get the rental car and drive 500 miles (8 hours) to West Virginia. What's hilarious is that Jenn and I are coming to Charleston, South Carolina on vacation with Mads in May. Frank thought it was hilarious that he came here with me before Jenn and I did.

We drive an exhausting drive (I drove 160 miles to O'Hare, 2 hours in a cramped puddle jumper) earlier in the day. Got in at 11:25pm. We had to return the rental car by 11:30 at the airport we were supposed to arrive in, and pick up the new one. We did, found the hotel (we always stay at Marriott, as we have their rewards points set up), and it was a DIVE! Worst hotel I've stayed at in their organization. We were going to stay there everynight, but decided against it once we got there.

Monday am, we got up early, did 2 inservices, and ended up driving a little over 400 miles again today. We have officially driven extensively on this trip through: South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and tonight we are staying in Hagerstown, Maryland, as we've driven through MD most the afternoon. Ugh. We'll drive about 400 miles again tomorrow and do 2 more inservices for new clients. I'll leave Wed morn. Frank is staying till Friday.

Yesterday, when we were driving, we thought there was an accident on the left hand side, as all these cars were getting over. We saw the cop cars, but when we passed, 2 cops were rigged behind their open doors, with both pistols drawn and pointed at this guy standing by his car in front of them. We floored it and got out of there. We didn't want bullets on our tail too. We've seen it all. Some of the most depressed areas in WV in all of the US. It was a eye-opening day.

Addendum: I just got home, it's Wednesday morning. Since I left on Sunday morning, I've driven a little over 1600 miles, did 4 new client inservices (anyone see the movie "Deliverance" it was like that most the time.) Tomorrow, my colleague has to go down an UNPAVED road for 40 miles to get to that client. I can't make this up. And I had to deal with O'Hare going and coming. Ugh. Glad to be home.