Highlights of Route 66
with Archers Holidays, June 2015
Day 1: United Kingdom to Chicago, Illinois, USA
We were up at 5am for our 6am taxi ride to Birmingham International Airport, just about twenty-five minutes from home. We soon arrived, checked in, made it through a quiet security screening and into the No. 1 Traveller Lounge. I had some porridge, then a choice of eggs florentine or a bacon roll, so of course I had both. Nah, bacon roll for me as there was no green on that!
We headed to gate 58 which was new - we've been going to gate 48 for ages! It was great as there was a big glass window. I asked Di to get a photo with me and the plane, but the one member of staff wasn't keen and said she couldn't. Another member of staff came over and said to him, "it's okay, we know her!" Heehee maybe we come this route a little too often? Anyway, she got a photo of the plane but I'd run off.
We boarded and were underway on time. Unfortunately, the personal movie screens were not working, still I'd brought several episodes of Dancing With The Stars with me so they kept me entertained. The power, at least, was still working.
Anyway, effective 1st June (three days earlier), United Airlines had introduced a new food and drink (or beverage, in Airplane-speak) service. We started the meal service with Jacobs crackers and cheese, nicely chilled cream cheese, though I'd prefer real Jacobs Cream Crackers than these Ritz-style biscuits.
They next served a choice of chicken risotto or artichoke and ricotta canneloni (well, that's what it looked like, they called it something else, although I forget what). This came with a salad, but this wasn't the long-hated tub of iceberg lettuce with a sliver of tomato (on a good day!), but a selection of squash and peppers and some kind of pulses (I think) with a little dressing. It wasn't great, but it was way better than the lettuce-fest that we never touched. There was also an "artisan" (apparently that means rubber) roll. Edible but dry and chewy.
The other improvement to the meal service is that you can now get a glass of house wine (red or white). This news made my buddy Theo happy! The appearance of a Belgian Chocolate Truffle Ice Cream made Frank and I very happy - good job Paul doesn't like ice cream! After dinner service we got a small bottle of water. Saves them wandering up and down maybe?
Shortly before we were due to arrive, we got our cheese and turkey sandwich and can of Heineken beer.
We were soon coming in to land in Newark.
Getting through Newark's Customs and Immigration was relatively painless as we have Global Entry. Dave was also through quickly, but then we had to wait ages for our bags. Once through, we redropped them and took the monorail to Terminal A. We headed through security and wandered about looking for the United Club in Terminal A. Di had seen their Wi-Fi signal flag up on her phone, but we couldn't see the Club. Then we doubled back and it was around the side of the security exit. We got a very friendly welcome - we weren't the first to miss the entrance it seems! Ah, the new regime had kicked in and alongside the biscuits and cheese they had soup, bread rolls (a little dry) and the beer came in bottles! It was all very nice. The free Wi-Fi was great too.
Our plane was a little late arriving so we had time to grab an Auntie Anne's pretzel and drink in the departure lounge before we were able to board. Then it was time to go. We had an uneventful flight to Chicago.
We arrived at Chicago O'Hare and made our way to baggage claim. Then we had to find the shuttle. Not sure how we missed it the first time, but once round the block and we found it. Meant we had just missed one shuttle, but we didn't have to wait too long before the next one was ready to leave. Blimey! It took a very long time to get to our hotel, The Essex Inn on South Michigan Avenue. Then the fun started.
I had my hotel voucher which said the Essex Inn. I had my notes supplied by Archers which said the Essex Inn. My own notes made from the brochure online which said the Essex Inn. The guy on the desk at the Essex Inn had no booking in Di's name, and was not aware of the imminent arrival of a Cosmos tour full of people. Weird. We called the emergency number in Colorado but it was 5.05pm and they'd gone home for the day at 5pm. Some emergency number!
We had to call the UK number, but fortunately we have an American phone - as calling on a UK phone in the USA is £1.50 per minute! We figured having no hotel room counted as emergency enough, even though it was about midnight in the UK. We spoke to a pleasant lady and she said "of course" we were staying at the Essex Inn, that Archers/Cosmos use the Essex Inn all the time and that we should just get a room (two rooms) and she would email Cosmos in Colorado to make sure it was all sorted. Most importantly "everything would be fine." She asked Di to let her speak with the guy on the front desk and fortunately, as Di has a credit card we were able to book two rooms on the spot! Not sure what would happen if she didn't have one. Again, the lady reiterated, we should just go to our rooms and by the morning, "everything would be fine." We did ask for the US emergency number, but she refused to give it to us as we didn't need it.
Unable to do much more, we took our bags to our rooms, a little uneasily. We had booked an additional day in Chicago prior to the regular tour so were the only ones to arrive, but it seemed a little bit like being left in limbo. After all, surely the hotel would know if it were expecting a bus full of people the next day and they were adamant they weren't. We didn't want to have to waste the next day moving hotels if she was wrong and it wasn't as "fine" as she thought. Also, the hotel confirmed they had had to move people to other hotels before.
With little other choice, however, we headed out to the nearby Chicago deep dish pizza restaurant as planned - Lou Malnati's Pizza. It was nearly 7pm (1am UK time, not to mention losing 6 hours across the timezones!) There was a half hour or so wait, but we were able to get some local beers while we waited. We got a 312 Urban Wheat Ale and a Matilda - a Belgian-style Pale Ale from the Goose Island Beer Co in Chicago and Frank ordered a Blue Moon.
We ordered The "Lou", which was a spinach mix, with mushrooms and roma tomatoes covered with mozzarella, romano and cheddar cheese on garlic Buttercrust and also a Pepperoni Deep Dish. When they came, they brought Di a medium rather than the small she ordered but agreed to charge her just for the small she ordered, which was good. It also meant we had some left over for breakfast! The pizza was great! Deep dish is certainly a good way to have pizza, though I'm not going to say the best, but it's very good.
When Di was fiddling with her US phone, she noticed she still had last year's Tour Director Patrick Nielsen's phone number. She sent him a quick text, briefly outlining the situation and asking for the US emergency number. Not only did he respond almost immediately, he called back, taking some tour details and said he'd get them to call us!
While he didn't remember my humans (I'm sure) he said of course he remembered me! Who wouldn't? Anyway, shortly afterwards - as we were leaving the restaurant around 9pm, the US office called and confirmed no, we shouldn't be in the Essex Inn, we should be in the Best Western Grant Park, just three blocks away! We could either check out and move immediately, or stay at the Essex Inn overnight and then move on the next day. They also confirmed that our Tour Director, Beth, was already there.
As we'd booked the extra night to be in the same hotel so we didn't have to move the next day when we had better stuff to do, we told them we'd move right away - by now it was about 9.30pm. The US Office said Beth would give us a call, which she did. She confirmed we could stay and move the next day or move right away, and that, if we had to pay, we'd be reimbursed. Di spoke with a different guy on the front desk and he said that although we'd only used the bathroom - we hadn't unpacked at all - we'd still have to pay the full amount for the two rooms. Di pressured them and eventually he agreed to deduct $20 from the bill - very generous! This meant Di had to pay $300 for the two rooms on her credit card. We fetched our bags and headed to the Best Western Grant Park. Beth did say we could get a taxi and charge it to them, but as it was only three blocks we figured we could walk it while we waited for a taxi. It wasn't far at all.
The staff at the Best Western were expecting us, gave us our keys and our information package from Beth about the first couple of days of the tour and we headed up to our rooms. While the room was okay, I have to say it wasn't as nice as the Essex Inn, although the hotel is being refurbished so will hopefully get better soon. It was getting on for 10.30pm so we figured we'd just go to bed - we were meeting friends the next day and wanted to be up in time for breakfast.
Not the best start to our tour but at least we had our luggage, which was a step up on this time last year! One of our soon-to-be bus-mates would not be so lucky...