Michigan Trip, Part II

The next morning we were up bright and early for our final flight to Detroit, which they had so kindly scheduled at 7am after we had landed at 11pm the night before.  Let me tell you, that was tough.  I was pretty miserable.

When we finally landed, we headed to the baggage claim office where we were informed our bags had not even made it onto the plane in Phoenix the day before.  Southwest Airlines had just left them there at home.  So now they were on their way to the Detroit airport, but not before they stopped in Tampa and Denver (??).  Awesome.  They wouldn’t be getting into the city until almost 4pm. We had a carry-on sized suitcase with us, but we were really smart and filled it with all the essentials like star wars toys for C’s son. No clothes for me and only a white t-shirt and gym shorts for Cliff. Oh and several pairs of men’s white socks haha.

Normally, they deliver your bags to you when they arrive late, but if you are outside the radius of 80 miles, they overnight them to you by Fed-Ex.  Since we had been through so much trouble and only had the clothes on our backs (no makeup, no toiletries, no nothing) the customer service rep promised us she would override the computer and approve our bags to be driven to East Lansing, which was about an hour and a half away. Yay!  Small victories.  I left that office content. 

Next we headed to the rental car office.  I had booked a car with a great deal and was quite proud of myself.  That is, until we got there and they wouldn’t let us rent the car because the driver name (his) didn’t match a credit card.  Which we didn’t have….because it was stolen (see part 1).  We walked away and I calmly called Hotwire to see what we could do.  She said the only thing we could do is to cancel the booking (which is normally non-refundable) and re-book.  When she quoted me the price to re-book,  I lost it.  It was almost $100 more than the first time.  I started crying.  I had held it together so well until that point.  At that moment, I just couldn’t keep a happy face anymore. I told her we would call back.

We went back up to the car rental desk (we hadn’t even left the building) and asked what their cost would be.  She quoted us $2 more than the first car rental I had booked.  That was the moment I professed my love for the poor woman at the Hertz desk.  I was so happy.  I couldn’t give her enough compliments.

We finally got into the car and on our way.  On the way to East Lansing I stopped at an Ulta and told them I was meeting C’s family for the first time (which was true, just not his parents like I’m sure they assumed) and I had no makeup or anything.  I asked if someone could do it for me and I was in luck because the Too Faced rep was actually in the store.  She did my full face and I bought some lipstick.  It was actually pretty great makeup.  When I get money I am going back to buy the mascara, which comes off in tubes instead of running down you face.

I am so glad we did that because we went directly to the Michigan State football building. I was wearing short yoga black pants, a faded black spaghetti strap tank (complete with a hole) and a black zip up (very thin) sweater.  All various shades of black, which is totally fine for traveling. It’s not so great for meeting all of your boyfriends old friends and the staff he had grown to love over the years.  Or the head coach for the Michigan State football team.  Bet many people don’t meet him wearing an outfit like that.

I loved taking a tour of the facility.  It’s so neat to me to see an ‘insider’s view’ of that kind of operation.  We saw the gigantic weight room, the practice field, the trainer’s room, the equipment room and the player’s lounge, among other places. My favorite was definitely the equipment room.  It was really cool to see hundreds of boxes of brand new Nike shoes all piled up, racks of helmets shelves upon shelves of pads.  The trainer’s was pretty cool too.  A lot of the guys were in there getting massages (must be nice) and sitting in either the hot tub or the ice tub. Ice tub, now there’s something you couldn’t pay me to sit in! C was quite jealous when he saw the players lounge.  I guess they didn’t have multiple pool tables, gaming systems and 6 + giant flat screen TV’s when he was on the team….

After the tour of the facility and meeting pretty much every person who was working that day (we even intruded on a defensive coaches strategy meeting) we headed out again.  But not before they loaded me up with some pretty sweet Michigan State gear.  I guess I am going to have to represent now J  C was a little miffed because they only had girl’s clothes.  Too bad, so sad!

Next up…heading to meet C’s son and his mother!