Category Archives: Chicago

A night in Chicago, Don’t eat the pie!

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In which we camp out in a couple of hotel rooms waiting out the weather and unhappy travelers.

May 17, Friday – Second Departure Day

Everyone slept extremely well; girls in one room, boys in the other. Since we did not have our suit cases had to buy a toothbrush (1) and small tube of Colgate $1.50. I wonder did we all use the same toothbrush that morning? No shave, no change of clothes, everyone showered so we don’t smell yet! Looks like our scheduled stop over in Iceland is out for now, maybe on the return trip. Morning uneventful in a motel, hotel in suburban Chicago; what else can one say? Had a nice breakfast and lunch courtesy of Icelandic Air. Bus took us back to O’Hare at 1:30 pm. The schedule for the plane had been changed so only a short stopover in Iceland and we will arrive in Luxembourg at approximately 6 am on the 18th. The Icelandic people were extremely helpful and nice. Plane was loaded at 3 pm; we spent about 1 hour on the runway and finally took off at 4:10 pm – 19 hours late!

It is amazing the difference a good night’s sleep makes on one’s disposition. Last night while waiting in the plane the crowd was hot, mad, unruly, ornery and tired.  Today everyone is happy and relaxed and they have graciously accepted the delay. Many applauded when the plane finally took off. A case of musical chairs occurred in the row in front of us. The 2 toughies mentioned earlier turned out to be quite nice. They were at the same hotel as we. They had made arrangements to change seats and the flight attendants had also made arrangements to change their seats. That added a little humor to the departure. One lady refused to go back to her seat because she had just had stomach surgery! Never did figure that one out!

A side note: while walking around the hotel, we noted that the staff was setting up for a big luncheon. We all noticed one employee standing next to a large cart full of pieces of pie; he was busy picking small pieces of pie off of all of the pieces of pie set up for the banquet. Glad that we weren’t eating at that luncheon!

Traveling to Iceland, with an unexpected layover in Chicago.

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Apparently, Dad had planned a lay over in Iceland on our way to continental Europe. The weather in Chicago had other ideas though.

two station wagons with a pile of bags on the sidewalk next to them

May 16, Thursday – departure day

We were packed and ready to go! Waiting for Donna Teeter to drive us to the airport. She arrived in her big maroon station wagon. We filled it up, four kids, two adults and baggage for 4 months camping in Europe. This was the only thing that happened on time this day.

10 p.m. O’Hare Airport-sitting in Icelandic DC8 waiting for plane to be repaired, they never did tell us what was wrong with the plane. I thought that maybe Icelandic Airlines would be like dogpatch airlines and so far it has been! Almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. We had arrived at the MPLS-STP airport at 3:30 pm. Our NW flight to Chicago was scheduled to leave at 5:10 pm arriving at O’Hare airport a little after 6 pm giving us about 3 hours before our Icelandic flight to Europe. We didn’t leave MSP until 6:10 pm and then we circled over O’Hare for about an hour. Big thunderstorms were causing flight delays. Thus we lost our three-hour lead time. We had less than 1 hour to get baggage and get it over to Icelandic Airlines terminal. Northwest would not transfer luggage to Icelandic airlines. Fortunately I found a couple of baggage handlers to help me with the luggage. We made it to Icelandic airlines with 10 minutes to spare to boarding time. But it didn’t do much good as we are still sitting in the plane waiting to take off.

The children have been good so far even though we have had considerable delays and it has been hot, over 100 f, and humid all day. The thunderstorm going strong outside of the airplane and it was raining like crazy while they are trying to fix the plane. We have been waiting 1.5 hrs in the plane. At the moment, a real Chicago thunderstorm blowing and raining outside. Glad that we are inside!

A mixed bag of people on the airplane; young and old alike! Two toughies in front of us, like our flight to London in 1972, one quite upset because she wants to smoke in the no-smoking section. The delay a real letdown after all the anticipation.

In a DC-8, which is a disappointment. It’s like expecting butter and getting margarine. Service kitchens and toilets poorly located. Some one just had a bottle of rum spilled over them by one of the flight attendants! People are like sheep; one stands up they all stand up! If two get in line everybody else does too. They just announced 2-hour delay due to mechanical difficulties, everyone standing up waiting to get out of the plane but there is a delay again. There was a promise of cold drinks once we got out of the plane. By the time we got off and into the terminal the cold drinks were all gone? Crowd getting surly and impatient, things are not going well.

The delay was longer than anticipated; it ended up being 19 hours. We were treated graciously by the airline once they realized that the repair was going to take much longer than first anticipated. They found us hotel accommodations, including 3 meals each and they paid for it all. Buses took us to the hotels. We arrived at the Arlington Park Hotel at 12:45 am. They put us in two double rooms. Needless to say everyone slept well that night. Theresa fell asleep standing up in the bus. And to top it all off, the bus driver got lost looking for the hotel. He had to stop at a gas station and ask directions.

Good night!