Of all the legs of the journey, one would think that getting to Chicago by air from New Jersey should be the easy one. But one must update one's assumptions when dealing with COVID and a bunch of other weird factors that have arisen because of it. Take, for example, the assumption that rental cars and car service are plentiful and cost-effective. That was, apparently, soooo 2019.
Kim and I were both flying out on the same day -- she to Arizona, me to Chicago -- but on flights separated by about five hours. It didn't really make sense to drive her to the airport, drive home, and then catch a car service later. I could just go early and work at the Admirals Club so we might as well both take car service (getting an Uber or Lyft in the early morning hours in greater metropolitan Bedminster is not a sure thing). So I opened the car service app and had a temporary loss of mandibular control when I saw that the estimate was $220. Um, excuse me? It's normally around $90. Tried another provider. "How does $285 sound?" Are you kidding me?
And thus was triggered the first of several adjustments to my itinerary. (To all who know me and may have read other blog postings, it should be clear that I am a tight-fisted accountant, which may explain this and other modifications.) Since Kim's flight left at 7 AM, I decided that I would drive, drop her off, and then park in the [gasp] remote parking area. Yes, the one accessed via bus and not the AirTrain. But it was $15 less per day or a total of about $238 for the time we were away. Which would be enough for car service one way, apparently. (I'm sure there are other privately operated remote lots that would have been less, but I didn't have the time/desire to deal with that.)
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. First, the technology worked well. I had printed out the reservation that had a bar code as a backup, but it wasn't needed. The license plate was scanned, it found a match with my reservation, and the gate immediately lifted. I was impressed. I found an empty space within the lot near one of the bus stops without much difficulty and had no sooner found my face mask (required on the bus per bus stop signage) than the bus pulled up. It took 12:37 to get from that bus stop to my terminal (yes, of course I timed it). Assuming it takes the same amount of time for the return trip (it will probably be more because the bus will have to stop at two other terminals, but play along with me), that would be a savings of about $9.50 per minute on the bus. Not bad. Not to mention that often it may take that long to get an AirTrain from the terminal to the P4 parking garage for daily parking that was the alternative.
I quickly passed through TSA (so glad to have TSA Pre-Check as the regular line was crazy long) and made my way to the Admirals Club. It was, um, different than what I am used to, having been to that very club many times in the past. I rolled in around 7:15 AM, which is when there should have still been quite a few business travelers waiting for flights. Except that they weren't. Initially, I was one of a whopping two people in the business/work/desk area, and then the other guy left. I decided to get a cup of coffee and realized I was the only guest in the ENTIRE CLUB. It remained that way for at least 90 minutes. It was one of the most bizarre things I have experienced. Like some weird dream or scifi thing where you are the sole survivor of an apocalypse. But for the friendly and helpful staff that I eventually stumbled upon.
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| Cuz everybody's crazy 'bout the sharp dressed man |
And that was Day 1.
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| Because ORD.... It doesn't get old.... |
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