The Traveling Steve's

Heartland of Kansas

After yesterday’s plane scare flying to Dallas, I slept in a bit in my Doubletree Wichita hotel room.  I got in last night and was quite tired from the day’s events – literally mentally drained.  I had a nice breakfast in the 5th floor Concierge Lounge, which was quite nice with hot and cold breakfast food.  After breakfast I walked over to the car rental terminal at the adjacent Wichita airport, and rented a Malibu from National Car Rental.IMG_5658

I then drove to La Crosse, Kansas, which was close to a three hour drive thru America’s heartland.  It was definitely thru some rural farmland areas, and not many places to stop for food, gas or shopping along the way.  I took a couple photos on the rural drive:  the wide open 2 lane roads past silos, windmills and oil rigs, and driving thru small towns with the outdoor garden shops displaying their colorful Fall pumpkin decor.IMG_5699

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When I arrived at La Crosse, I was hoping to find a McDonalds or similar, but there was nothing of the sorts, in this small town.  I worked late, until 8pm or so, and then drove to Hays City, about 30 minutes away, where I checked into the Hampton Inn for two nights.  Compared to La Crosse, Hays City was like Manhattan, with lots of restaurants (2 Pizza Huts!) and several hotels.  The Hampton Inn I stayed at looked to be the best in town, although there was a Holiday Inn Express, Best Western etc.

I didn’t do much during my two nights in La Crosse as I worked late both nights, and then had a half hour drive back to my hotel in Hays City.  There was a beautiful full moon Tuesday night, but the store lights of the Home Depot next door  took away from it’s beauty.  There had been a ‘blood moon’ on Sunday and perhaps this is what made it so bright still two days later.

IMG_5692 I checked out of the hotel this morning (Thursday) and worked most of the day in La Crosse, 20151001_142848before driving back to Wichita were I’m staying for the night.20150930_185439  I’m staying at the same Doubletree Wichita Airport, where I stayed on Monday night.  I had left my Polo sweatshirt in my hotel room and had called the hotel Tuesday and asked them to hold it for me when I returned. I got my Polo sweatshirt back at checkin, and fortunately it wasn’t too cold this week when I might have needed it.

After checking in I made a couple work calls, and went up to the 5th floor Concierge Lounge which is complimentary as I’m a Hilton Diamond member.  I checked in for my flight on American Airlines, which leaves at 9:15am.  I still haven’t gotten an upgrade for tomorrow, which is a bit surprising considering I was upgraded already, but had to change airports/flights on Monday as a result of the emergency landing we made in New Orleans.   

I did get an email from American Airlines apologizing for the ‘incident’ and inconvenience it caused, and gave me 10,000 miles for the trouble.  I didn’t ask for that, and actually had written a complimentary letter for the flight attendants from the airport in New Orleans while I was delayed all day.  It was a nice gesture, and I don’t think it was in anyway related to sending my complimentary email, but considering we could have crashed and spent a whole day of our lives in an unscheduled airport, a confirmed upgrade would have been the least they could do, especially for an Executive Platinum member who had already been upgraded on his original flight.  Oh well, not a big deal, but more of a principal-type customer service thing.

Anyway, now it’s Friday morning and I’m back at the Wichita airport again, waiting for my 9:15am flight to Dallas, connecting to Orlando.  Hope this travel day goes better than Monday!

 

 

 

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