This was an adventurous morning.
We got up at 6:30 so Lei could catch the Greyhound supposed to leave at 7:45. His flight is at 5 pm but the next Greyhound would be too late, so he decided to be early. I had to use the restroom when we arrived at the bus stop, but the station was not open, so I had to drive home, leaving Lei there waiting for the bus. Then I got his message saying Greyhound was FULL. It was already a miracle that it was only 20 minutes late, right? But they oversold the tickets (or some people were simply riding longer than their tickets allowed them to) and five people were told to wait for the next bus, which "will come soon" but that was a lie. Among the five my husband had the #2 boarding ticket, and the other guy was actually #1. Good job Greyhound you did that to us again.
So Lei called me, and I drove there while he talked with the other people about renting a car. Two people wanted to come with him, one American guy called Luc and a possibly Indian girl Heera. The other two guys looked like Japanese, and were here on business. They decided to purchase Air Coach tickets on line, but declined our offer to take them to PMU--they insisted on walking there, which would take a while and I couldn't persuade them. I don't know if it would have helped if I tried Japanese. But they just looked like them didn't want to cause trouble to people so that's fine.
Luc came to present at a conference from Minnesota, and his school (or company) would only reimburse shuttle expenses, not flights, so he had to transfer to another Greyhound at Chicago at 11:30 local time. Heera is going to see family in Chicago, and could afford to be a bit late, but we couldn't be sure if the next Greyhound has seats either. So we went to Hertz, but it opened at 9. We waited there, trying online reservation at the same time. It turned out to be too expensive. When Hertz opened we were told they didn't have any cars available till Monday. Tried the other rental car companies across the street and were told the same.
We then searched for other options online again. Limo and Air Coach have 10:30 and 10:10 buses respectively, and at that time there was no guarantee that Limo would have open spots. We saw there were 12:30 buses too so I decided that the other two people should try first, as Lei could take the 12:30 one. But that option soon disappeared: sold out I guess. We had to wait at PMU to see what we could get, the 10:10 Air Coach or the 10:30 Limo. While the other two went to withdraw money I selected a 10:10 Air Coach ticket and the system was holding it for me for 9 mins. As Lei and I wanted to let the others have the opportunity, I went in to tell them, and backed out of that webpage to let Luc make the reservation. But immediately after I did that, that option also disappeared. Well. I guess we couldn't have reserved that ticket and left the other two people behind anyway.
Lei also went in to withdraw money. The last option would be borrowing a car from Matt and driving it to the airport, but then I have to drive back alone... I've been through this 12-day road trip but driving to and back from Chicago still sounds scary. I texted Matt, asking him if his van was available, when I spotted the reindeer shuttle pulling in the PMU drive way. I ran to them, asking if they had three spots available. And they DID. Matt called at the same time, telling me there were two people in his kitchen waiting to drive to Chicago right now. God is amazing. I'm so glad that we stayed patient and loving during the little crisis, and God rewarded us (perhaps?) by opening two windows at the same time. I gathered the people together while holding the reindeer, asked what they thought, and we decided to go with Alex and Esther from Matt's place.
This was perhaps the best way. Alex and Esther were going to hang out in Chicago, and could drop Luc off at the Greyhound station, if they can make it there before 11:30 (12:30 Indiana time), where he could take the next bus to Minnesota. Heera and Lei can both get off at the Union station, which would be perfect for Heera, and Lei can take the metro from there to O'Hare. So after a bit detour due to road construction and events, we arrived, met everybody, and they drove away.
Well it sounds like a bit running-on bland narrative now, but like I said above, it was a little crisis for us, as we were missing one after another buses while waiting, and it was hot outside. But it was good to be able to solve problems side by side with Lei, and God provided us with friends and opportunities. I'm grateful for that. I hope they get there safe. Lei's flight has a connection and it will be a long day for him
God bless us.
