Arrival In Atlanta

Terminal 3 First Lounge

In Atlanta

I doze a bit after dinner, trying not to sleep too much after my mistake last year of a too-long doze then not sleeping overnight. We land on time at 8.35 pm. I’m through Immigration very quickly. My luck continues when there’s a shuttle bus to the Rental Car Center waiting kerbside outside Arrivals. It departs within a couple of minutes.

The Center is almost empty of people and I’m processed at the Enterprise desk almost straight away. Out into the garage just around the corner and I ask the service guy of they have a Chevrolet Malibu available. He thinks so, and lo and behold a few minutes later another guy pulls up with my silver Malibu.

I check it out for defects, pair my phone with Android Auto and get my route to the AC Hotel in Atlanta downtown up on the car’s info screen. All good so far. I drive away at 9.45 pm. The drive goes smoothly until I get downtown. I-85 has major resurfacing works underway, closing three of the six lanes, either side. There is serious congestion. Worse still, my indicated exit to the hotel is closed for tonight’s works.

So I drive on, looking for the next exit but Maps does not pick this up and doesn’t re-route. I’m driving blind as I pull off the Interstate. Following my instinct, I head back the way I came on whatever road I’m on. I then come to a stop at a set of traffic lights. I look up whilst waiting for green and recognise the crossing road name as that of the hotel. Major luck! I turn left onto it whereupon Maps wakes itself up and shows me that the hotel is just a few blocks down.

Down to the Bar

Not quite sure how I managed it but I pull into the front of the hotel at 10.30 pm. Mission accomplished. It’s valet parking only on site. I’m here for two nights and decided to just suck up the charge, especially given the late arrival time. I take my bags out, hand over the keys and go to check-in. The hotel bar closes at 11 pm so I just dump my bags in the room and get down to the bar by 10.45 pm.

There’s a lively crowd of six guys there plus a very garrulous lady bartender of advancing years called Lisa. She “loves my English accent” and proceeds to mimic me to no-one’s general amusement. She soon, thankfully, calms down. Lisa then announces that she will close the bar “when I say so”. So it’s another round of drinks all round for everyone, gone 11 pm.

Shortly after a lady and a gent sit down next to me at the bar. This is Dana and Jerome, in town on business together (I never found out what type of business) but not a ‘couple’. Dana starts talking to me. She offers up the sad fact that her mother died last year and she’s now questioning what she wants to do and when. We’d started talking about my road trips by then and she was really interested, “I fancy doing that” she says. I ask her how old she is – 37 – and I say, “Well, I’m just going to say it, and sorry to swear Dana, but just fucking do it!”

More drinks are ordered as Lisa has now announced, “I’m now calling last orders.” Dana, Jerome and I retire to a couple of sofas in the bar area. Dana then insists I show her my road trips website as I had mentioned I write them up so I won’t forget what I did many years later. She brings it up on her phone and starts reading random pages. I can’t remember all the details but we three had a great old chat about that, plus life and the universe.

At some point we decided the night needed to end so we headed to the elevators around 1 am! Jerome got out on the 4^th floor, Dana on 6. Her and I are still rabbiting on about something road trip related such that I stand in the open elevator doors to keep them open whilst she stands outside. We eventually say goodnight but not before she walks back towards me in the doors and says “Give me a great big hug!” Which I did. She then walks off and I carry on up to the 8^th floor. I crash into bed at 1.30 am. Great night!