According to foursquare, I have been to the Detroit Metro airport (DTW) six times. This is scary. When this fun fact recently popped up, I forced myself to recall every single time I had been there for work, including the pre-foursquare occasions, and realized it was indeed more than 6 times. eek! The first four times was going to and from Ann Arbor, which was was a tease because Ann Arbor is actually a really cute town. (I refuse to acknowledge it as a city since it seems so small.) The only disturbing incidents I remember about this was trip, was that 1) my coworker insisted on checking his luggage for a five day work trip simply because his cologne bottle was over the 3 fl. oz. limit, and 2) the friendly staff at the Melting Pot insisted on seating me and my coworker in a romantic booth after we insisted multiple times that we were in fact not together and not celebrating any special occasion. The other two check-in’s were to a training in downtown Detroit in February. Gross. One night the trainers had taken us to the Hard Rock cafe. I decided it would be really cool to buy a couple Hard Rock Detroit shirts. After all, it is Detroit Rock City. After dinner, back at the hotel, we decided to keep the libations going at the Marriott concierge lounge. I shoved my purchases under a chair and put my giant puffy white coat over the chair. When we were eventually kicked out of the lounge because it was closing I, of course, forgot my shirts. I realized this once back in my room, but decided to go to the lounge when it opened. Somehow, no one had found my shirts, and they were apparently thrown out and believed to be forgotten leftovers. Fortunately, I am a Marriott Platinum member almost 4 years running, and thankfully, the good Samaritan in the concierge lounge was kind enough to re-purchase the t-shirts and send them to me! WOW. I really lucked out.
However, this trip, I was merely flying into Detroit because the only way to get to Toledo, OH is to drive an hour south east from Detroit, or fly through O’Hare to the Toledo airport. Given this awesome winter option, my coworkers and I decided it would be much better to fly directly into Detroit and drive. Especially since the Toledo airport is still about 30 min outside Toledo. hmmm. Unfortunately, we flew in late on a Sunday in the middle of a minor snow storm. Avis is finally starting to catch up to technology, and now emails your space number ahead of time. Unfortunately, there didn’t happen to be a car in the space I was assigned, (sigh). After waiting in line, because no one else had cars in their assigned spaces, we ran to our new car assignment just in time to catch a down pour. Fabulous. Thankfully, Avis had the car running with the heat blasting and we were able to get on our way with a warm car. After some dicey roads, we finally made it to the hotel around 1am, only to see that the receptionist was “running errands” and would be back in 5 minutes. Woof. Who really runs errands at 1am? And to top it all off… I go to put my pajamas on, only to discover they are soaking wet from the earlier rain incident. Therefore, I would like to extend my deepest apologies to the unfortunate people in the surrounding rooms who might have heard a hair dryer going on at full blast at 2am. Luckily, we were staying at the Hilton Garden Inn at Levis Commons which has a variety of stores and some nice decent places to eat like Bar Louie and Nagoya Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi. Also, Toledo is the home of Tony Packos Hungarian hot dogs and chili, which is famous from M*A*S*H*. However, I suggest staying away from the BP on Front st. around 4pm since they have a sign on the door that says “Closed for 5-10 Min. Shift Change” and almost none of their pumps take credit card. Thanks to the wonderful people at Delta, my coworker and I were able to catch and earlier flight. He dubbed it one of the worst places in the world, but I’m not so sure yet.
Seasoned Traveler 