On the road, fleeing to frozen Illinois

Membership has its privileges. So said American Express back in the 1980s.

And it did this evening at a hotel in the Chicago area. After driving about 250 miles – some of them on snow-covered, two-lane county highways in Illinois – the free beer I received as a silver-level Marriott Rewards Elite member really hit the spot. It helped make up for the snowball it appeared I had rented early this morning from a Hertz store in the Quad Cities. My status as a membership-rewards customer didn’t seem to carry as much status there.

I arrived about 7:45 a.m. to pick up the 2016 Hyundai Sonata that had been reserved and paid for in advance. But on a cold morning after snow had fallen across much of Iowa in the previous 24 hours, no one had started and warmed up the car in advance of my arrival. It looked like a snowball.

I started the car, cleared the snow from the windows and read and sent some email while waiting for the car to warm up. Then, I hit the road for Johnsburg and my first appointment of the week. It was a trip designed to help me flee from cold and frozen Iowa for just as cold and frozen Illinois. My companion for the trip was the audio version of After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman. (Note: The book is good. Check it out if you like fiction.)

And once it had thawed out, the car turned out to be pretty good, too. That’s a good thing because it’s going to be a busy work week on the road.  But I’m hoping to stop by here at least a few times after taking last week off to deal with a bed issue – a story for another day.

For today, though, this is going to have to be good enough. I want to finish After I’m Gone and get ready for tomorrow when I’ll be venturing to a lunch meeting on Michigan Avenue at The Gage.

Stay warm if you’re reading this in the frozen Midwest and make your Tuesday a good one.