I'm one of the lucky ones

I have finally had the opportunity to become one of the folks I mentioned in the trailer of Chronicles of EMS. I am now one of the lucky ones who can travel across the country to visit other providers at a trade show.

As I've been reminding you, Zoll invited Mark and I out to EMSToday in Baltimore, Maryland.

And oh boy did we almost not make it on time.

When I was growing up we always got to the airport early. Always. Sometimes by hours. So that just became my normal plan. Get there early.

With two little ones and a just over one hour commute home from work, then turning around and racing to the airport I got there 1 hour ahead of the flight, a nail biter in my world.

Mr Setla was relaxing after a calm lunch and I was frazzled to find our flight not only delayed, but now not even arriving at our destination.

The airline, for whatever reason, saw fit to take the same plane we were on before and reroute it. Not through a different connection, since the same plane continued on to Baltimore, but to send us an hour out of the way to DC.

Despite multiple questions as to the reasoning we were no longer able to land at our purchased airport, we were assured the two airports were not far away from one another at all.

I should have known better.

6 hours later we gather our luggage in DC's Reagan Airport and ask the locals the best route to Baltimore. Their suggested Super Shuttle was a moderately priced hassle, requiring us to sign in, buy a ticket and wait 20 minutes before getting in one of the half dozen waiting vans.

We were 2 hours later than expected and now an hour away from our hotel. It's 1130 PM and we're tired and hungry.

A taxi trip will run us almost $100, but get us there quickly.

Knowing a trip from Baltimore airport to the hotel runs about $40 (Thanks FireDaily for the heads up) our chosen method of transport made perfect sense.

Jay's Sedan Service is a family run business in the NY/DC/VA/MD area operating just a handful of cars driven by the owners and the care and attention to detail shows. We've all been in a leased car vs an owned car and the difference was clear.

Our driver, Jay, made us a deal over the phone and was curbside in less than 5 minutes. En route we started with idle chit chat until we learned Jay is on Facebook and Twitter (@jayssedansvc) with his business and we had to have fun with it.

Next thing you know Ted is ustreaming live video from the back of the Lincoln Town Car while Jay is laughing along with us.

After a touch of traffic we finally arrived at my hotel just after 1 AM local time. I say mine because Ted had been booked by a different group at a different hotel nearby.

Thank goodness for free late night food delivery.

So skip ahead to what my body thinks is 430 AM when my alarm goes off and I open the window to the beautiful brownstone Baltimore clock tower.

I can't wait to dive in to everything this weekend could create for me, my friends and EMS in general.