In the meantime, Peter posted a thread looking for forum contacts in Chicago to meet while he is here. I e-mailed him and we made arrangements to get him to his hotel, CME, and back to the airport during the 24 hours he would be here. The plan was set.
....or so we thought. Peter's flight took him from his local airport to Amsterdam where he was to have made a connection to Chicago. That is were the trouble started. Fog delayed the landing in Amsterdam and he was made to miss his connecting flight. The plane took off for Chicago nearly empty!!! Livid, he was forced to return home after waiting several hours in Amsterdam. Back home, after wrestling with the airline he was able to rebook his flight at no extra cost but the earliest they could get him in was January 21. Another month of delay!
In the weeks before the second attempt, Mr. X offered his guest room to Peter to save him from having to get a hotel room. This would make things easier all the way around. Finally, the weekend of the 21st rolled around and Peter anxiously boarded his flight to Amsterdam. During the flight, a snow/ice storm whacked the Chicago area forcing the cancellation of more than 100 flights at O'Hare. When Peter arrived in Amsterdam he was informed that his Chicago flight was cancelled! You can well imagine his shock. But the man is not a quitter! He forced the issue and was able to secure a seat on a flight to Minneapolis where he could get a connecting flight to Chicago later on. Unfortunately, this means that he will arrive in Chicago on Saturday 6 1/2 hours late missing the chance to go to CME that day. His wife Barbara e-mailed me the bad news about Peter's flight. I called CME to let them know he would not be arriving that day and asked if they would be there on Sunday. I was told that they would be and the hours were Noon to 5:00.
At about 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, Mr. X and I picked up Peter at the airport and brought him to the X residence.
The next morning we had a bit of a speed drill to perform. Peter's return flight to the UK was at 4:30 that afternoon so we had to hurry down to CME, pickup the bass and get him back to the airport in time for the check-in and security routine. Paul Boyer joined us for an opportunity to get a picture of the bass before it left for Yorkshire. The 4 of us piled into my car and headed downtown. As we approached the front door of CME we noticed it was dark inside and the door was locked. A note on the door informed us that the store would not be open today. ****!!! A family medical emergency forced the manager to fly to Ohio the night before leaving no one to run the shop that day.
Mr. X and I suggested (insisted) that Peter stay on another day and we would help him collect the bass on Monday. The whole thing had become a quest and we were not about to let him go home empty handed! A trip to the airport later, Peter had a new ticket and was ready to try again in the morning.
Here is Peter at my house that night trying out one of my rather right-handed instruments.
