Skip to main content

Right Place, Wrong Place

I've written before that we host people on AirBnB as a way to help us feel connected to the travel community. We still go places but not nearly as often as we did in Europe, so it's fun to have people come and go from all different walks of life. As you might expect, we meet some interesting people. We also meet some strange ones. An experience last week, however, was an entirely new thing for us.

We had a guest who had booked a stay with us for Monday night. We'll call him Dave. Dave was a pilot and was coming to town for an interview. Dave booked our room and sent us messages about what time he expected to come and go during his stay.

He was to arrive in the afternoon on Monday and I was off work, so I had him call when his flight landed in case I wasn't home. As luck would have it I was leaving home right as he called so I offered to pick him up (our house is about three miles from the airport) because I'm a superhost/was incredibly bored.

Dave told me that he was flying on United, so I took a loop through the arrivals area and didn't see him by the United sign. I was wrong, he must have said American. I didn't see him there either, so I did another loop.

Same results.

I called Dave again and said "Hey, I didn't see you at either one of those. I'm pulling up again in about 90 seconds. You're sure you're at United?" He said "Yep. And I'm in a pilot uniform."

I also asked him if he was on the bottom-level where the arrivals were instead of the top-level where the departures were. He assured me that he was on the lower level. I trusted him.

I may occasionally be absent-minded, but there was no way I missed someone in a pilot's uniform standing outside. I kept him on the phone and pulled up again, talking my way through where I was and where I was not seeing him. Eventually I pulled up against the curb in front of the car-rental buses and said "Do you see the car rental shuttle-buses?" He told me he had walked back inside to confirm where the car-rental signs were pointing and was walking back outside right now. I had gotten out of the car and was standing on the sidewalk, figuring I'd see him any moment.

I didn't.

"Hey Dave? You are in Cleveland, right?"

"What? I'm in Cincinnati. CVG airport."

Come on. It turned out that Dave had somehow seen our AirBnB listing (which says "Cleveland" in the title) on the map, thinking it was only a block or two from where his interview was taking place...in Cincinnati. He had then messaged us saying "I'll be coming into Cleveland on Monday afternoon and leaving early Tuesday morning." He then reiterated that point when I tried to confirm what time he would arrive.

Then he went to the wrong city.

I'm sure he's a great pilot though.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Naples Archaeological Musuem and Its Penis Room

When the situation calls for it, I am a mature person. I can talk comfortably about reproductive health, I can watch a movie with a sex scene and not make a joke, and I can look at nude statues and think nothing of it beyond art. Hell, my senior yearbook quote was about how maturity is just knowing when and where to be immature. I won't laugh when you fall down because you might be hurt and I absolutely do not laugh when an animal humps something because it's instinct and the animal can't help it. I believe you shouldn't laugh at something if the thing you're laughing at is helpless in the situation. But sometimes you find your limit. The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (abbreviated MANN in Italian) pushed me near my limit. See, Naples is home to brilliant and interesting historical artwork. With the nearby town of Pompeii buried under the ash of Mt. Vesuvius, tons of pristine artifacts which were rescued from Pompeii ended up in MANN. Some of these p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Movie

Someone asked me today: if my life were made into a movie, would I watch it? HELL YES, I WOULD. Upon answering so emphatically, she called me out for being cocky. Here is my extended answer, including teasers, cliff-hangers, and the possible title. I justify my arrogance by saying that if I don't believe in my product, who in the world is going to see it? The movie about me would be executive produced by me, obviously. I have the final say in what goes and what doesn't. If my life were made into a movie, only the most important parts would make it...it would be like a 23 year highlight reel crammed into 2 hours and 12 minutes (any longer and I'm risking a major walk-out-to-pee-and-miss-the-important-stuff crowd reaction). For the meaty part, think about all the great things this movie would have! It would feature sports, love, friendships, hardships, heartbreaks, family bonds, and most importantly...frontal male nudity. Name one thing from that list that doesn't appear ...
Post a Comment
Read more

1000 Words a Day, Day 10: On Old Friends

At some point in college, it dawned on me that my group of friends from home was unusual. Yes, we were all weirdly close an did some objectively strange things to each other (and with each other, but mainly to each other), but apparently it was weird to stay so close to people from your hometown. We all thought nothing of it, because that's just the way we were. Others, however, were surprised and often confused. Some of them were "adopted" into the group of us from the Chesterland area, and it's hard to say how much they still stayed in touch with people who didn't go to high school with us, because they sure assimilated into our friends-since-early-childhood clique. But still, that was only college. Later, I moved to Chicago and found that there were people who I hadn't seen in years who would gladly, willingly, almost eagerly bail me out of I was in a pinch or needed a place to stay. These were people I wasn't even necessarily close  with when we were...
Post a Comment
Read more