Stranded in Baltimore! ...Almost.

[Oshi]

Okay, so, here's the story...

It was Saturday night. I was down to only $3, and had two credit cards just in case.
I knew I needed more money, so I used the sign technique... and gained $2, surprisingly.
So, I go to pick up my car from the Sheraton garage and I realize... holy shit, it's $30 fee...
I go into the Sheraton to try and use the ATM with my Dad's card. Erh... I don't know the PIN number o_o;;
I call him with my cell, ask him for it... he doesn't know it. He tries calling the card company to get the PIN... no luck.
So, I'm like, panicking a bit, my dad can't help me any further, tells me to use the card to get a room and stay the night.
I ask how much a room at the Sheraton would be (since I'm there)... and it's $225. Well, my dad says do what I need. But... Hotels are apparently strict about cards, and since it was my dads card, I couldn;'t use it. Shit.
I decide to try and find a supermarket nearby that I can use my Mom's Discover card and get that CashBack stuff. Well, the nearest shopping center is farther than I feel like walking, being tired after the day...
So I'm walking back to the hotel, not sure what to do, and who calls but my mom! She found my dad's card's PIN!
I rush back to the ATM in the Hotel, get $40, and get my car out of the garage... thank god...
...But... I shoulda gotten more out.
Toll #1, the Chesapeak tunnel. $1.
Toll #2... somewhere on I95... where the hell did this one come from?! It drained me of my last $4... I ask the toll person if there's another toll, she says yes, in Delaware...
Aw crap -_-;
So, I keep driving, relying on DDR music to keep my awake... Oh, yeah, that reminds me... I was contemplating whether or not to use a credit card to buy the DDRMAX soundtrack... I really shoulda... save some cash...
Well, the music isn't helping too much. I stop at Chesapeak House rest stop, where there was a Starbucks. ATM there too!
I get a Caramel Frappucchino (good stuff), and ask if they do Cash Back on Discover... Nope. I use the card anyway. I hop over to the ATM machine to use my Dad's card in it again... but... "UNABLE TO COMPLETE" Dammit! Probably since I had just used it about an hour ago...
Well, not much else I can do, so I keep driving, sipping on the Frappucchino, which was very helpful, dreading when I reach the Delaware toll...
So when I do, I tell them that I'm out of cash... and I get an orange peice of paper... saying that I'll get a promissory note, and I can pay back later! Awsome, very awsome...
I now considered my whole dillemma over... and it was... I got home, my parents were sitting in the kitchen yelling at eachother about this thing, I tell em "I'm home, you can go to bed now.."
I go up to my room. I remove things from my pockets. And I died on my bed. x.x;
End of story... finally.


Anybody else have similar problems? ^_^;

[Sami]

ACK!! O_O That sucks!! I didn't have any problems like that this year.. ^^; But last year we drove down from Massachusetts and paid a buttload of tolls, and at a one dollar toll in Maryland we were stuck behind this bozo for like 10 minutes.. he was blocking up the toll like and the toll lady had him out of the car and was writing his plate numbers and stuff down, and he was freaking out about something. We were getting crabby because we were next in line and just wanted to GO. x_x So finally this dude runs back to our car all like "OH MI GAWD DO YOU HAVE A DOLLA I JUST NEED A DOLLA OR THEY'LL SEND ME TO JAIL" and my boyfriend was like "O______o;;; *tosses dollar out window realfast*. And the dumb guy left. -_- He didn't have one dollar. Maybe his credit card broke too? Glad to hear you got home in one piece! ^-^

[Madmann]

Dang i feel sorry for you

[Studmaster]

Now that is a story....Wow, it almost makes me weekend not seem so bad Oshi, but its good that you made it home in one piece, and that you had fun at the Convention. Hopefully you can stay for the whole weekend next year.

[Nietsche]

Dang! Oshi you have okay parents...glad you made it back safe


I am gonna see if I can go to Otakon next year but with big conventions you seem to spend more time in queues (lines) and finding people gets very hectic...so maybe...

[Leminhead]

Hey, dun worry. Whoever gets stranded is welcome to stay at my place. I live about 15 minutes from the Con Center. Well, as long as you don't mind sleeping in the BASEMENT. :x

[pookie-kun]

Ack, that really sucks oshi :( my worst problem was that my plane was 15 minutes late getting into BWI.. and then had to sit for an hour on the ground cause someone didnt know how to use the little paper bags they put in the seat in front of you. -.-;;;

And of course southwest does first-come-first-serve seating, so nobody wanted to go sit down, we all stood in line at the gate. bleh.. dun wanna fly southwest again, nosirree. when the plane is on time it's fine but.. geh! when it's late.

[Grave]

i had to sleep on the streets until Sunday morning!!!

[Neon Genocide]

our only problem besides getting everybody down to the con was one of my friends accidently flooded our one hotel room. We only found this out at 6:30am when the hotel was knocking down our door because of a complaint of raining in the room below us. I only remember vividly of what happened cuz I was asleep through most of it. All I do remember is that I was OMG this can't be happining, this is so not real. And refused to believe it till the next morning when all 10 of us were sleeping in one room. Damn that was packed. Though my friend that flooded the other room is paying out the ass for damages... It was a very intresting weekend.

[pookie-kun]

how did they end up flooding the room? o.o;

[Neon Genocide]

he got drunk, fell asleep in the bathtub with the water on (don't ask me why). one of my friends on the floor felt the warm water wash under his feet and through his sleepingbag and freeked out. the water washed out into the hotel hallway and about a quarter of the room, the bathroom also had about a quarter of an inch of water on the floor.

[NeoDrifter]

new member here: Alot of bad things happened over the weekend. I wish everyone was a little more understanding of dire situations, am I right?

[pookie-kun]

holy shiznit, neon.. that's crazy shtuff @.@

[Neon Genocide]

Other than the hotel problem it was one wicked weekend. ;)

[Melchior]

Haha sounds like my dorm last spring. They had a real problem with the sinks overflowing in the bathrooms, so one day I came back to a room completely soaked from water raining down from the floor above. Luckily it didn't hit the TV or it would have been alot more serious. =/

[Neon Genocide]

Seems like something is always going wrong in Baltimore. Last year it was the exploding man hole covers and this year was all the construction and the hotels. I think the hotels were alot more bitchy this year. Wonder what crawed in there pants and died.

[zaadicus]

friday night... left otakon at the same time that the baseball game got out.. hella traffic.. after losing sight of 295,and rolling through tthe ghetto trying to find it.. find way back into town on familiar streets and then i'm in one of two turning lanes, trying to get into the (3rd straigT) lane... guy in the 3'rd lane decides he wants to turn at the same time im changing lanes, i ended up rear-ending him in traffic... put a dent the size of my head in the bumper on my car, and nothing to his car.. as we're starting to exchange information a cop rolls up, screams at me for 'blocking traffic' and threatens to tow my car.. many adrenaline soaked minutes later, i meet up with the person in the other car near a parking garage, exchange information and we're on our merry way... find our way to 295 and as we're going over a bridge /through some construction a cop flies up behind me and puts his lights on. a stream of obscenities streamed from my lips as i found a spot to pull over.. and as i'm stopping the cop floors it and flies past me.. (think super-troopers)... after a 10 minute mental breakdown at that point, made the remainder of the drive to the hotel, hot shower relax and pass out.... ... .. that whole ordeal kinda put a damper on the rest of the weekend ;/ .. .now i'm on my way to pull th e dent out of my civic.. what fun!

[Nightengale37]

I had a hell of a time finding my hotel on Friday. Our directions were not quite right and then all the one way streets kept turning us the wrong way. We were already getting there mid afternoon because of getting off of work and then we ended up driving around for about 20 minutes more just trying to find the damn hotel. One women we asked for directions sent us in the complete wrong direction! I think she did it on purpose!

[Eurobeat King]

Wow.. revival of a thread that's 4 years old.. Anyway, please use the " Otakon 2006 Good & The Bad" thread to post any bad stories, including if you did indeed get stuck in Baltimore after the con..

http://forums.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=89417&page=4