Now that we’re safely home and less sleep-deprived thanks to an all-afternoon nap, here’s a quick update on the return from the Orange Bowl.
The Denver airport is a crappy place to sleep. We managed a few hours.
We met up at the gate the next morning with some fellow travelers who had opted for the hotel that American Airlines offered. They confirmed that we were smart to pass on the offer- the hotel was twenty minutes away and due to shuttles being booked, they had to leave their hotel at 3:30 this morning to head back to the airport.
We successfully got on the 6:30 am flight out of Denver and even managed to score exit row seating.
We arrived in Kansas City and watched a family remove at least ten bags and what seemed like twelve pairs of skis from the baggage carousel. And then no more bags came out.
Apparently our luggage didn’t make it onto our plane. We suspect this happened in Miami, since the Denver people had all night to get our luggage where it needed to be. And once again, the American Airlines staff was not helpful, telling us immediately upon entry to their KCI baggage service office, “we don’t track baggage.” All four members of our party were missing bags, along with another five people who we befriended along the way.
Huh? In this day and age where you can find out exactly where your FedEx or UPS or whatever package is, down to almost the minute, an airline can’t tell you anything about your bag? The bag claims have a bar code but it apparently serves no purpose.
I got a call five minutes ago informing me that our bags would be delivered within the hour.
Finally. The trip can come to an end.
(Orange Bowl photos of the Sandbar group to follow later.)
Well, the Sandbar was well represented at the Orange Bowl, with Dave
and I chaperoning doorboy Andrew and his roommate Matt. Bartender
Tegan was there along with former staffer Erick and many of our
regulars. A great time was had by all, especially since KU won!!
Not so great, however, is that the four of us missed our connecting
flight home to KC, thanks to the hour long delay in Miami (which was
also the length of our layover in Denver), a most unhelpful American
Airlines staff (and one particularly snotty flight attendant), and an
inter-terminal tram that chose just the right moment to malfunction.
Dave was lucky enough to be the first one off the plane so he sprinted
for the block of Frontier gates, because oh yes, we also had to change
airlines and re-check in at the gate. Of course there are 50 some
Frontier gates and we didn’t know which one to go to (see the
previously mentioned unhelpful people).
We didn’t make it. There were at least 20 other folks on our flight
who were connecting to KC, and we ran like crazy people, only to find
the plane pulling away from the gate.
Of course it was the last flight to KC. Frontier rebooked us on the
6:30 am tomorrow. And what did American do for us? Not much. They
offered a hotel, but we didn’t want to hassle with it. They also gave
us meal vouchers for a generous $10 each. And we all know how airport
food prices are.
So I sit here, in the Denver airport at gate A30, painstakingly
tapping this out on my iPhone, because I have nothing else to do but
try to sleep on either a filthy hard floor, or contorted into an
equally uncomfortable chair.
We started filming on Labor Day and the rather tedious editing was completed yesterday. I know, that’s several months of work for a little three-minute video. But when you have a full-time job and a husband and a house, plus trying to coordinate the schedules of the cast (who also have full-jobs and various other responsibilities) it becomes really difficult to get things done very quickly.
But it’s done now, and it looks great. The new video will be unveiled to our staff tonight at our annual Christmas party. The rest of the world will get their first chance to see it on New Year’s Eve. Of course we’ll still have our grand, red-carpet premiere, but we haven’t planned that yet. It will probably be the week after New Year’s.
Our ghost made an appearance today. Dave and I were at the bar this morning so he could do inventory and make a bank deposit, and while he was weighing and measuring bottles we heard a loud crash from the back room. We just kind of looked at each other and shrugged. Later, as we were leaving, I noticed fog coming out of the fog machine, but I thought that was normal so I didn’t even mention it to Dave.
After the basketball game (yay! KU won!) we stopped by the bar again and Coleen excitedly informed us that the ghost must be present, because fog had been coming out of the machine all day even though it wasn’t turned on. Okay, so maybe what I saw earlier wasn’t normal. I mentioned that some fog had escaped earlier and got some funny looks, like "why didn’t you say something?"
The Sandbar ghost first made an appearance on Tuesday, March 18, 2003. It was around 3 a.m., so technically it was really March 19. It was also- of course- a full moon, because every time there is a full moon something strange happens. Although usually it’s one of Dave’s ex-girlfriends making an appearance, not our ghost.
Dave and Dean had worked that night, and it was a fairly quiet night for a Tuesday, probably since our annual holiday of St. Patrick’s Day was the night before and everyone was tired.
Around 3:30 a.m., the boys were counting their tips and handling other routine closing duties, when half of a dollar bill came floating down from the ceiling and smacked onto the bar as loudly as if it had been thrown. They both heard it hit. It had "Dean" written on the dollar bill. Spooky, huh? It was like the dollar was trying to talk to Dean.
They kind of laughed it off and went about their business.
There is much more to this story, but unfortunately the guys didn’t write the whole story at once, and it’s spread amongst multiple notebooks, and I can’t find the rest of the story right now, so you’ll have to wait for another day to hear how it ends.
Ironically, this post will probably only encourage the very thing I’m writing about, but that’s okay. It’s not a complaint, merely an observation.
I’ve mentioned before that I often giggle about the various Google-ing that leads people to this blog. I like to check out the referring URL’s for our visitors just to see how they found the Sandbar blog, and many times I’m left wondering "how in the heck did that search get them here," or more frequently,"what in the world were they searching for that for?"
There are a lot of people on the internet who really want to know what happens during a hurricane. That’s so exciting! The Sandbar is famous! Oh yeah, they probably aren’t looking for our hurricane. In fact, they probably don’t even know we exist.
At least once or twice a day, someone uses that phrase in a search engine and they end up at our blog. And it’s probably safe to say there are many more people who do the same search and don’t click on our link because it’s obvious to them that we don’t have their answers, therefore I never knew they existed.
So, to those of you who are reading this because all you wanted to know is what happens during a
hurricane, welcome. If you want to know what happens during an actual hurricane, go here.
And on a side note, I’m a little bit alarmed, because when I did my own Google search for "what happens during a hurricane," one of the results was this: "What happens if you get diarrhea after the hurricane?" Are there people who actually ask this question? It’s apparently a popular result because it was the fifth one on the list.
I asked Dave to describe December at The Sandbar, and this is what he said: “hectically slow.”
I don’t think hectically is actually a word, but that’s okay, I think we all know what he means. Business is somewhat slower because people have so many things going on, but at the same time it’s still hectic because people have so many things going on. It can get kind of funky trying to make sure the place is staffed because our employees also have lots of things to do.
We love holiday parties. And we don’t necessarily host a lot of them- being that we only hold 49 people, it’s difficult to tell an entire office they can come in at the same time, especially since we usually have other customers too.
We don’t do reservations, and lots of places like to have their parties on weekend nights which are already busy for us. But The Sandbar is definitely a destination for the after-holiday-party parties. The kind where colleagues aren’t ready to go home and are ready to let their hair down and dance on the bar for awhile. Those groups can get pretty crazy.
If you and your friends or family or colleagues want to experience some holiday joy at The Sandbar, come on in. If you need some help with snacks and stuff, give us a call and we’ll help you plan a fun event.
We may not be able to guarantee that you can get in whenever you want to, but we can guarantee a good time.
