We decided to take off for our Road Rally in our Chevy on Thursday night since we are both night owls and vehemently wanted to avoid an early morning while escaping. We decided to leave middle Tennessee for New Orleans and just drive until we couldn’t anymore.
While we are both NFL fans, we are not going to apologize for not knowing that there was an EPIC football game going on in Tuscaloosa that weekend. In fact, it was THE game of the year, the second matchup between LSU and Alabama. I was unaware of how ill-prepared I was to find a place to sleep.
I used my fancy smart phone apps to find a hotel within the family that I am a member of. I stood in their lobby, unassisted for twenty minutes before I decided to call their 1-800 number from the same lobby. No such luck. Not only were there no rooms at that hotel, but there are no rooms within 30 miles. I fussed and poked at my fancy phone for an eternity, before it dawned on us that we had OnStar. The nice folks at Chevy had told us it was there for us to try out when they dropped off the car for our Road Rally.
We giggled as we pushed the blue button and asked the operator for help. I was confident that they would be unable to help me, as I had an iPhone and could do the same thing they can do. Can’t you just hear the cockiness that the universe was practically required to destroy? OnStar found us a hotel…within 5 miles…the weekend of the big game…and the cherry on the sundae…at the EXACT SAME hotel brand that had just told me there were no rooms. OnStar plugged the hotel address into our navigation system and off we went. They gave the attendant my name and when she welcomed me in she already had everything ready to go.
As a Locksmith and a Locksmith’s wife, I am not really allowed to LOVE OnStar, but I sure did appreciate them a whole heck of a lot. I may have even had a crush on them about the time my head was hitting the pillow that I never would have found without them.
PS. When we got up the next morning we took a swoop through Tuscaloosa, to take in the enormity of the remaining damage from the tornado that destroyed the town only six months prior. We both knew someone who was in this storm, and our own town is still picking up the pieces of a tornado two years prior. The intensity of the scenes we were seeing was not lost on us. If we had not had Chevy as a Road Rally sponsor, or OnStar to help us find a place to sleep we would have never had this experience.
PSS. These guys made me promise I would put their mugs on the internet. If they new who I was or where I write, they would probably have been wondering why I haven’t posted their picture. Well, Tuscaloosa guys who I don’t know and who will never see this, I don’t break promises…
Disclaimer: General Motors is a really cool company that among other things makes great cars, believes in Moms, and values bloggers. I have been reminded about how much I am indebted to them a lot lately, and I was beginning to feel like it was a one-sided friendship. It then occurred to me that this does not have to be a one-sided relationship. Although I am not directly being compensated for this post, I have benefited from the companies generosity many times throughout our relationship. The thoughts and opinions in this post are true and genuine and independent of any benefit the company has or will offer.
A Night in Tuscaloosa
We decided to take off for our Road Rally in our Chevy on Thursday night since we are both night owls and vehemently wanted to avoid an early morning while escaping. We decided to leave middle Tennessee for New Orleans and just drive until we couldn’t anymore.
While we are both NFL fans, we are not going to apologize for not knowing that there was an EPIC football game going on in Tuscaloosa that weekend. In fact, it was THE game of the year, the second matchup between LSU and Alabama. I was unaware of how ill-prepared I was to find a place to sleep.
I used my fancy smart phone apps to find a hotel within the family that I am a member of. I stood in their lobby, unassisted for twenty minutes before I decided to call their 1-800 number from the same lobby. No such luck. Not only were there no rooms at that hotel, but there are no rooms within 30 miles. I fussed and poked at my fancy phone for an eternity, before it dawned on us that we had OnStar. The nice folks at Chevy had told us it was there for us to try out when they dropped off the car for our Road Rally.
We giggled as we pushed the blue button and asked the operator for help. I was confident that they would be unable to help me, as I had an iPhone and could do the same thing they can do. Can’t you just hear the cockiness that the universe was practically required to destroy? OnStar found us a hotel…within 5 miles…the weekend of the big game…and the cherry on the sundae…at the EXACT SAME hotel brand that had just told me there were no rooms. OnStar plugged the hotel address into our navigation system and off we went. They gave the attendant my name and when she welcomed me in she already had everything ready to go.
As a Locksmith and a Locksmith’s wife, I am not really allowed to LOVE OnStar, but I sure did appreciate them a whole heck of a lot. I may have even had a crush on them about the time my head was hitting the pillow that I never would have found without them.
PS. When we got up the next morning we took a swoop through Tuscaloosa, to take in the enormity of the remaining damage from the tornado that destroyed the town only six months prior. We both knew someone who was in this storm, and our own town is still picking up the pieces of a tornado two years prior. The intensity of the scenes we were seeing was not lost on us. If we had not had Chevy as a Road Rally sponsor, or OnStar to help us find a place to sleep we would have never had this experience.
PSS. These guys made me promise I would put their mugs on the internet. If they new who I was or where I write, they would probably have been wondering why I haven’t posted their picture. Well, Tuscaloosa guys who I don’t know and who will never see this, I don’t break promises…
Disclaimer: General Motors is a really cool company that among other things makes great cars, believes in Moms, and values bloggers. I have been reminded about how much I am indebted to them a lot lately, and I was beginning to feel like it was a one-sided friendship. It then occurred to me that this does not have to be a one-sided relationship. Although I am not directly being compensated for this post, I have benefited from the companies generosity many times throughout our relationship. The thoughts and opinions in this post are true and genuine and independent of any benefit the company has or will offer.