The Progressive Network said they would pay for our rental car and hotel rooms. I went with the head of the Progressive Network to rent a car at Enterprise. We got an SUV. I had never driven a car like that before. It proved to be very easy. On Sunday morning, I picked up the two women at their respective apartments, and we headed toward Atlanta. We stopped at a Golden Corral outside Atlanta for lunch. We had each been given cash for our trip to pay for food and the hotel rooms. One of the ladies lost her envelope of cash. We looked all around the car but found nothing. The other lady and me would pay for her stuff for the rest of the trip. When we got to the hotel in downtown Atlanta, it was pretty swanky. We went up to the front desk to register. We told the clerk that we had reservations. He didn't see our names. Maybe under the Progressive Network? Yes. Okay, we pulled out our cash and were told that we could only pay if we were the Progressive Network. We told the clerk that we had been sent by the Progressive Network and had been given cash for the rooms. The clerk wasn't budging. I asked the clerk if I could call the head of the Network to smooth over the confusion? He said I could, so I called the head of the Network to see if he could explain to the clerk what was going on. After a few attempts, I finally got hold of him and told him of our predicament. He spoke to the clerk and gave his credit card over the phone for our rooms. I was ready to sleep in our car.
That night, our meetings started in the hotel's ballroom. After the meeting, we went to get supper at a nice place near the hotel. I saw the neighborhood we were in, and found it was near the place I had been back in college, where I got stoned on marijuana. A blast from the past. I confessed to the two women that I used to have terrible road rage, but I was taking medication for it. They were surprised and said they had not noticed any anger. The drugs worked. On Monday, we continued meeting in small groups. I really liked the work that the folks in Tampa and Pittsburgh were doing. We promised to stay in touch. We never did. Nor did they. As we were going to leave to come home, I went to the desk and asked them how to get on I-285 to get back to I-20? Nobody knew. Great! Hotel workers who don't know how to get around town. It turned out that I-75 was near the hotel, and their suggestion was to get on that, and eventually we would find 285.
As we got back in the car, the woman found her lost money. It was under the seat. That was a blessing. She could pay for the gas going back. They asked me if I knew where I was going? I lied and said yes. We were going to get back on 285. I just didn't know where. We came upon some road construction two miles ahead. There was a sign that said to merge right. The traffic was kind of heavy, but everyone began to merge right. All except one fool in the left lane. He wanted to get ahead of everyone and merge at the end of the lane. Nobody would let him do it. After all, it had been a pain for everyone else to merge during the two-mile warning. He was mad. We just laughed. We finally got to 285. It had been 20 minutes out of our way from how we could have gone, but I pretended it was the right way. I don't think they knew the difference.
We got back to Columbia late into the evening, and I took the car back the next day to Enterprise. We had to settle up with the Network, but we ended up keeping most of the money. It was a good trip, and we learned a lot what others were doing with their transit systems. I would like to think we taught them something, too. At least, the MTRA was on the national map. Being recognized for your work outside your community is a good thing. And, we got to go to Atlanta, however briefly.
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