One Bad Trip

Hello all,

Well, my trip to the casino in Windsor on Saturday (April 25, 2009) was quite an experience. I will try to start at the beginning and relate the entire adventure/misadventure to you. Hang onto your hats, the ride might get bumpy!

Saturday it was very, very hot here in NW Ohio and north – temp around 84 degrees and very humid. I had a Pilates class at noon and even though I had cooled down and taken a shower, my internal body temp was still fired up and by the time I had my overnight bag packed and in the car, I was all hot and sweaty again. Pam and I left from my house and had a very nice ride up I-75 and across the river. Passing through customs was a breeze – no lines and not many questions.

At the casino, parking was becoming an issue and I did not want to park at the furthest corner from the elevator access and finally, with some patience, we caught someone leaving right near the elevator lobby and grabbed that spot. Yippee! The casino has two towers of hotel rooms, at opposite ends of the casino – however, due to staff cut backs they only maintain one registration desk which is near the tower at the opposite end of the casino and parking structure.

We start the long walk, probably a mile, through the casino, past the Colosseum (the theater) and to the lobby. I check in and ask the clerk to check to see if there are any other available rooms with 2 queen beds, as I was told on the phone that all they had available was a smoking room. There was not, so I said we would take the original reservation. Where was this room? You guessed it – back in the Forum Tower, near the garage. The walk to the registration desk had us both perspiring and the walk back was now inducing the sweat balls that roll down your back and make your underwear wet and cascade down your chest and create a small pool of salty water in your cleavage.

Our assigned room is 1919, and as we get off the elevator and start down the hall, the first room # is 1900. Ok, this is going to be another bit of a trek. Down one hall, turn right, a dozen paces, turn left and at the end of the hall is our room. Pam opens the door, and I hear her say, “Oh No, Lee – they got it wrong!” As I peer over her shoulder, all I see is a huge king-size bed. Crap! Well, there was no way I was going to walk all the way back to the desk, so I pick up the phone and call. “Oh, we are so sorry. We will switch you to another room. Let me check.”

The new room is now going to be 2000. Up one floor but by our estimation, deduction and reasoning it should be right above 1900 which is the first room on the left off the elevator lobby. They send someone over to 1919 with the new key cards and we get on the elevator and go up one floor. The first room on the left does not have a room number, but it is right across from 2001. Pam inserts the key and pushes the door open and all I can see over her shoulder is a bucket in the middle of the floor. “Wonderful, we got the room with the leaky ceiling or the housekeeper has not finished cleaning up." We both lean in a little further and realize we have opened a door that leads to a “broom closet.” By now, the giggles take over as we proceed down the hall as fast as we can because we both need to use the bathroom.

Room 2000 was down the hall and a left turn. So not too bad a walk and it did have a lovely view of the Detroit River and downtown Detroit. BUT, man did it reek of cigarettes. We sprayed some perfume around and got the A/C fans running and soon we did not notice it. We proceeded to get cleaned up and ready to head down to the casino to check the available comps on our cards and get some dinner. For some reason, my card did not work in the machine, so we went over to the customer service desk and as we got in line there was a sign that said – Must have photo ID for all transactions. Oops, I had left my driver’s license in the room in my wallet.

"Oh well, we will deal with that later, let’s go get something to eat." We decide just to go the café and get in line for a table. The line is long, so I suggest to Pam that she stay there and wait for a table and I will go back to the room and get my license. I zoom over to the elevator and go the room, dig my license out of my wallet, tuck it in my little mini purse and head back to the bank of elevators. By this time it is around 7 pm. My stomach just growled while I am waiting for the elevator. DING! The door opens and I step in. There is another woman inside and I say "Hi" as I push the button for the main casino floor.

The elevator starts to move and the lights flicker; the elevator jerks to a violent stop. It seems that my heart also stops with the movement. Then there was another small lurch and then nothing. It appears that there has been a power outage due to a lightning strike. The sky had looked threatening about 20 minutes earlier but now it was just sort of gray outside. Of course, when I got in the elevator, I was all sweaty again from all the walking back and forth to try to get the issue with my card resolved. Now, there is no ventilation and a window to the outside that seemed to be radiating heat even though the sun was not shining. My elevator partner says, “Don’t worry, they monitor the elevators all the time, they know we are in here.”

I try to be patient and take a few deep breathes, but panic is setting in. I finally say, “I just need to check to make sure they know we are here,” and push the elevator call button. A hotel operator answers the phone and I tell her we are stuck in the elevator and she transfers me to security. At this point, I am thinking, “Nope, no one knows we are in here. Good thing you called!” The security guy says they are working on getting the elevator going and to ring him back in a few minutes. So, the other lady and I make small talk. She and her husband live in Michigan and came to the casino to stay the night because they had a storm earlier in the afternoon, had lost power at their house and hubby wanted to watch the NFL draft. How ironic, except he was in their room and the electricity was not off anywhere but our elevator!

Second call back to security and Bill lets us know that maintenance is still working on getting us out. DUH! He asks if we are together and we say no not really, just “STUCK TOGETHER in the elevator!” He then asks if we are there with others, and would we like them to be notified and we respond affirmative to that. We give our names and room numbers, names of our hubby/friend and where they can be located. Bill assures us will have someone take care of that. “Are we still doing ok?”

“NO,” I say frantically. “I am hot and sweaty. My heart is racing like crazy and I don’t like being in here. You really need to get me out, NOW!” The other woman reassures me that it will be alright, just calm down, take some deep breathes. Why don’t I sit down on the floor and try to relax. I tell her I don’t do floors because it is too difficult to get back up. Someone will help you, she tells me. She keeps me engaged in conversation and I try to be as pleasant as I possibly can given the situation. Bill, meantime has been listening on the intercom and asks if we are still doing ok and is there anything we need to know, etc. I ask him to find out the score of the Tigers-Kansas City game and he obliges, telling me within minutes that it is the 2nd inning and Tigers are up 2-0. Great, I think! I really wish I was in the sports bar watching this!

Now, someone on the other side of the door says, “Helloooo, are you ok in there?”
"Yes, barely," I reply, "I need to get out of here."
“Shortly,” he says, “the elevator repairman is on the way. Would you like a deck of cards? I can slide them through one by one.” Hahaha. Bill chimes in, “Granderson just hit a two run homer and the score is now 4-0 Tigers. It is the 4th inning.” We have been in here a long time I am realizing.

Maintenance guy asks who has on the green top, and I say, “Me.” He says he can see me! Big Whoop!
“So, how far are we from the floor?” I ask. The answer is 18 inches. That did it. I lost it and I am screaming at him and at the intercom, “You can use a crowbar and pry the f***ing door open. They do it in the movies and on TV all the time. I need to get out of here!” Sorry, miss, hotel policy does not permit us to do that. It is too dangerous and someone could get hurt. OMG, how long is this going to take. In the reflection of the glass, I can see the movement of the other elevators moving up and down and hear the chimes when they stop at a floor.

Eventually, we are notified that the elevator guy is there and will have us out in no time. Probably 10 more minutes pass, we hear the ventilation fan come on and the elevator starts to move and then stops. The doors open and I shoot out of there like I have been fired out of a cannon, into a crowd of people – the head of hotel security, two other security officers, hotel management and two RNs, complete with oxygen and first aid kits. The fresh air felt wonderful and I found a spot where I could feel the air blowing on me and lean against the wall, taking a couple of very deep breaths and try not to shake.

The nurse asks if I need any oxygen and I say no, she touches my arm and says that I feel cool and clammy. I agree and she takes my pulse – it is 144. I asked for water and someone went flying off for that. The security guard asked for my ID, so that he could complete and incident report and that caused me laugh out loud. By this time, Pam and another hotel management person have arrived at the 17th floor. Once all information is recorded and my pulse has dropped a bit, we decide to take elevator back downstairs and perhaps try to get something to eat. Our car stops on the eleventh floor and a man and woman get on and he proceeds to put his arm in front of the door to keep it open, waiting for someone. I try to be very calm, but finally have to tell him that he cannot do that and he has to let the door close so we can go down or else he has to move so I can get OFF because I will not stay in an elevator that is just not moving. I am still very agitated and anxious.

The hotel manager escorts us to the front of the line at the restaurant and tells the manager what happened and he seats us immediately. Unfortunately, my stomach is upset and I find I am no longer hungry. Apparently, Pam has been stressed by the situation and we both end up ordering chicken soup. She eats hers and a roll; I manage 1/3 of the bowl and two swallows of a cup of coffee and then request a soda. After “dinner” I went to the sports bar to check on the score of the Tigers game, but could not stay in there for very long as they has rows of LED lighting running around the room displaying all the sports scores, much like the stock ticker. It was making me feel more nauseous and so I left.

Pam and I agreed to meet at 9:30 pm just to touch base and we did and then agreed that we would just see each other in the room later that night. I stayed in the casino until about 11:15 and then went up. My room key would not work. What is it with all the various cards in my possession? Luckily, Pam was already in the room and let me in. It did not take long for me to settle in and fall asleep, although I did not sleep very soundly. In the morning I kept waiting to see a hint of daylight peek through the space between the curtains and all I could see was white. Once Pam was awake, I went and looked out the window. The white I was seeing was FOG. It was so thick you could not see the river, and actually I could not see across the street and could barely see the street when looking straight down.

We had planned to leave between 8 and 9 am, but with the fog, I did not want to be driving over the bridge on the e-way home. We decided to hang around for awhile, get some breakfast and maybe play a few more slots. After breakfast, I went to check out of our room. At the desk, I requested that the hotel comp us for the meager dinner of the previous night and our morning breakfast given my experience of the evening before. They agreed without any problem.

Finally today, I am not nearly as wired and shaky as I was Sunday and yesterday. Luckily, I had a doctor’s appointment on Monday morning and she gave me something for the anxiety. I took that yesterday afternoon and it really relaxed me. I feel much better today and feel that recalling the entire drama has been very cathartic for me.

I also should add that I came home with exactly the same amount of money I went with. I had $60 of play that the Casino had put on there when we checked in, which was part of the special deal. So ultimately I played with that $60 for approximately 6 hours, averaging a loss of $10 an hour. Not too bad!

I am hoping to write a letter to the Casino and tell them how impressed I ultimately was with how they handled that whole matter and ask if they would perhaps comp me another night’s stay since I did not fully get to enjoy my experience there this past weekend. I also hope that each of you read this and got some chuckles from it, as that was my intent. As “frightening” as the experience was, I was never afraid that we were going to fall and I was going to die. I now know that I do not like being in a closed space with no option of getting out; I was no longer in control of the situation.

Thank goodness for the little green pill from the doctor.

~Lee