We spent the holidays this year with Rodney's family. Traveling at Christmas or Thanksgiving is always an adventure, some years more than others. This year, there was a huge snowstorm through the Rockies and into the Great Plains about Wednesday before we left. It closed the Denver Airport until Friday at noon. I made the mistake of saying how happy I was to not be flying through Denver since we had decided to fly to Salt Lake City (now known to us as "The Lake") and drive to Riverton, WY with Rodney's brother and his wife. When we arrived at the OC airport at 6:30 PM Friday, we were informed our flight was delayed and would not depart until 9:59 PM (it was scheduled for 8:35 PM). I should have suspected that time, as I later realized it was picked due to the fact that you cannot take off from the airport after 10:00 PM. As we waited, at about 8:00 PM, it was announced the flight was canceled. I have Delta's number in my mobile as I have had previous problems with Delta. I called as we walked back to the counter and finally got through. The earliest available seat was the 8:35 PM flight on Saturday. I was evidently being re-booked out of Palm Springs by someone else, so I had to have the agent work to book me as I wanted. As I went to ask about where to get my bags, the agent announced they had booked everyone on a flight out of Palm Springs and would bus everyone over in the morning. I thought I was glad I was not doing that, but maybe I shouldn't have been so happy. The next day, our flight got canceled before we left for the airport! We were now on the 9:30 AM flight Sunday morning.
Sunday morning was crowded at the airport, but we made it with relative ease, although we had to go in a special line because we were taking Ziwi. The only consolation was we had First Class this morning. We arrived about 1:00 PM, then left our skis and boots at Roger's house, then drove the 5 hour drive to Riverton, which put us in about 7:30 PM on the 24th. Rodney's brother Bob arrived about 5 minutes later from Billings, MT.
We had a nice Christmas, playing 9 different games (Harry Potter Uno, Yahtzee, Tripoly, Hearts, 5 Alive, Pass the Pigs, Gridlock, Dominos and one other, hmmm...), as well as getting 2-3" of snow, which delayed our drive back to The Lake by a day.
We drove back to The Lake on Friday, played Rummikube that night, then skied at Alta on Saturday. We played Sequence that night. The next day, we had a 8:10 AM flight to allow Roger and Julia to ski if they wanted, which had us arriving at 6:30 AM. We barely made it through the check-in line (once again, a special line due to Ziwi), and the baggage x-ray line, and the security line, to get on the plane at about 7:55 AM.
We arrived a little late due to needing de-icing on the wings, but spent 45 minutes waiting for luggage, which we received all except our skis. Delta thought they should have been on the flight, but couldn't tell us where they were, so they gave us a tracking number and promised to call when they arrived (don't want $1500 in ski equipment left on the sidewalk).
We hoped it would arrive on the next flight at 12:30 PM, but couldn't check the status on line, or on the phone. We ended up calling their main line and being persistent about getting help and eventually were told it should arrive on a 4:08 PM flight. It turned out the tracking number had the letter 'O' in it, not the number '0.' The online tracking never worked.
We headed to the airport about 5:15 PM to see if they made, which they had. As I claimed it, the guy told me he had just called. Turns out our skis flew United through LAX to make it home. Fun, fun.
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