The end of the story

I’ll start with the end of the trip. 

We left the ship, docked in Portland, at 8:30 am P and went to the airport. Things went downhill from there. Our original flight to Denver was scheduled for 12:20 pm or some such. The plane came in, disgorged its passengers, and we sat and sat, waiting. It was announced that there was a problem with the plane, and they were working to fix it.

After about an hour or so, they said it was fixed and the full complement of passeners boarded the plane. Within minutes, the pilot announced that something else was wrong, and it would take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to fix it. But would we please stay on the plane because it would take so long to get everybody off and back on. After a while, they took some folks who had certain connections in Denver off the plane to get them to other flights - about 1/3 of the passengers. After about an hour, they told us that they had another plane for us, at the adjoining gate.

We got off the plane, and lined up as best as we could remember our boarding numbers, and waited some more. Turns out, on the walk-around the new plane, they discovered a small fuel leak. And, of course, that had to be taken care of.

Finally about 5 pm PT, we boarded THAT plane, just giving our last names to the guy at the gate. It was a larger plane, and with our fewer people we were able to spread out. Also on the flight were three people with pets in carrying cases (two cats, one puppy) and about 6 families with multiple children (ranging from about 8 to a nursing infant). Once in the air, it was one of the quietest flights we'd ever been on. Amazingly so!

We finally got in to Denver about 8 pm MT. We'd called Gin (John’s cousin) that there were delays. She had kept checking, so our getting picked up worked great. Just a long frustrating day.

After that we had a good visit with Gin & Jim. The weather was gorgeous on Sunday (they kept telling us that Denver‘s average was 300 sunny days/year). We went to the Garden of the Gods, and stopped to see the Air Force Academy Chapel on the way back to Littleton. Both are spectacular!

Unfortunately, the weather was dreary and misty on Monday, temps ranging from 35-31 - definitely not as advertised.

We had planned to drive to Loveland to have dinner with Merritt and Judy (Merritt is Gin's older brother - another cousin). Turns out Judy's sister in Illinois was having a medical emergency and Judy was going to have to fly there. But as it worked out, she was leaving Tuesday morning - as were we. So after our nice dinner with M&J, Gin & Jim went back to Littleton, and we spent the night with M&J. Merritt took the three of us to the Denver airport Tuesday morning (temp 31-33 and misting rain, but no snow/ice), and we headed home. Everything went smoothly from there on. Our shuttle was on time, and it was only half full.

On the way home in Chattanooga, we went to see Tina and took her out to get something to eat. We all needed some hugs since we hadn't been here when Allan died. She's a tough gal and will get through it, but it's going to be hard. Seeing her was good for all of us.

After a good night's sleep in our own bed, it was time today for the grocery store and laundry. It’s always good to get home.