Travel at 530 MPH

 

We first attempted this trip after Terry’s doctor appointments on Wednesday.  Flights looked great or at least that’s what it looked like earlier in the day.  Who in the world buys last minute tickets anyway?  We had it all figured out.  We’d fly on United to Chicago on the red-eye and connect to Sioux Falls the next morning.  He had a driver’s license to renew and we needed to get it done.  Things don’t always work as planned.  There were lots of empty seats on the plane until we got to the airport.  Then, the flight was overbooked by more than it should have been.   We ended up calling it a night and after about an hour’s drive back, crawled into bed.

This is Portland

All you need is one little hiccup to cause all kinds of havoc.  We had a couple of hiccups for sure – Columbus Day weekend was one and a storm in Chicago was the other. Who would have thought that Columbus Day was a traveling holiday?

This is Chicago

Sunday we lost all power in the little cabin.  We were in a frenzy getting everything out of one refrigerator into the motorhome.   Neither of us slept much that night and by 3:00 AM, we were up again and getting ready for another trip to the airport only to hear on the news that storms were in the same direction we were heading.  Oh oh ! We knew flights would be delayed and cancelled because of it.  We just crossed our fingers and started looking for alternate routes … just in case.  However, we were lucky to be able to squeeze on board the flight to Chicago.   It was the very last row of the plane but it worked and we were finally taking off on the first leg of the journey.

 

This is Sioux Falls

Our next flight ended up being one of the casualties of the storm.  It was cancelled along with numerous other ones.  Sometimes weather works in our favor.  This time it did. The flight we had planned on taking wasn’t a direct flight so cancelling turned into a good thing.  The direct flight was originally oversold but with all the cancellations extra seats opened up from no-shows.    Again, we ended up in the very last row of the plane but the good thing was … we were on it.  We were sorry for the passengers who missed their flight but happy for us.  Because of bad weather, we arrived at our destination about five hours ahead of schedule.

 

That was our Monday.  Tuesday was another early morning. For such a fast trip, we didn’t bother changing time zones.  We just adjusted the times in our  mind.  So in our minds, the driver’s license office opened at 5:00 AM.  We were there then … so you can guess what time we had to crawl out of bed.

At Sioux Falls airport –

Once our mission had been accomplished, we were on our way back to the airport.  Flights were full and more overbooking had taken place to accommodate  passengers who had missed their flights the day before.  We actually didn’t expect to make the flights but we did.  I just stressed a lot about it.  

Quite a trip for sure but at least we’re happy it’s behind us.  Now we can get on with others things.  We’ll know more about our departure plans after Terry’s doctor’s appointment this Thursday.

 

Indoor pool at our hotel – thought we were at the beach!

 

That’s the story of our journey and my exciting pictures of it.

‘Tis life in the air.

There are only two reasons to sit in the back row of an airplane:  Either you have diarrhea or you’re anxious to meet people who do. ~ Harry Kissinger