jinx

Okay, here's been the adventure since Saturday morning.

1st-We were supposed to leave Thursday and were cancelled due to fog in OKC. No worries, there's only the worst snow/ice storm ever to hit the Northwest starting Friday.

2nd-Saturday. We get to the airport early, check-in, security, on the plane to KC connecting to Denver. We land in Denver. Sweet. Hardly any snow on the ground. Okay, for all of us staying on the plane to go to PDX they tell us there will be about an hour delay. Carl goes and grabs us some lunch while I stay on the plane. I ask our flight attendant, "Is there any way this flight will be cancelled?" She says, "Oh no, this is a full-flight, they won't do that." I'm fairly confident in her answer. They say it may be up to a 2 hour delay. Okay...as long as we get there. I'll wait all day. Okay, about 5 bites into lunch, the guy comes on again and says, "I hate to make you move your lunch." I look at him like, "What do you mean?" And then I know. "It's cancelled isn't it." "Yes." Great. We get off the plane, there's already a line of about 75 people. We get in line, Carl goes to talk to a flight attendant from our flight to ask what the best option is. He says to call the 1-800 number. Okay. We stay in line, call the number, end up rescheduling our flight for the next day from Denver, to Oakland, to PDX. Luckily, I have family in Co. Springs. We rented a car for only $20!!! and drove to stay with them. They have a small BBQ business so we had brisket and ribs and fixings. We were soooo full and sit by the fire and go to bed early.

3rd-Sunday. Wake up, eat more great food (omelets and biscuits and gravy) and hit the road back to Denver. We were told to get there early because we would have to go through additional security measures. No prob. We get there and are told that there is a weather advisory and are risking not making it to PDX. Duh dude, like we haven't learned that yet. Okay, through security, no problem, plenty of time to go pee-pee, grab a snack, and hang out. Board the plane, we check SW's website, our flight to PDX says it's On Time. We luck out with an exit row, a nice row companion from Oakland, and land. Okay, we make it off the plane. Cancelled. &@*#(@!*!@#&$&*@&!*2!!!! We got in line (short this time) and asked to re-schedule. She doesn't know what she's doing so we go to get on the 1-800 number again. Bless the sweet grandma lady that has been on our flights since KC. We'd talked about driving in line in Denver that morning. She offers to pay for a rental car if we decide to drive to Portland. It was awkward. We tell her we're going to go make some calls and get road conditions. We talk to Carl's family, they offer to come pick us up. It's a 10 hour drive. We think, maybe we'll drive 1/2 way so it's not as bad. Then, we find out 2 mountain passes on the way are closed. Great. We go tell the grandma lady, give her a number we'd gotten from another traveler that morning who was going to drive and our number. I guess she made a plan. We get a flight to Seattle for Tuesday morning, (Portland, the soonest was Christmas Day.) Okay, we go to get a rental car. Enterprise has no cars. We love Enterprise. The cheapest rental car for just 1.5 days is $412 with National. Ohhhh, gosh. And we have to get a hotel on top of that. No thanks. We met another traveler named Josh in the rental place who's in the same position. We decide we're going to get a hotel room. We go to the same hotel. He'd gotten a rental car already and was going to drive the 101 up the coast to his parents which is a 16-18 hour drive. He offered to take us. We decide we'd rather take a day off to rest and re-group and try to fly out Tuesday. We all ate together in the hotel restaurant and chatted a while. He even paid for our meal. What a saint! Turns out he's a pretty interesting guy and a fellow "believer" as he put it. It was a great break in the clouds to make a friend on this crazy journey.

4th-Monday Wake up. I'm hungry. I call the front desk to ask how long the continental breakfast is. She says, "We don't have a continental breakfast." WHAAAATTT? Okay, re-group. Vending machine. Yes, it'll have something. I find only a soda machine. I ask a cleaning lady. She says, "There isn't one....but I think there's something by the front desk." I go to the front desk. I find juice....and candy. I get juice. I find a granola bar in my bag. Score! Now we're sitting in our bed watching CNN and listening to how bad it is in the Northwest and trying to keep our already shattered hopes high of making it out tomorrow.

So help me...I don't know what we'll do if we can't get out of here. One more night in Oakland. Luckily we have some brisket and ribs in a goodie bag from my family in Co. Springs. LUNCH!


Click your heels for us. We are nearing the end of our positive attitudes.