The Rest of the Story ---

When I wrote the blog yesterday, I was at the airport in Cedar Rapids waiting for my 7:30 flight to Denver from whence I was to catch a flight at 9:45 to Spokane. There was quite a bit of chaos and lots of unhappy people as one after another the flights through Chicago were cancelled. The line of thunderstorms that had awakened us in Iowa had moved into the Chicago area and were raising havoc with flight schedules all over the east.


We were feeling pretty good about the Denver flight as there didn't appear to be any weather problems in that direction. BUT, just before 7 o'clock, the flight time on the board moved from "on time" to "delayed," with a departure time of 8:47 instead of 7:30. When I checked flight status on the United website, it also stated the cause was "mechanical." We never did hear what the problem was, but after many announcements of time changes, the plane finally arrived about 10:45; was unloaded; picked up a little bit; reloaded and off we went a few minutes after 11 PM.


By the time we arrived in Denver; even with an hour's time change, the flight to Spokane was long gone. Since the problem was mechanical and therefore United's responsibility, we were given hotel vouchers as well as were put on the stand-by list for the only morning flight to Spokane. The stewardess on the airplane told us to go immediately to Customer Service at Gate 39 to get our vouchers as soon as we disembarked (we came in at the very end of the B terminal at B 79). We headed that way and were past the center of the B terminal and almost at B 39 when an announcement came over the PA system that we should return to Gate 79 to get the necessary vouchers...


So by the time we returned; got the vouchers; walked back through the whole terminal (noticing that there was no one at Customer Service at B39); took the train to the Main terminal; went down the escalators; picked up my bag at baggage claim (fortunately the very nice woman at the gate in Cedar Rapids had put an intercept tag on it); found the right door; crossed the streets to the third island; waited another 15 minutes for the shuttle to the Doubletree; then traveled another 25 minutes (in the rain) into downtown Denver; checked into the hotel; and finally got to a room, it was almost 2 AM!


In order to be at the airport an hour ahead of the scheduled flight, I had to take the 7:30 AM shuttle. That made for a VERY short night. When I got out to the United Express gates (way at the end of the B terminal and down the escalators), the attendant at the gate said that the flight was full and was actually oversold by one passenger. But she also said that they all hadn't checked in yet and that she had put me on the top of the stand-by list.


In the end, there was ONE empty seat -- in the very back of the airplane right across from the lavatory. It looked like the very best seat ever! (Especially since I would have had to wait until 9:45 tonight for the next flight to Spokane...)

We arrived in Spokane just before noon and Forry was there within half an hour to pick me up (he left church during the last hymn). After going to Frank's Diner for breakfast/lunch, we headed for the ranch. (We did stop in Cheney for a few minutes to visit Daughter Mary Mae's mother-in-law Diane who recently had knee replacement surgery.)