Before heading to the airport in the afternoon, I went on a brief hike with Mat over the the buttes across from the visitor's center. Lots of slick mud, so we didn't make fantastic progress, but there was finally some sun and patches of blue sky for the first time in many days.
Headed to the airport around 1pm. Unfortunately Hwy 44 wasn't exactly plowed, and my low little car ended up doing a lot of plowing in the deeper areas. Just small patches at first, but there were spots where the snow had drifted the width of the highway, rather deep. I had no options other than to maintain a good speed and hope the momentum was enough to make it through to the other side. But then my tire pressure light went on, and I desperately afraid of having a flat, on the highway, far from any help. It worked out and I made it.
Arrived at the airport in plenty of time, breezed through security (no line - yay for small towns), and went to check the status of my flight. Wait, what!?!?! It said "cancelled." No way. Then Mike called, who is flying out to meet me for the week in NY. He's leaving from Spokane, and his flight is delayed. We were both to end up on the same flight in Mpls to NYC. Horrible winter storm moving over MN was wreaking havoc on all. Lots of phone time, but finally got me rescheduled onto the next flight, which wasn't until the next morning. However, I talked to the only airline employee around, and he said that the morning flight is dependent on a flight from Mpls arriving that night. If the flight can't make it in, the morning flight will be cancelled. At this point, I'm realizing that we might not get into the city in time for the exhibit dinner, which is the entire reason we're going in the first place. Panic!
The airport closes over night, but luckily I had a couple back-up plans of people in Rapid City that I can stay with. I crashed on a friend's couch, a convenient 15 minutes from the airport. Watched the status of that flight to see whether mine would be cancelled. It was delayed almost two hours, but in the end it did take off. I got a few hours of sleep, then up at 4:30 to drive back to airport. Thankfully, that flight came through and we made it in to Mpls.
But it doesn't end there! When I get off the plane, I find out that my flight to NYC is cancelled! What!?!?! Oh, yeah. And the next flight to the same airport is also cancelled. More phone calls and we finally get ourselves onto a flight that might still get us in to the city in time for my show. But it's not that easy, the luggage with our dress clothes is still going to the original airport, and we're told over the phone that there is no way to reroute it, and they will not deliver it because we switched airports. ARGH! Hung up and went to talk to the gate attendant, who was wonderfully nice and most helpful. She got on the phone and called the baggage guys, and between that and some computer work, put in a request for them to find and move our bag. No guarantee, she said, but they tried. Just before the plane left, we checked the status of the bag online, and it did show that it had been scanned and loaded onto a flight, but it wasn't our flight. It was a later flight, but arriving at the same airport. We had been planning to get a taxi, drop me off at the apartment in Manhattan, then Mike would ride out to the other airport, get the bag, and come back. We'd be late to dinner, but we'd be appropriately dressed. Not having to do that was nice, but we really didn't want to have to wait around for the other flight to get int, we wanted time to shower and change for the dinner, and maybe look presentable after 24 hours of travel nightmare.
Well, as it went, our flight was delayed, and delayed more, and they after we boarded it was delayed again, this time for a maintenance issue. Then the captain came on to let us know that we'd be without heat (in a snowstorm in MN) until we were airborne. Seriously? In the end, our flight was so delayed that we arrived just a few minutes before the flight that our bag was on. A quick jaunt over to the next concourse and down to baggage claim, and we were on our way again, off to find our ride into Manhattan.
We got to the apartment with just under an hour before the start of the dinner, so we quick got ourselves cleaned up and presentable, and walked over. Had a good time, which I will post about next.
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| Hiking through the muck across from the VC. |
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| One of the windows in the buttes |