Some Winter Break Photos

These are the three gals that I met while waiting for our flight from DIA to LBF. It was eventually cancelled, so the four of us spent the night in Denver hotel rooms and then shared the shuttle and subsequent morning flight to North Platte.


Flying this leg of the trip is actually my favorite, twin prop airplane and all. Every seat is both an aisle AND a window.


Now this is first class when you can put down the back of the seat in front of you and really get a stretch on.


Early morning frost on the trees. The first picture is a view across the street from our house and the second one is a view down the street. Really, it wasn't as cold as it looks!

Overnight in...no not Denver...San Francisco

I was freshly ensonced in my hotel room when I thought I had better phone Great Lakes and give them my flight information so they could go ahead and handwrite my luggage tag to save time the next morning. Got that done and had just settled down to watch the Food Network when the phone rang. Guess who was on the line? Vickie from Great Lakes with the good news that my flight the next morning had been cancelled, but if I could get to the airport, I could take the two-hour delayed flight to Denver. Well, what could I do? I had to get to DIA so I could get my connecting flight to San Francisco by 8:23 the next morning, so I checked out of the hotel that I had enjoyed for three hours, and made my way to the airport with the off-duty shuttle driver who was nice enough to come and get me.

I had already decided to just spend the night at the Denver airport instead of a hotel so I didn't have to get my luggage and go through Denver security early the next morning, but Vickie gave me a hotel voucher anyway and told me to make sure I collected my bag. Once I convinced her that I wasn't going to do that, she took the voucher back, and changed my luggage tag back to the original.

Got to Denver and decided to see if I could fly standby on the 8:50 San Francisco flight. (I figured getting to SF that night was better than hanging out at the Denver airport all night.) Yep, got that. When I asked about my bag, I was told that it probably would be forwarded on the next morning. Probably? Probably?????

Got to San Francisco close to midnight. Nothing open. Nowhere to go. Hung around the international terminal. About 5:00 am I decided to call United and see if they could tell me where my bag was. Nope. Nothing in the system. Told to go to baggage claim and talk with an attnedant. So, took the AirTrain over to terminal 3 and told the lady there my tale of woe. She sent info to Great Lakes and United and I sat down to wait. Checked again about 45 minutes later. Nope, nothing yet.

I decided to not worry about it, and headed back to the international terminal since it was almost time for them to open up the ticket counters. Got ticketed, went through security into the terminal in search of something good to eat for breakfast. Nope, nothing open. Went to the domestic terminal, once again had to go through security, but found a decent breakfast place. Well, not decent, but Burger King was open, so I had breakfast, then went on back to the international terminal. Yes, through security once again. Checked the departure screen, nothing listed for Taipei, so I decided just to sit and wait. Pretty soon, I heard the announcement that Taipei would be leaving at Gate 93. So to Gate 93 I went. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, it was almost time to board. Even the flight crew had gotten on the airplane.

And gotten off. And had to go to gate 97. This is the first time I've seen a flight crew get on and get back off to go to a different gate. Finally, it was our turn to board. I got on, got settled, put the seat belt on and tightened it up. It loosened. I tightened it up. It loosened again. I hit the call light. Flight attendants all busy. I stood up and looked around and caught the eye of one attendant at the door. She came, tried the belt, and called a mechanic. Ten minutes later a new seat belt had been quickly installed. Much better.

I got settled in once again. Five minutes later more mechanics boarded, this time carrying a ladder. Cripes, what now? Oh, the pilot announced that they were there to get the communication system working. Good, that might just come in handy. That took about 15 minutes, then we were actually cleared to take off. The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, although incredibly long. I napped a few times, watched a couple movies, and walked around a bit. Good thing I had seen the three half decent movies because my tv had decided to stop transmitting a picture. I forgot to tell them when I got off, so I imagine that the person who got my seat for the next morning's flight wasn't too happy!

Once through immigration, Gerry and I headed for baggage claim and the bathroom. (she had been lucky enough to fly standby from SF to Taipei. She wasn't sure if her husband had gotten the word to our local airport pick up service, so I told her if she didn't have a car waiting, she could ride along with me.) First stop, the baggage carousel. What? My bag was there. Amazing. Gerry got hers, we headed for the waiting area. No car for her. No problem. Luggage all put in mine and we set off with one of the worst drivers I've ever had in Taipei. And that is saying a lot. But...we made it back safely, and my long long long long experience of travel from Gothenburg, Nebraska to Taipei, Taiwan was finally over. I have five months to forget how bad a travel time I had this year. Moral of story? Be kind to airline personnel, and don't travel on the holidays.

Time's Up!

Say it ain't so. Say it ain't time to leave the states and head back to Taiwan. I've had a fantastic time...it's so great seeing family, spending time in my own house, sewing up a storm, and watching all kinds of home improvement shows. Even the cold weather didn't dampen my spirits...most days had sunshine and blue sky...and the three times I shoveled snow was a breeze because the snow was so light and powdery.

I head for the big city of North Platte tomorrow...lunch with Russ and his mom and brother, then he'll deliver me to the hotel so I can spend the night. My flight is at 7:15, and it's much easier to spend the night instead of traipsing to the airport in the wee hours of the morning from Gothenburg. Besides, it's actually easier to say goodbye to my folks and Russ the day before I leave.

I am NOT looking forward to the flights, but it looks like the weather should be decent, so I hope it goes more smoothly than my last flight. And in just five short months, I get to do it all over again. Next time I may take the Singapore night flight and spend the night at LAX. Doesn't that sound like fun????

Overnight in Denver. Again.

Why people think travel is glamorous is beyond me. And travel during the holidays? Stupid. But always interesting. I (along with fellow TAS teachers) left Taipei on Friday, December 21 on United's non-stop service to San Francisco. Nice flight. Somewhere around ten hours. Slept a couple times, no more than half an hour each time.

The San Francisco airport is always crowded, but they finally have enough personnel so getting through security is far smoother than it used to be. I cleared customs very quickly, and got my offical welcome "home" which is always fun. Got my suitcase, which surprisingly, wasn't the last one to arrive. Once we got rid of the suitcases, Mary and I proceeded to our next gate. Started out at gate 80, moved to gate 88, then to 82, on to 83, and back to 82. Lots of flights had been delayed because of fog in Chicago, so they kept moving us from gate to gate in hopes that they could get us out. Finally, two hours after our scheduled departure, we were ready to board. I am a premier member, so I always board in seating area 1. Handed the lady my pass, the machine beeped, and she told me I had to wait because my seat was being repaired. Great. That didn't take long, though, and once we finally got airborne, the flight was just fine.

Once we got into Denver, I still had an hour and a half before my next flight, but Mary was probably going to miss her flight to St. Louis. I don't know yet, since I deplaned before she did and I didn't wait around for her.

Off I went, through busy DIA, to Great Lakes in concourse A. Quick check of the monitors, yep, flight is on time. Checked in. Heard flights being cancelled. Mine, still on time, so I went to get something to eat. Back to the gate. Flight now delayed. Finally around 9:00 (three hours after original scheduled departure) the flight was cancelled because our crew had timed out. We were promised a special plane in the morning, so some of us opted to go to hotels, while others headed for the car rental area so they could drive 5 hours to their destination.

I think we got to the hotel around 11:30, and I got to sleep around 1:00 and slept for a good four and a half hours. Not bad. We took the 6:30 shuttle to the airport and cleared security very quickly. I barely had time to take off my shoes and get my clear bag of travel liquids out of my carry on before I was at the head of a line. From there, we headed to our gate. Told to sit down by a very gruff Great Lakes male employee. The smiling female employee told us she was trying to find us. Great. One gentleman told us they might not have the flight for us after all. Great.

I waited a bit, then asked the lady, and she said we had a plane but no crew. Great. However, after a normal amount of wait time, the crew was found, and we had a beautiful flight to North Platte, Nebraska. It was cold, but absolutely clear and beautiful. What could happen now?

Oh, no suitcase? The nice (they are all friendly as heck in North Platte) attendant emailed Denver Great Lakes, but got no response. Called Denver. No response. The normal flight would arrive in an hour and a half, and the suitcase may or may not be on it. We live half an hour from the airport, Russ had been there the night before waiting in vain for me, and we didn't want to drive home and then back, so we had some coffee (Russ) and tea (me), then made a quick trip to Walmart. Back at the airport, they were busy checking everybody in for the departing flight, so I didn't ask anyone if they had any information for me. Instead we chatted with a lady who had the most gorgeous black and tan cocker spaniel while we waited for the flight, and hopefully my suitcase, to arrive.

And it did. Amazing. Moral of the story...have patience and be kind to airline employees. And stop traveling during the holidays.

Oh yeah, why the title "Overnight in Denver. Again."??? Two years ago Russ and I had been delayed in San Francisco long enough that we missed the flight from Denver to North Platte. We were told we were booked on the next morning's flight so we headed to a hotel. At the airport the next morning, we couldn't clear security because we didn't have the proper reboarding passes, and after long discussions with Great Lakes, ended up renting a car to drive back because the flights were all full that day and the next. I did get reimbursed for all expenses, plus a little extra from United because they so royally messed up.

Moral of that story. Have patience with airline employees, write detailed letters to United. And stop traveling during the holidays.