My race TO Denver

Before I tell you how my race went, I have to tell you the horrendous time I had getting to Denver.

We dropped off Grizzly at a friend's house in Ogden. We stayed for too long, and then got lost up there in one huge complicated neighborhood. At this point we were afraid I'd miss my flight, but I said "if you get me there in 30 minutes I'll be fine!" So finally we get to the airport, in 30 minutes! just in time for my flight to start boarding. Quick kiss and see ya! Hurry! Run!

Well it turns out I was approx 7 minutes late for boarding (I figured I could just run to my gate). The problem was, if you aren't there 30 minutes before, not 23 minutes before, you can't check your bags onto the plane. No problem, I'll just check it at the gate. But NOOooo my bag was too big! "Guess you'll just have to catch a later flight" I was told. Oh my gosh.

So I go to the ticket counter and talk to the Delta dude. My flight leaves at 4:50pm and by this time it's about 4:35. He tells me what I was already just told by the first guy (short on time here!) so when is the next flight? 7:00. Oh, but it's completely full. And the next flight with any openings is at 6am the next day. Well can't I just jump on my flight real quick and you can send my luggage with the next plane to Denver? No, you have to travel with your luggage. So can I get a refund? No, because I was so awesome I bought my ticket a couple months early which is too early. Okay, so maybe I'll sleep in the airport and catch the flight in the morning. Oh, well Delta adds on $250 in penalty fees to bump my flight, so I might as well buy a new plane ticket. And my return ticket would also be no good, so I'd have to buy a new one to get home. So at this point I'm considering losing my $200 round trip ticket, and buying a couple new (expensive) ones (even though we had the "wow we're pretty poor" convo earlier that day). On another airline.

I tell the Delta dude I need to call my husband, but asked if he'd check if my plane was still boarding. He said they were actually delayed for some reason and stopped boarding, but I better hurry anyway.

So I called A.J....and cried.

And then he turned around, ran into the airport, threw me over his shoulder, flipped off the security guards, hijacked a plane, and flew me to Denver.

Well, no, but it was pretty close.

I told him the whole story, and he was like, "wait, you could still get on your plane if you just had a smaller bag??? Well just take out only the things you need, throw them in a bag, and I'll swing by to pick up your suitcase." "uhhh, okay I'll go ask the Delta dude! sniff."

MY HUSBAND IS A GENIUS!

The Delta dude looked at me like I was crazy, but said "uh I guess that will work. But you can't leave your suitcase here or it will get confiscated. Tell your husband to meet you at the top of the escalator in the parking garage." So then it was frenzy time and I was shouting "K i'm gonna open everything right here! What liquids can I take? Lotion? Is soap okay? Do you have a plastic bag?!?!" He brought me out a huge CLEAR Delta plastic bag. I mean, it was big, I could have fit in it. And this whole time I'm throwing clothes etc. around and hoping my plane still hasn't left.

As a side note, I had packed like a champion, and I had every little thing I needed. Well now I just had clothes and soap. And running shoes.

I zipped up my half-empty suitcase, swung the big awkward bag over my shoulder, and sprinted up the escalator where my GENIUS husband was already waiting for me! Yes! I handed off the baton/suitcase to him, and ran down to security.

I shoved my hobo (not the cool kind) bag into the bin.

Beep!

Ma'am you need to take off your belt.

Beep! AAHHH!

You need to take off your earrings.

K, so I make it through. I just grab everything, barely putting my shoes on and keep running for it. Well guess what happens when you've got a heavy plastic bag slung over your shoulder and your hands are full and you're not wearing a belt? Well if you made the poor choice of wearing shorts 2 sizes too large, then that means your pants are about to fall off. So I'm running, trying to hold up my pants with my full hands, looking like a huge idiot. Finally I stop to put my belt on. And that was the last time I saw my earrings (R.I.P.)

I finally get to my gate (if you've been on a Skywest "connection" flight you know you are in the very farthest gates) and I get there panting and sweaty holding my hobo sack, and everyone's just kinda looking at me. Well, my flight was still delayed, and my plane was still on the ground. And everyone looked annoyed that it was so late.

HOORAY!!! I MADE IT!!!

It was one of those moments where you feel tears of joy that God was looking out for you, one of those moments where you are definitely sure that He provided a huge thunderstorm to annoy hundreds of people in 2 different states, as long as it allows you to make it to your flight in time. Okay, it's a ridiculous and selfish feeling, but I was feeling pretty darn blessed!

Also, if you've been on a Skywest/Delta connection flight, you know that you will be boarding a very tiny plane. Well, this is why most people who have larger bags will check them at the gate, but seeing as I couldn't risk anything happening to my big plastic bag, I brought it on with me. And created a traffic jam since I was "that" lady, trying to squish a huge bag into the overhead compartment. Well it fit, suckas!

2 hours after I was scheduled to leave, I was finally flying to Denver. There was a nice lady next to me. She had her phone's wallpaper set to a photo of her dog, too. Instant friends. Hahaha...

Natalie had arranged for a shuttle to pick me up, and when I talked to the shuttle people, it turned out I'd have to wait another hour, and THEN hope I wasn't the last to be dropped off. Well, Natalie and Zach are awesome, so they came and picked me up. I told her the story about why I was going to look like a homeless person living at the airport, and we decided we better get a picture of it.




I'm pretty happy looking here, but that's just because my journey was over and Natalie and Zach came to save me! Now imagine me with tears in my eyes and sweat on my brow, and that's what I looked like most of the day. Hehe.

Stay tuned for the race summary :)