Sister JoAnn at White Sands - all of our visitors get a trip to White Sands.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
"I'll Never Come Back Here in the Winter Again!"
You can just hear Cindy's words as they are whipped away by the gale force winds of the Minnesota snowstorm.
Let me back up. My original post title was to be Our Minnesota Odessey or What Do You Get A Man Who Has Everything? Cindy & I journeyed to southwest Minnesota (Montevideo)to celebrate the birthday's of my parents. My dad just turned 90 and my mom turns 86. This sounded like a good excuse for a gathering so plans were laid and the family gathered. A gathering of the clan would be the perfect gift for my folks. So we came from Tucson & Phoenix, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; Dallas, TX; Melbourne, Australia; Milwaukee, WI; Redwing, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Portland, OR & Alabama. All nine children and their spouses, half of the grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren were there I believe. It was great fun seeing everyone.
My mom & dad were thrilled to have the brood gather. Their little townhouse was filled to over-flowing. We even spilled out into the heated garage. The local Country Inn & Suites was the perfect place to end up since it has a nice spa and indoor pool.
On Friday evening we ate together at the local cafe which many of us remember from growing up. Saturday consisted of a family meeting in the morning, soup and sandwhiches and then off to the community center for the open house. Since the invitation had appeared in the local paper & the paper in the community we grew up in a fair number of people were there. I won't bore you with the details but will simply say that it was a good opportunity to catch up with relatives we haven't seen in years.
Sunday was church for the whole clan followed by a family lunch and goodbyes.
Skip ahead a few hours a few hours out of Montevideo heading to Jackson, MN to visit Cindy's aunt. The snow had started to fall and the well-remembered gloom of winter had once again settled in. It was about now that Cindy's words about winter and Minnesota started to be heard more and more often. We arrived in Jackson and took Cindy's aunt out for a quick dinner. WE got on the road again and headed east to Rochester and Cindy's parents. The roads were a bit icy and the traffic crawled along but we made it.
Monday dawned a bit blustery but that surely would not be a problem for our flight out of Rochester. Wrong. Remember those words - "I'll never come back here in winter again"? There was good reason for them. We got to the airport and discovered that all flights out of Rochester to Chicago had been cancelled. We had to settle for the same flight the next day. That wouldn't have been too much of a problem except for one interesting predicament. My sister from Australia was flying down to visit Cindy & I in Las Cruces. Her flight out of Minnepolis wasn't going to be delayed so she was going to get to El Paso before our new flight was even to leave Rochester. We couldn't meet her in El Paso as planned since we weren't going to get there until 8 hours later. We worked it out by imposing on friends in Las Cruces to meet her in El Paso and take her to their home where we will pick her up.
My folks enjoyed the gathering. I believe the rest of the family enjoyed seeing one another again. But please, next time let's not meet again in Minnesota or Wisconsin in winter.Chapter Two of “Ill Never Come Up To Minnesota in Winter Again”
Chapter Two of "I'll Never Come Back Here in the Winter Again!"
“Folks, this is your Captain speaking. Ground Control in Chicago has informed us that because of windy conditions in Chicago we are to wait our departure for about 45 minutes.” Those words came to us while we sat on the runway in one of those tiny regional jets that a tall person has to lean to the side in when sitting next to the window. We were in Rochester, MN.
We took off 40 minutes later and experienced a rather bumpy ride into O’Hare. At least our gate for the connecting flight was close by. On paper that is true but in the terminal the distances can be daunting. We raced passed gift shops, fast-food windows and dodged other travelers coming and going. We made it to the gate with moments to spare. We made it to the gate but not unto the plane. Our plane was sitting right there but the sign saying “boarding has been complete” said it all. We nicely begged to get on the plane and even after two calls to ground control it was no use.
We were not getting on that plane.
Well, at least we had time for dinner. I called our friends who were hosting my sister in Las Cruces and told them our news and asked if they could put my sister up for the night then contacted other family members to see how their travel was going.
My brother Don and his daughter Lacey were slowly making their way out of Minnesota on I-35 headed south. There were semis and cars in the ditches on both sides of them. My other siblings did what they could to drive through the blizzard heading east to Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Redwing, MN where they had 15 inches of snow. I haven’t heard how any of them faired. No news is probably good news in this case.
Oh yes, back to concourse B and our story.
We finally boarded a plane heading to Las Vegas, NV. It was either that or chance another flight the next day. We took it. We arrived in Las Vegas around midnight. The airport was filled with slot machines so I had to take appek while waiting for our next flight. I couldn’t even figure out how to use them. There were so many buttons and choices. My fortune would remain intact. Another hour went by and then we boarded our last plane for the trip to El Paso. We arrived there at about 2:45 am.
“Don’t worry sir, your luggage should show up tomorrow by 3:00 pm.” With all the switching of planes we sort of guessed this would happen. We found our car, loaded our tired bodies and drove home to Las Cruces arriving about 4:00 am. Our cats were sure glad to see us. Our luggage did show up and was delivered to our home the next morning.
Perhaps now you have a better understanding as to why Cindy’s voice can still be heard to say, "I'll Never Come Back Here in the Winter Again!" I might chance it but that's just me.
It is good to be home.
Let me back up. My original post title was to be Our Minnesota Odessey or What Do You Get A Man Who Has Everything? Cindy & I journeyed to southwest Minnesota (Montevideo)to celebrate the birthday's of my parents. My dad just turned 90 and my mom turns 86. This sounded like a good excuse for a gathering so plans were laid and the family gathered. A gathering of the clan would be the perfect gift for my folks. So we came from Tucson & Phoenix, AZ; Las Cruces, NM; Dallas, TX; Melbourne, Australia; Milwaukee, WI; Redwing, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Portland, OR & Alabama. All nine children and their spouses, half of the grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren were there I believe. It was great fun seeing everyone.
My mom & dad were thrilled to have the brood gather. Their little townhouse was filled to over-flowing. We even spilled out into the heated garage. The local Country Inn & Suites was the perfect place to end up since it has a nice spa and indoor pool.
On Friday evening we ate together at the local cafe which many of us remember from growing up. Saturday consisted of a family meeting in the morning, soup and sandwhiches and then off to the community center for the open house. Since the invitation had appeared in the local paper & the paper in the community we grew up in a fair number of people were there. I won't bore you with the details but will simply say that it was a good opportunity to catch up with relatives we haven't seen in years.
Sunday was church for the whole clan followed by a family lunch and goodbyes.
Skip ahead a few hours a few hours out of Montevideo heading to Jackson, MN to visit Cindy's aunt. The snow had started to fall and the well-remembered gloom of winter had once again settled in. It was about now that Cindy's words about winter and Minnesota started to be heard more and more often. We arrived in Jackson and took Cindy's aunt out for a quick dinner. WE got on the road again and headed east to Rochester and Cindy's parents. The roads were a bit icy and the traffic crawled along but we made it.
Monday dawned a bit blustery but that surely would not be a problem for our flight out of Rochester. Wrong. Remember those words - "I'll never come back here in winter again"? There was good reason for them. We got to the airport and discovered that all flights out of Rochester to Chicago had been cancelled. We had to settle for the same flight the next day. That wouldn't have been too much of a problem except for one interesting predicament. My sister from Australia was flying down to visit Cindy & I in Las Cruces. Her flight out of Minnepolis wasn't going to be delayed so she was going to get to El Paso before our new flight was even to leave Rochester. We couldn't meet her in El Paso as planned since we weren't going to get there until 8 hours later. We worked it out by imposing on friends in Las Cruces to meet her in El Paso and take her to their home where we will pick her up.
My folks enjoyed the gathering. I believe the rest of the family enjoyed seeing one another again. But please, next time let's not meet again in Minnesota or Wisconsin in winter.Chapter Two of “Ill Never Come Up To Minnesota in Winter Again”
Chapter Two of "I'll Never Come Back Here in the Winter Again!"
“Folks, this is your Captain speaking. Ground Control in Chicago has informed us that because of windy conditions in Chicago we are to wait our departure for about 45 minutes.” Those words came to us while we sat on the runway in one of those tiny regional jets that a tall person has to lean to the side in when sitting next to the window. We were in Rochester, MN.
We took off 40 minutes later and experienced a rather bumpy ride into O’Hare. At least our gate for the connecting flight was close by. On paper that is true but in the terminal the distances can be daunting. We raced passed gift shops, fast-food windows and dodged other travelers coming and going. We made it to the gate with moments to spare. We made it to the gate but not unto the plane. Our plane was sitting right there but the sign saying “boarding has been complete” said it all. We nicely begged to get on the plane and even after two calls to ground control it was no use.
We were not getting on that plane.
Well, at least we had time for dinner. I called our friends who were hosting my sister in Las Cruces and told them our news and asked if they could put my sister up for the night then contacted other family members to see how their travel was going.
My brother Don and his daughter Lacey were slowly making their way out of Minnesota on I-35 headed south. There were semis and cars in the ditches on both sides of them. My other siblings did what they could to drive through the blizzard heading east to Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Redwing, MN where they had 15 inches of snow. I haven’t heard how any of them faired. No news is probably good news in this case.
Oh yes, back to concourse B and our story.
We finally boarded a plane heading to Las Vegas, NV. It was either that or chance another flight the next day. We took it. We arrived in Las Vegas around midnight. The airport was filled with slot machines so I had to take appek while waiting for our next flight. I couldn’t even figure out how to use them. There were so many buttons and choices. My fortune would remain intact. Another hour went by and then we boarded our last plane for the trip to El Paso. We arrived there at about 2:45 am.
“Don’t worry sir, your luggage should show up tomorrow by 3:00 pm.” With all the switching of planes we sort of guessed this would happen. We found our car, loaded our tired bodies and drove home to Las Cruces arriving about 4:00 am. Our cats were sure glad to see us. Our luggage did show up and was delivered to our home the next morning.
Perhaps now you have a better understanding as to why Cindy’s voice can still be heard to say, "I'll Never Come Back Here in the Winter Again!" I might chance it but that's just me.
It is good to be home.
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