What a Short, Strange Trip It's Been

I went to Steamboat and all I got was lousy luck.

I'm back. I'm sure a lot of you know what happened to me via Facebook, but I'm sure (or not so sure) you want some of the details.

Chris and I had been talking about going on this trip since last year when we went skiing in Utah. We were bit by the ski bug and wanted to go again. We considered different places, weighed our options, and finally decided on Steamboat. The trip was planned back in December and morphed into a girls' trip including our friend Patty. As it got closer, I got more and more excited. The mountains. The crisp, fresh air. The sound of skis on snow. The relaxed atmosphere of the apres ski scene.

I woke up Saturday morning, my head filled with a list of things that I needed to throw into my suitcase at the last minute. I was excited. I love traveling, especially when it's for vacation. I was ready.

My flight to Minneapolis was uneventful, aside from the weird guy sitting next to me mumbling numbers to himself (and me) while trying to complete a Sudoku puzzle. I got off the plane and was looking at the board of departures for my flight to Steamboat. Chris called on my cell phone to tell me that she and Patty were possibly going to be diverted on their flight to Steamboat, but wouldn't know until they were in the air. I kept talking to her as I walked to the gate for my next flight. I didn't think that this issue pertained to me. I had visions of Chris and Patty somewhere stranded, and me sitting in our condo catching up on the Olympics. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was going to be the one stranded.

While on the flight to Steamboat, the pilot came on the intercom and told us that there was a chance that we were going to be diverted. Flying into Hayden (Steamboat) is a tricky thing, especially for bigger airplanes. Hayden is a small airport in a valley, with short runways. In short, the stars need to be aligned in order to land. As we were approaching the time that our flight was supposed to land, the pilot came back on and said that we were going to circle the airport for about 15 minutes to see if the wind and visibility conditions would improve. After 15 minutes, they didn't improve, so we were on our way to Salt Lake City.

I still didn't think anything of it. I thought, well, we need to land to refuel, and then we'll just go back to Hayden and try again. No problem, right? Um, wrong. As with any kind of issue with flights, the news was infrequent and confusing. First, the pilot didn't know what we were going to do. We needed to stay on the plane. Then, he said we were probably heading back to Minneapolis so no one could get their luggage if they decided to get off the plane and stay in Salt Lake City. About a minute after that, he said that they were going to get luggage off if people wanted to stay in Salt Lake City.

The people around me were in a frenzy. People were on cell phones talking to the airline, some groups were talking about renting cars and driving the 7+ hours it would take to get there, and still others (including me) were sitting there in a daze just trying to figure out what just happened.

In all of my years of business travel, I had never been diverted. Since the corporate headquarters were outside Denver, I had to travel to Colorado 3-4 times a year in addition to my weekly travel to other places. Again, I had never been diverted. I think that's why I was stuck in a daze. I wasn't used to it like I was used to other travel woes. Many hours delayed? No problem, I have time. Circling airports for hours? Piece of cake. Technical issues? I have a book to read, no worries.

I finally got off the plane when they were offering food vouchers (hey, food speaks to me). They still didn't know what they were going to do, but said that we should stay around the gate and wait for updates. In the meantime, I was boo-hooing to Stein on the phone, and he sprang into travel agent action. He had our home phone and cell phone going, while he tried to get answers and possibly book a ticket or get a hotel room for me. Chris and Patty had landed just fine in Hayden, and were en route to our condo. I was SO jealous.

I got some food and settled onto the floor of the boarding area where I plugged in my phone and waited for news. It seemed that the plan was that the plane was going back to Minneapolis, and people were being re-ticketed to do so. I was about to go over to be re-ticketed, when Stein called me and told me that I didn't want to go back to Minneapolis. He talked to an airline agent, and she told him that they couldn't guarantee that I would have a seat on the plane to Hayden the next morning.

I made my way over to the counter where the agents were frantically trying to get people re-booked on flights that would get them to Steamboat the next day. I heard some people were going to Atlanta. I heard some others were booked on a flight the next day out of Salt Lake City (which was eventually sold out). And a lot of the people were going back to Minneapolis to try the whole thing over the next day. At one point, someone asked the agent if she should get on the plane to go back to Minneapolis. The look on his face said it all, and I knew what I would be doing. Well, I knew what I wasn't going to be doing.

The agents were wonderful. I guess waiting to go up to the counter served me well. I was booked on a flight to Denver that night, with a flight from Denver to Hayden booked for the next morning. My luggage was re-routed to Denver, so I could just pick it up there when I got it that night. I was given more food vouchers and also a discounted hotel voucher. I was doing okay. Everything seemed okay as I took my flight to Denver and landed in the state (geographically) that I needed to be in.

To be continued...