denver.

My previous post suggested my stop in Denver as rather unpleasant and unexpected. Both assumptions would be accurate.

Tuesday Dewy and I made our way to the SLC airport chauffeured by my mom {thanks for that} and as we pulling onto the airport grounds Dewy's phone rang. It was Gentrie. For some reason our tickets weren't in the system when they got there. Nan was working on it. It was in that moment we should have known we were doomed. We pulled up to the curb, mom dropped us off, and in we went. We joined the group {Gentrie, BranDee, Nan, Bart, Aunt Tam, Uncle Kelly, Cousin Toni and her two kids Cade and Ryan} at the Frontier counter. We all sat there for about an hour while Nan got us all taken care of, and finally we were able to get through security. I was in line to go through the detector; Nan right behind me, and Bart behind her. I step through and as I reach for my stuff I look back at Nan as she steps through. She gets right in the face of the security officer and says, "Hiiiiii!!" He responds with hello looking slightly startled to which she replies, "Aren't I supposed to walk through something at this part?" He politely answers, "You just did." Prime Nan moment. Loved every second of it.

We got to our terminal, and shortly after boarded the plane. All buckled in, the attendants have their security spill taken care of, and ding...the pilot comes over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, as we were approaching for takeoff we received word that the Denver airport has closed due to thunderstorms. No flights are being allowed in or out. We are going to have to sit tight until we receive more information. Sorry about the delay." What. The. Fetch. So we sit, and we sit some more, and we sit some more. Dewy was on the isle seat, and since no one else was on our row I sat with my back against the window and my feet up on the middle seat. Cue idiot flight attendant. "Ma'am, you need to remove your feet. That is inappropriate, honestly." What. The. Fetch. So I said, "Um I'm sorry but I am stranded in Salt Lake and probably going to miss my flight in Denver to Austin, and since no one is sitting here I'll put my feet wherever I please." She glared at me and moved on. Whatev. After three hours of waiting we finally got the go ahead to take off. We knew it was a long shot that our connecting flight would still be there when we landed, but as we exited the airplane Dewy, Gentrie and I sprinted to the other terminal. The airport was packed. Our flight was gone. Now what?

The Frontier representative at the gate our plane was supposed to be at directed us to the customer service desk where would would be "put on another flight to Austin." We intercepted the others on their way to the terminal and together we went to find the customer service desk. Here is what we found:

Yep you are seeing correctly. There is no end to that line. Since it would have been silly for all of us to stand in that line, Dewy stood in it himself while we all sat around waiting. Then the question was asked, "What about our bags????" Nan took it upon herself to walk straight to the front of that monstrous line and, after announcing that she wasn't cutting in line just asking a question, asked the employee what we were to do about our bags. She directed us to go down to baggage claim where they would be going around the carousel thing. All of us, minus Dewy who was still in line, headed own to baggage claim. As we stood in line there Nan comments to the man in front of us, "At least we have our friend from Salt Lake!" He looks at her like she is a freak. "I just came from Kentucky actually." Charming. Nan explained that he looked like a man on our flight here from Salt Lake and then proceeded to attempt to steal a small child's bag of candy as he walked by. Another prime Nan moment. Turns out, our bags were on their way to Austin.

We were stuck. In Denver. With no luggage. And no tickets out. Super.

Cue call from Dewy. "I HAVE NINE TICKETS TO HOUSTON!! GET UP HERE FAST THEY CAN'T HOLD THEM MUCH LONGER! THE PLANE IS READY TO LEAVE!!!!" He was frantic. I got frantic. Houston wasn't our destination, but it was two hours away and at least that was drivable. Ever been to the Denver airport?? Good luck finding your way from baggage claim back up to the terminals. They couldn't hold the tickets. The plane left without us. Dewy was slightly unimpressed with us. Cue tears. Gentrie starts crying as we search for solutions. I start crying {which never happens} when Dewy gets mad that I wasn't in line with him. Uncle Kelly and Bart head to the ticket counter. There is a flight out the following night at 8pm to Austin. Book it. Uncle Kelly and Bart make sure we are on the flight, confirm it twice, and ask the man to print out tickets now. He says we don't need them, and as soon as we check in the following day we will get our seats. Ok fine.

Now for a place to stay...

Keep in mind. This whole thing was way more traumatic than it sounds. We were running all over the airport, ALL the Frontier employees were rude, NO ONE had any answers for us, and it was raining outside. We all sit down and Uncle Kelly starts calling hotels for an hour. Fairfield Marriot. Solid. We walk outside defeated in the pouring rain to catch our shuttle. No one has a jacket. It is freezing.

The shuttle pulls up. There is a line of people. He comes out and says he can take eleven. We have nine. We may or may not have bumped people out of our way in order to get on that bus. I'm just sayin...Ready for another prime Nan moment??

As we sat on the shuttle and he drove away from that dreadful airport, we started talking to the only other person from the line who managed a seat on the bus. Nan asked him if he was stuck in Denver too. He said, "Yep. I'm from Chicago." She then says, "So, where are you from?" The whole shuttle responds. "HE'S FROM CHICAGO!" Not five minutes later as we go up the on ramp she asks the driver, "Is this the freeway or is it a special road just for the shuttles?" Cars are whizzing past us. Obviously. haha. It wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining without Nan. We got to the hotel, ran across the street to get some food. This was about the time I posted the post before this one. Then, we went up to our rooms and got ready for bed.

Frontier had given us amenity bags. Ever seen those? Fully equipped with a small stick of deodorant that suds up like soap when you put it on, disgusting toothpaste, and a toothbrush that was like brushing your teeth with your hair. Seriously. Finally, we crashed.

In the morning we woke up, showered, put on all of our disgusting clothes from the day before and went down for breakfast. During breakfast Uncle Kelly called to once again confirm we were all on that flight out of Denver at 8. After eating and gathering our minimal items, we called for a cab to take us into town. The drivers pulled up. 2 black men with accents. Dewy immediately asked where they were from. Somalia, but lived in K E N Y A. Dewy couldn't contain himself {that was where he served his mission} and sat in the front seat gabbing up a storm. Our driver loved it. He was honking the horn and all sorts of excited. They dropped us at a mall in town and we set off exploring.

We went into the Pro Bass Shop and stayed for a while, then we went to see the movie Toy Story 3 which we loved. At some point during all that we called Frontier AGAIN to confirm we were on that flight out at 8pm. All looked good. After the movie we ate some dinner and called our cab guys to come back and get us. The ride back was much the same as the ride there with Dewy in the front talking away and the driving giddy as can be. We were all in good spirits as we boarded the shuttle and made our way to the airport from hell.

When we got to the airport, we jumped in the ticket line. As we got to the counter and the lady started punching in our identification she got a weird look on her face. "You folks are on standby it looks like. Our flight is overbooked by four people, so there is a chance you won't all get on. Your gate is...blah blah blah." You bet your bottom dollar we all blew a gasket. We threw fit after fit at that counter, and with each fit she grew meaner and nastier. Finally we gave up working with her, made it through security and went to our gate. More fits, more mean Frontier employees. FINALLY someone decided to help us out. The man explained to us that even though our tickets said standby we were indeed on the plane, but we weren't guaranteed seats together. Who the crap cares, just get us on that frickin' plane. We call our family who is all already in Texas {either because they live there or chose to drive rather than fly} and told them when we would be there so they could pick us up. We asked them to go a little early and see if they could get our bags, because the car rental place closed at 12am and we didn't land til 11:40. They were all on board. We got on the plane and FINALLY were on our way to Texas.

Upon landing we all but sprinted down to baggage claim, eager to see our family and to get out of airports.

As we descended the stairs to get our bags, we saw some of our family holding up signs. Only our family would hold up signs making fun of an airline in an airport for all to see.

This picture is very important. I stopped on the stairs to take this picture of the signs. I stopped at what I thought was the bottom, but there were really two more stairs. I the proceeded to trip down those two stairs falling on my face and, you guessed it, sprained by foot. A small Arabic man leaned down and asked if I was ok. It bruised, it swelled, it hurt like hell below. What a perfect welcome to Texas to match the rest of our trip thus far. What more could happen? Stay tuned to find out.