No 1 daughter Shelly Johnston and her three children, Dusty 12, Megan 9 and Logan 8, were scheduled to leave Minneapolis for Salt Lake City at 1:00 PM yesterday. Due to the generosity of brother Andy, who is a Sky West pilot, they were flying stand-by using his buddy-passes. So 1:00 PM came and Shelly called to say that Dusty and Megan made the flight, but Shelly and Logan did not. They were then on stand-by for the 4:00 PM flight. They could not get on that flight either and went home to Lino Lakes. Logan was understandably..."not happy".
Kathie and I arrived at the Salt Lake City Airport in good time to meet Dusty and Meggie. Kathie was the designated person to meet the kids at the gate, so she was given a pass to get through security. When she got to the designated gate on the B concourse she was informed that she was at the wrong gate. She was directed to the E concourse at the opposite end of the airport. Airport workers were either completely unhelpful or falling over themselves to help her. Finally she was told that she had been at the correct gate to start with and that the plane had been redirected to the B concourse. She was exhausted when she made it back...and there were the grandkids. They had travelled in first class and were held back while the plane was emptied and only then allowed to deplane. They did not wait more than five minutes before Grandma Kathie found them. By then Kathie was totally pooped and panicked.
We drove into Salt Lake City, had dinner at Macaroni Grill...and got a parking ticket...it was 102 F. Do you see where this report is headed? On the drive down to the airport we passed a turned over semi which was blocking the freeway coming out of North Salt Lake City. The semi had been carrying a 110 ft long, 200,000 lb tank. The back half of the tank had been anchored to a set of wheels which apparently jack-knifed and tuned the truck over. Traffic was backed up for miles along all routes going north out of Salt Lake City.
On our way to dinner the radio reports were that two of the six lanes were then open, but traffic was still not moving. After dinner the radio reports were that another lane would soon be open, so we gave it a try, thinking that the back road (300 West) would be our best bet since some of the on-ramps were still closed. In ten minutes we had moved one car length...it was still 102 F. We debated our options. The one that sounded the best was the Park City route to the east and back to Ogden through Echo Junction. We figured that would only add forty minutes to the trip. So we backed into the parking lot of a fast food place and found a way out...drove south, then west...completely opposite to our destination...found the freeway and headed to Ogden via Park City. It was much more pleasant being on the move, than sitting wondering when and if we would ever get past North Salt Lake City. Fortunately we missed the semi which burned in Sardine Canyon and closed that road for an hour.
Apart from that...it was a great day...did I mention that it was 102 F in the shade?...that's hot for us...but who's complaining.
Shelly and Logan made the early flight from Minneapolis this morning and Kathie drove down to Salt Lake City again to retrieve them. We are now gearing up for lotsa fun and family frolick in August. Friday we will have a baptism for Tara Rose from Texas, Logan from Minnesota and Grayson from Idaho. We will also bless baby Skye from Logan. Then we will have dinner at the Logan Utah East Stake Bowery. The next day will be the big family photo shoot. Next week will be the reunion at Bear Lake. Immediately following the family reunion we will join Jeff and Kimi for their move to Pittsburgh and dental school.
No comments:
Post a Comment