Mountain Clams

Snow + travel = messy

The younger two were flying out today. Since we live in Denver, which has made headlines lately for getting absolutely dumped on snow-wise, that's not as easy as it sounds. We got up before six this morning and left shortly thereafter.

Road-wise, the streets around the house are horrible. The somewhat larger roads like Monaco and Evans were pretty good. I-225 was dry, and completely cleared off including the shoulder. That was nice. We made pretty good time getting to the airport itself. I was quite surprised at the number of cars driving down Pena Boulevard, but I guess it makes sense.

We arrived at the airport at 6:42 according to my parking stub. Seven hours later, I left again. Well, technically six, but they charged me for parking for 7 hours since it was 6 hours and some change, even if some of that change was because I picked the absolute slowest parking lot attendant. I have no idea what she was doing with the car in front of me, but it had to have taken 10 minutes. They were finally done, and for only $14.00, I was allowed to leave.

Denver is United’s hub, and the kids were flying on United, so of course the check-in line for them was much longer than any other airline. But it's the security line that was ridiculous. It wrapped around the entire terminal twice! Time passed a little more quickly since I was talking to some of the other people in line. The woman in front of us was alone, but I watched her suitcase while she used the bathroom and such. We were easy to find since Rick had dyed his hair magenta and spiked it up this morning. He was a good "line beacon."

It took about two and a half hours to get through security. By then, the plane was scheduled to have already left. But by the time we got to the gate, it was still there. In fact, it was there for another hour after the kids got on board. It finally left at 12:25 PM (scheduled time was 10 AM). I’m glad they made it aboard, at least.

Got home a bit ago and worked on the "driveway" a bit. In quotes because the driveway itself is fine – I’m just trying to clear some snow/ice off the street right in front of it so the van can get out. I exposed the asphalt so that the sun can work on melting it a bit. It'll be a white Christmas for sure, but by then, the roads should be clear. Yay sun!

Labels: snow, travel, weather

posted by Brett @ 2:25 PM