Traveling Adventures

I'm back...Sorry this is so long...but my fingers got the best of me :)

Well we've had some adventures lately... A week ago J & I headed to Washington so J could finally start his next course of employment. We drove to Pulman, WA in hopes of checking out the University there. It happened to be only 20 miles near a town I spent some childhood days in (ie) 4th & 5th grade. Lewiston, ID. We traveled some beautiful country between Missoula, MT and Lewiston. Up over some mountains, two lanes. We had to chuckle about the signs that informed us about the "rumble lines" in the center of the road. Consequently as we 'rumbled' along, we didn't end up getting to Lewiston until dark.

Without GPS help and running on instinct we headed into town to search for one of my childhood homes. I remembered the name of the street I use to live on. Mostly because the address and name of the street rhymed....432 Stewart Ave.... It's probably the only address in the bazillion of all addresses I've lived that I remember. We did find the house in short order and it hasn't changed much, but what seemed to be a mansion as a child is only a normal size two story house. Lots of fond memories there.

We next headed to Pulman to spend the night and explore the university there the next day. Very pretty University. One on a list of possible places for J to go for a PHD. As we pulled into Renton about 5pm on Saturday there was Tony washing his bicycle just like he washes his car, soap bucket and all. Who knew you could wash a bike like that. Soon Debbie and the two most favorite little guys in my world drove up and we played for the next two days. J will be staying with Tony & Debbie as he works this particular job (thanks you guys!!!)...J's doing a 5 month consulting job for a company called Robert Half at Group Health in Seattle.

I unfortunately had to fly off for my work to St George, UT on Monday. J dropped me off at the airport.....ahhh....the traffic....seemed like an extra amount this morning...I was hustled off into the airport with what appeared to be hundreds of people all converged near the Delta area...was there a massive amount of people heading on a cruise or something?....I looked around and didn't see nearly anyone crowded around any other airline check ins. I finally muscled my way in to use the check in machine to get my ticket only to find I had to stand in a mile long line to check my baggage. I hear a lady say that there was a quicker line curb side if we had already paid for the baggage. I squeeze outside only to find another line..this time a bit shorter. I refuse to look at the time just yet. I get my baggage checked and race off to security.

Could there be anymore people...the line snaked around and around and just as it appeared you'd be almost up to the guy with the little flash lite, the line diverted and snaked farther along. Finally getting to the conveyor belt, I threw my stuff into the gray dish pan, walked through the machine when directed to do so, looked at the time, realized I had less than 5 minutes before boarding, grabbed my gear, threw on my shoes and started running the "17" miles I needed to go to get to the gate. Weaving in and out of slower moving bodies and hurtling rolling suit cases I make it to one of the moving walk ways. Wow I can really go fast running on these things. The next moving walkway has people hogging the space so I opt to run beside it. Hey I am pretty fast...Finally the gate is in site and is boarding..zone 3...that's my zone. Pouring sweat, I smile as she scans in my ticket and I walk onto the plane praying I get a window seat so I can hide. Oh joy I do!!

I fly to Salt Lake City to catch a plane to St. George. Surprise.... they have not given me much time between flights. Down the airport I fly to the next gate which is only '12' miles away. I think "oh come on...it's the same airlines...how can they be so far apart from each other". Apparently big planes and little puddle jumpers don't like to be next to each other. I have 2 minutes to board as I get to the gate.

I do finally get to St. George a little frazzled but still in tack. Small airport...walk off the plane walk 10 steps to the car rental place...get my car...turn around behind me to the conveyor belt for suit case...the baggage has already come and the airport employee is taking my suit case off the belt like I had forgotten to pick it up. I walk outside to be blasted with heat. I hop in my rental car..which is all black...turn it on and it tells me the temperature outside is 106 degrees. I blessed the name of the person who invented air conditioning.

I have my handy dandy GPS (megan) to direct me to the town. It doesn't recognize parking lots and the airplane road and just sets there thinking. It's a really small airport and only one direction out of there so I figure I'm pretty safe guessing which way to go...it's not being helpful at all. I head out on the road....nothing in site..and I mean nothing and that's all there is for several miles. No city, no nothing. Megan is still not being helpful so I drive on and finally find a sign that says Salt Lake City one way Las Vegas the other...where the heck did St. George go? After a couple wrong turns I did finally find the interstate....still not sure which way to head. I decided to head for Salt Lake City...I knew some people there that would be friendly enough to direct me. Fortunately as I got on the interstate Megan started working and told me I was heading in the right direction. Soon the town came into site and I could recognize the St. George Temple from pictures I had seen, right in the middle of the town. I was pretty sure I had arrived. I found my hotel..again thank you air conditioning...and crashed.

Had a good week training a new person and meeting good people, explored St George a bit after work each day. Went to the temple visiting center and learned some cool things about the temple. Visited Brigham Young's winter home (I'm guessing he was the first jSnow Bird...perhaps). Neat little town. I finished up with the job I was to do there and headed out of town to the airport for my flight back to Billings. I swear the airport is at least 20 miles out of town in the middle of no where... really! And it's just a one building little thingy.

I am about an hour & a half early before my plane departs. I check my car in, mosey on over to the ticket counter...am the only one in the area..there's only Delta airlines there. I have to check my bag again & get my ticket so I use the machine. The guy hauls my suit case away and five minutes later my ticket finally prints off the machine...thank goodness because the one and only guy never comes back. I walk about 20 steps to where the security is. The 'gatekeeper' looks at me and says (paraphrased) "oh...you are too early...we're all going grab us a bite to eat before the 'crowd' shows up. Besides the chairs out here are much more comfortable." I look around..think to myself...welcome to the world of teeny tiny airports. And go grab a chair next to the 4 vending machines. There are about 6 of us here. Pretty soon the 'crowd' shows up and a flight came in with 20 or so passengers and the 'gate keeper' is back on duty.

I did make it back to Billings. J will be working in Seattle for 5 months. I will be in Billings to keep Doug company while he finishes his last semester of school. My job has asked me to do more traveling and it won't matter where we live they will use me to travel around periodically. So that works out well for now. Not real sure what will happen after J finishes this job...hopefully they will give him more work. He also is applying for different schools to get his PHD so he can become a better paid professor (he has been teaching college, but without a PHD there is not enough money to make a decent living.) If he does go that route schools will start in Sep 2012. We'll keep you posted....

So there you have it.

PS. In my haste I ended up not grabbing my ziplock bag of liquids at the SeaTac airport. So before I crashed in St George...a trip to Target was necessary.