Let it Snow!

Well, I am sure most of you have heard about the Holiday Blizzard that hit Denver last week. It all began Wednesday with initial predictions the previous day of 4-8 inches. Then Wednesday morning, they began saying 8-12 inches. By the time afternoon rolled in, it was 1-2 FEET. It was insane. The worst part of it was that Brian, myself and a whole slew of our friends all had travel plans for Thursday and Friday to go to our respective 'homes'. By Wednesday late afternoon, the airport officially shut down. That's right, no flights going in or out of DIA. They initially started to cancel flights through noon on Thursday, which was good news for me, as I was traveling Thursday at 5:30 pm. Then the snow just kept coming down... and down... and down. The news reported that Denver International Airport had hopes of opening Thursday evening. I thought, this might be good... perhaps my flight will just be delayed. We went out mid-afternoon to shovel. Apparently we should have went out mid-MORNING to shovel, because by the time we got out there, there was a foot of snow to shovel, and let me tell you it's no fun shoveling a foot of snow all at once. It was fun though, we got to talking with some of the neighbors and one neighbor even came by handing out beers to everyone! By the time the sun went down on Wednesday, it was STILL snowing. Brian's flight for Thursday afternoon of course had already been canceled. He called American to rebook and the best he could get was an insane 14 hour, 3 flight, coast to coast itinerary that would get him into Fort Lauderdale at 10am Christmas morning. He would leave Denver Christmas Eve night at 7pm, fly to Los Angeles, take an overnight flight from LA to Dallas, then fly from Dallas to Fort Lauderdale Christmas morning. Needless to say, he was none to happy about this. Brian and I went outside to shovel for the second time in the evening and had to shovel another 6 to 8 inches. While we were out shoveling we were discussing how I would even get to the airport the next evening if my flight was still on. The streets in the neighborhood were impassable and it didn't look like any cars were driving on the main road we could see. We finished round two of shoveling and headed in, after deciding that I should try to call and rebook my flight. I went over to my computer to refresh my flight status and it was indeed cancelled. I called to rebook it and the best flight I could get out was Christmas Eve night, flying through St. Louis on a tiny commuter plane. Yay. ;)

So with knowing we weren't leaving until Sunday, we tried to make the best of it and spent the next couple days, while we were snowed in, watching Christmas movies, playing cards, completing puzzles. On Friday afternoon, cabin fever severely hit me and I HAD to get out of the house. We drove the 6 or 7 miles down to my apartment to pick up Lola (oh I forgot to mention she had been at my apartment alone this whole time) and went out to dinner in Olde Town Arvada.

Throughout the weekend we continued to watch the news and heard reports from friends that got flights out on Saturday and we were frightened of the lines and delays at the airport. The airport itself was suggesting travelers to arrive 4 hours prior to their flight's departure. In addition to this, we were hearing it was taking people an hour to travel the short 10 mile road that leads into the airport. My flight on Sunday was taking off at 3pm and Brian's was at 7pm. But with all these horror stories, Brian decided to just come to the airport with me, rather than dropping me off, going home, only to return a couple hours later. And again, with all of these reports, we decided to leave at 930am for my flight, allowing us plenty of time to find parking, check in, and get through security.

I think it took about 35 minutes to get to the airport. Pretty much the same amount of time it takes to get there on a clear, sunny day. There was little traffic and the majority of the roads were clear. Brian dropped me off at curbside check-in and went to park at long-term parking. I walked up to curbside and found absolutely no line. I had my bags checked and was in the airport in less than 5 minutes. Then, I headed to the security lines, anticipating an insane line meandering throughout the terminal. The lines were bad, but not THAT bad. I was fortunately flying first class, so I got to go to the nice short line, that only had a family of 5 in front of me! By the time I got on the train to the concourse, Brian was still in the parking waiting for the shuttle. He had similar experiences checking in, though it took him a bit longer because of his 3-leg flight plan, he couldn't check in at curbside so he had to wait in line at the counters. We met up again in the concourse, had lunch, watched the plows clearing off the tarmac, and waited for my flight to depart.

Just before boarding, I heard my name being called over the intercom asking me to come up to the desk. My heart immediately started beating fast and I had visions of them telling me I had been bumped from my flight. I walked up nervously to the counter and the agent asked me if I would mind being bumped to a later flight. One leaving just 10 minutes later AND was direct to Chicago! I couldn't believe it. I said absolutely. Especially after seeing the little commuter plane I was supposed to be boarding to St. Louis- scary! The direct flight I was bumped to was a little delayed, but it was great because I wasn't going to have to connect, and I ended up getting into Chicago about an hour early.

Brian had put his name on a standby list for a flight to Dallas that evening with hopes of getting to Ft. Lauderdale Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. He lucked out as well and got on that Dallas flight and made it to Dallas only to find out there were no more flights to Ft. Lauderdale that late. He still had his 630am flight in the morning, and had avoided traveling to LA for no reason, so he staked claim on a cot and a blanket and stayed the night at the airport.

Despite the craziness of all of this, I had made it into Chicago for Christmas Eve and Brian got to Florida for Christmas morning.