I'm home from an amazing trip to Colorado! My friends and I had a ton of fun walking in the beautiful weather, sitting by the pool, watching the Olympics, browsing bookstores, and hiking in the mountains. The one less than stellar part? The actual travel.
On the plus side, leaving from Branson airport instead of Springfield airport is a real money-saver. On the down side, I had to go to Branson airport. As one of my fellow travelers observed, "It's in the middle of nowhere!" That about sums it up. The only landmark is the Murder Rock (???) Golf Course and Restaurant. The airport is small, which does make it easy to navigate. The airline lady probably didn't even really need to use the microphone, but it did give things an air of big city-ness. She announced that our flight was full and asked for volunteers to gate-check luggage for free. Since I was taking a direct flight I had no problem giving up my suitcase. I was especially impressed by the young mom traveling alone with her infant who, having already checked her stroller, offered to give up another one of her bags. The airline lady sweetly told her that she needn't worry about it -- proof that there are some nice people out there. Too bad I can't say the same for the family traveling with three boys, the youngest of which was six. Not only did they not give up a single bag, they decided that they had "young children" and deserved to be seated early (for the record, the airline defines "young children" as age three or younger). The flight was indeed packed, and it took a long time for everyone to board and put away their large bags. It was especially hard for the young lady who asked me, "How many bags do I have to have?" Well, ma'am, technically you don't have to have any. I was impressed that she managed to dress herself that day.
I made it without any additional drama to the abyss known as Denver International Airport. Comedian Ralphie May quite accurately describes the place as "needlessly large". How true, how true. Feel free to youtube his act on Denver airport; it's not kid-friendly, but it's worth the watch.
The trip home was just as trying. Once again, I gave up my bag. Once again, most people didn't. However, the reason seemed to be that they had all already checked bags; I discovered this fact when I went to baggage claim and found out the conveyer belt was broken. It seemed like everyone on my flight suddenly had a bag to claim. In a show of typical self-importance that only seems to emerge at airports, people crowded around the door to grab their bags from the overwhelmed workers. I saw one guy who seemed to be helping them out; turns out he was just digging through the stack on their cart for his own bag. I finally spotted my bag -- all the way on the other side of the mob. Following the lead of a few others I hopped on the conveyer belt and walked to my bag, retrieved my loot, and hopped back on the conveyer belt to get around the grabby-hands. One worker had the nerve to motion me off of the belt, a gesture I assume he only uses on ladies since he seemed to have no problem with the men who did the same. I just gave him a sweet smile and hightailed it out the door, although I was tempted to point out that the conveyer belt wasn't going anywhere anyway and I doubt I was the reason for the delay in fixing it.
Anyone who has been to Branson airport also knows that there are only a few gates, which means that the way the flights are staggered everyone exits the airport and about the same time. Ergo, everyone goes to pay for parking at about the same time. There are two lanes, which would have sufficed in getting everyone out pretty quickly, except for the lady in the blue sedan who stalled out right at the end of the second lane. All of us were forced into one lane, which slowed things down considerably. All is well, though, and I made it home in reasonable time. My trip was fabulous and just what I needed before heading back to school. Countdown to the end of summer is on!
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