Four years ago we also took Northwest to Pittsburgh, and it was a TERRIBLE trip. They couldn't seem to come down in Minneapolis and we kept circling, this in both directions. They had trouble with the planes, and the crews, and finally we sat on the tarmac in Salt Lake City for a couple of hours while I was in soggy pain and we got home at 1 or 2 in the morning. The poor dwarf! He'd taken us out (after the dog escaped and came home saying "I'm HERE!") to the airport and he watched the computer continue to tell him how late we were, so he was there when we got home. (I'd tried calling from Minneapolis.) Anyway, I was NOT impressed, and I was worried about this trip also being via Northwest. Besides that, I have heard so many horror stories about air travel nowadays, I was really concerned.

This is an ideal time to miss my dwarf. As noted above, he was really involved with our whole last trip. I also sent him mail, and emailed him. It just feels WRONG to do this without him. Our neighbors offered to take us out to the airport, but after last time, I didn't want to ask them to come get us at some wee small hour, so we decided to risk long-term parking.

We took the dog to jail. He got this really sad look on his face when we went into the vets. Then out to the airport. It took quite awhile to find a place, then we hefted the bags to a shuttle stop. There was a guy there who was travelling, in a hurry, to Oklahoma. His mother had just died. A shuttle came by, full, and left us standing. Panic. (Well, we had lots of time, but the Oklahoma guy was getting a little disturbed.) We were joined by a couple who were going to Michigan and the next shuttle picked us all up. Rich had forgotten we had to go to the older Terminal B, not the nifty Terminal A. Oh, well.

In line to check in, the girl ahead of us was fretting about her e-ticket. She'd never had one before... she was off to Memphis to interview for a Quality Assurance job at St. Jude's. The hospital had sent her ticket. (And it worked, too.)

There's a sign: "Welcome to California, America's non-smoking section."

It wasn't all that hard to get through the security check. Rich set everything off and had to be wanded and take his shoes off. I had to take my laptop out of the case and run it through plain, then the case, my coat, and the camera. No problem. As we waited (90 minutes), I read the paper I brought along, from yesterday. The Bee, idiots, blame U.S. Supremes for intervening in election and changing the rules, with no mention of the SCOfFLAws at all. At least they don't agree with the New Jersey idiocy either.

We got onto the plane, and sat in row 22... till the real owners of the seats came. Rich had misread the row number. Slightly embarrassing, that!

I so love a window seat! There's lots to see. Our seatmate was reading a magazine with very odd ads. Then I saw the name of the magazine: "Out Front."

In Minneapolis, I spied a rocking moose I really like. They also have a nifty play area with a plane and a tower, but it's closed off for some reason. We picked up bits of a New York Times. I note that funnily enough, the South Dakota Reep Senatorial Candidate ad is by McAuliffe Productions! We talked to a woman coming home from Los Angeles to Butler. I also went to admire a baby who is almost a year old, en route home to Lansing.

This was a smaller plane, to Pittsburgh. There is a scary shriek from the intercom, before the pilot comes on. When we landed, 30 minutes early, they had trouble getting a ramp, and suddenly the trip was something like the awful one 4 years ago. However, this was solved this in 5 minutes or so. Meanwhile, we talked to some nurses from Albuquerque.

As we were going to the train to go to the baggage check, suddenly I said to Rich "STOP!" Ahead of us, down the escalator, there was a T-REX!!! The Carnegie had put a replica of their lobby dinosaur into the airport as an advertisement.

Our rental car is a Toyota Corolla. We wound up going on a million detours, but finally found our hotel. It was the completely opposite to the route we took 4 years ago, and they are fixing all the roads and have closed all the ramps.

After we got to our room, we walked over to Denny's. Yum. I had a grasshopper sundae after breakfast dinner. (Breakfast is my favorite meal, so I often choose it when I can.) The kids were there after their homecoming, too. I liked the little Power Ring toys, so I went to get a dish of them. I was partway through some sort of abstract sculpture when our waiter showed up. "You're never too old to have a happy childhood."

And so to bed.