(ONLY 26 HOURS TO GET TO TUCSON)
Traverse City-Detroit-Atlanta-(Red Triangle Airline)
The first sign that things weren’t good was when they changed the departure list, from on time to delayed. The board said we would be leaving fifty minutes late, which gave us ten minutes to traverse the entire Detroit airport to find our next plane. Yikes! But luckily, we left Traverse City only 20 minutes late and got to Detroit with 45 minutes to spare between flights. When we got to the gate (that said Sao Paulo, for some reason—Bonnie thought we’d been sent to the wrong place).
It was obvious the plane to Atlanta was stuffed full. This was a Boeing 757 with 174 people on it. By the time we got on they told us they would have to check our carry-on because all the overhead bins were full. Our carefully packed bag was confiscated from us and tagged for Tucson. I told Bonnie to kiss that bag goodbye. We pulled important items out of that bag and added them to our other full bags—so much for our careful packing job.
I fortunately sent all our clothes ahead to our daughters in Tucson on UPS. As I write this I am still in Atlanta and I’ll explain why momentarily. We loaded on the sardine can and sat at the gate for perhaps ½ hour. The captain informed us that there was a problem “with some unknown part”, and he would keep us informed. After sitting in the plane for about and hour, getting warmer all the time, we were advised that they were taking the plane we were on out of service and everyone would have to de-plane. The issue is not really getting everyone off the plane, but transferring all their luggage into another plane that arrived from somewhere and unloaded passengers at the adjacent gate. The plane had to be cleaned before we could board, which we eventually did, and again we sat at the gate. This deplaning, re-boarding, re-loading took another hour. Long story short half the people missed connecting flights including us to Tucson. This whole situation is one you might hear about, but never think it will happen to you. I guess falling from the sky in a blazing inferno would not be on my bucket list. So maybe this was all for the best.
Typing my blog at the Atlanta Airport
So we stood in line and got re-ticketed for the next day (Jan 26th) at 11am. The airline gave us each two generous meal vouchers for $6 each, and a voucher for a hotel room.
The dilemma was where do you spend such a generous stipend? The answer later appeared at the hotel. I could get a $4.50 Sam Adams and give the rest to the waitress (problem solved).
I forgot to tell you the airlines gave us each a small ditty bag with various toiletries and a nice, chemically scented, XL T-shirt. We figured we could wear this shirt to sleep in and it would ward off any bedbugs we might encounter. To be honest the Country Inn Suites, although showing some age, seemed clean and we did not observe any bedbugs. I found the toiletries we were given wonderful. The shaving cream was the consistency of milk, and that combined with the keenly-honed razor, made for a wonderful, fairly cut-free shave with only a little shaver burned stubble left. The included deodorant was sort of like a stick of lip balm; again no expense spared. I did not use the elegant folding plastic comb, but I’m sure it would also have been delightful. They had a nice complementary breakfast at the hotel and we did not have to spend any more generous $6 coupons, saving them for carry-on snacks.
As I type this I am again waiting; this time for our final leg to Tucson.
I’ll continue this tome later. Stay tuned. Will the pilfered bag arrive? Will we get off the ground? Will thinks go all right getting a rental car?
Cont;
YES,YES,YES! The answer to all the questions is yes! We had a great four-hour flight and caught up on some reading. We were assigned a really nice jeep that for a midsized vehicle has loads of room for rocks.
My first shopping was at my buddies from Minnesota’s winter home for premo Lake Superior Agates. This was also successful and relieved my wallet of excess cash. I can’t wait to get home and cut these beauties. Oh, did I make you sick with envy yet? The weather was 68 and sunny. 
In the morning; Quartzite.