Sunday, July 24
Made it to Denver! Yesterday’s travel wasn’t nearly as hectic or headache-inducing as our last two travel experiences (California in April and Lake Tahoe over the 4th of July).
This time around, we were able to make it out of Philadelphia relatively easily. Southwest flights (not American) and direct to and from Philly. The day was not without drama, however. While waiting for our flight in the E terminal in PHL, the flight next to our gate was cancelled (we were in E16 and that flight was departing from E17). An entire plane’s worth of people trying to get to Nashville were sad and angry, disappointed and confused, irate and upset. One particular woman was livid and I understood her perspective. I felt bad for the rest of the people who were left in the lurch because their plane hadn’t been staffed properly. Southwest informed them that there were ZERO available flights today (Sunday) and the best they could offer was the hope of a flight on Monday. The airline industry truly is a mess. If that were me, I would have seriously considers cancelling my flights and just driven to Nashville.
These stories and these experiences have made me reconsider big trips requiring airline travel. They’re expensive and inconsistent at best, and it seems that far too often, these types of nightmares are happening. It’s a shame because I used to really love to fly, especially before the pandemic, and I LOVE to explore and vacation in the American and Canadian west. We’ll see if airline travel improves as we move forward, but maybe next summer’s vacation is a driving adventure.
Regardless, we made it to Denver without too much hassle. Josh was kind enough to help us get our rental (thanks Groove Subaru) and then he came to get us at the airport. And oh yeah, he hiked a 13,000 foot mountain earlier on Saturday. He never stops!
We’ll be meeting Josh for breakfast in Castle Rock, then on to Colorado Springs, south on 25, and eventually west toward Durango, where we’ll be staying tonight and the next 3 days.
Mesa Verde National Park is on the agenda, a new one for both me and Andrea! And photos and videos will start populating these posts. 🙂
Nick McIlwain 