Our first trip back to California since our youngest son graduated in 2006. Since then he got married to a lovely Jessica in 2007 and returned to California to live. His work here as made it difficult for him to return home and we had not seen him in person for at least three years. Well 2012 is the year we came to visit. It didn't influence us much that a new addition was added the the West Coast Family on March 29, 2012. Well maybe it had a great influence!
Our trip started at 3am on Friday the 6th of April as we got up and proceeded to prepare for our trip to Peoria to catch our airplane to Denver and then on to Burbank. Every started out very good as we made it to the airport way to early, but it was relaxing. The flight to Denver was good, except maybe the flight attendant was not the most friendly and lacked a good work effort. Then landed a little early at Denver and was met with the announcement that our assigned gate was taking by a plane that was being serviced and that we might have a 20-30 minute delay in de-boarding. It was a little concerning as our connecting flight was scheduled at 9:30am and we had only about 40 minutes to find our way to the departing gate. Well the 20-30 minutes turned into 45 minutes and as we sat on the airplane at 9:30am we were thinking, okay when is the next flight and can we get on it?
Well it seems the gate never cleared and we were directed to another gate at the end of the terminal. We had scheduled assistance for my wife and the wheel chair was not waiting for us at so I started out to find the departing gate with two carry-on bags a lap top and my wife's red bag filled with items. Wow did I under estimate the rarefied air in Denver! It was bad enough having carry-on bags with wheels that didn't want to roll straight, but it seems that every 50 feet I was stopping to get my breath. The wheel chair arrived they caught up with me and said that our departure gate had been changed and I was to follow the wheel chair. You see a flight attendant on the departing plane was late and the flight was delayed 21 minutes. Hustle was the word and this old guy's hustle was almost vanished. I pushed on trying to keep up with the wheel chair and finally arrived at our gate. The attendant and my wife were standing there looking at the plane as the gate had been closed a few seconds before their arrival. I saw the plane and saw it back up in preparation for departure. Now it was time to head to customer service to get scheduled on the next flight and we had to head back same way we came and I was in no shape to do that! So my wife and I traded places and we got customer service and were assigned two of three remaining seats for the next flight which would be in two hours.
With duel wheel chairs we were deposited at the new departing gate, hoping that they did not change the gate on us. While waiting at this gate at least one of the flights originally scheduled to depart from this gate was moved to another gate. We lucked out with no change! We had an excellent flight attendant and very nice flight, even got to see the Grand Canyon from the North side as we flew. Landed timely with no wait and not to far from the baggage claim area and front door.
Well, all was good except our bags did not appear on the carousel. The baggage service area for United was locked up tight and the sign told us to go the clerk just around the corner. Not a big deal, except the first attemp was with out our bagage claim tickets. So after searching everywhere for them we approached the clerk one more time. Now we were behind a guy that was trying to change a flight the clerk had no clue on how to make the change. I waited in line 50 minutes while she dealt with him. Finally a guy came up to assist her and he busied himself with clearing a line of baggage to be checked in by those using the machines to check-in. Then a very important young woman, a least she thought she was important, broke into the line and demanded that someone help her as she had left the secure area and had forgotten to pick up her carry-on bag and they wouldn't let her back to get it. As the guy agreed to help her, I chose to demand assistance. If he was going back to the bagage claim section it seemed like my best chance. The important gal's bag appeared on the carousel and we had the full attention of the clerk. Locked in the bagage claim area were our two bags. The bags had made the first flight that we had missed.
Our son had pulled up shortly after we landed and we were able to load the carry-on items, but the Airport police told him move the car or be ticketed. He said "call me when you have the checked bags. Well, that went over well as after the 50 minute struggle to get our bags my cell phone was dead. No problem as my wife had her cell, well it shouldn't have been a problem, but she had never changed the cell number for my son on her phone when he switched carriers. So how do we get ahold of Peter? A call to another son left us still with our a number, we called the other son and he had been called by Peter a few days earlier and we were able to get the phone number.
It has been restful since we arrived here in Santa Clarita, whew am I glad!
Here are a few pictures from Califorina
Annabelle Elizabeth
View of back yard and foothills
Bo the former EDD dog (bomb dog) who was retired because of the right eye being blind
Mandy the cat
A colorful bird from the backyard
Another bird with unusal markings. Have not identified either of these birds
