Al wishing mom a safe trip home from RHI to PDX on Tuesday afternoon.....
But first....the Rest of the Story......
Sunday morning...fighting the traffic on the way to church....
wonderful service and happy visit with friends
And late afternoon visit at Park Manor with Betty...
Then "home" to view
Passengers and devour a McD's Southwest salad.
(I've enjoyed several movies on the computer while roughing it without TV and WIFI.)
My home away from home compliments of Betty and family
Inside glance of Gram G's wheels to drive around Park Falls.
Monday it was time to clean up my guest house, do laundry and spend the afternoon with several health conferences concerning Lou.
St. Anthony's school where I attended for 5 years. Lou attended here as did our 7 children. Saying goodbye to the Flambeau River Bridge.....It is being torn down and replaced starting early May.
"My bridge" and I go back 61 years. The connection between where I lived as a child and again through 45 years of adulthood and "downtown"; walked and drove over it hundreds of times. Even have had dreams about it in recent years; often it was gone except for the left sidewalk. People would be swimming in the river below. I would be carefully walking so not to fall in. Glad I won't be around now through late fall. Drivers will have to detour 5 miles from east side to west side of town.
Subway lunch with Al and caregiver Lisa before heading to airport on Tuesday.
I've passed this eagle's nest on a rural road many times over the years. This time it is housing a mother eagle (I presume).
On the 75 mile drive to Rhinelander airport.
And NOW an Airplane Tale....departing from Rhinelander,WI airport at 3:40 for Minneapolis and on to PDX, Portland, Oregon. Well, we taxied out to the tarmac. The pilot announced we needed to sit there for 30 minutes due to heavy traffic in MSP. There goes my one hour layover time.
busy airstrip
leaving the land of lakes, trees and farms...
So as we are approaching MSP I check my boarding pass to PDX to see what gate it leaves from....
my pass says PHOENIX! We arrive at 5 PM and the PORTLAND flight leaves at 6.
I don't have a boarding pass.....
It takes me about 15 minutes to walk the moving walkways from the incoming flight to the shuttle to take me across the airport. Once there, fortunately, a motor cart is parked nearby. I tell him my predicament and what gate I need. He tells me to jump on and hold tight. The service desk is on our 1 mile plus ride. He'll stop and I can explain my problem. Off we go, the kind driver all the while emphatically exclaiming we just can't trust anyone these days, on and on. As we arrive at the service desk Burt calls and is telling me to proceed to the gate, that he got the ticket exchanged. While I am listening to him with my right ear, the ladies at the desk are declaring I will NOT get on this flight, etc; that I have to do this and this and this. I quickly wave goodbye to them and jump back on the cart. As we hurry on my trusty driver tells me to go right away to the person in the red jacket, that he will be able to help me the quickest. He gets me near the gate before he needs to turn around and go back. At the gate, the attendants were already boarding passengers. I showed one my PHX pass and explained I was just re-issued a pass to PDX via computer. They were able to see the new one and printed it out. They said my luggage had made this plane. In a few minutes I also was boarding my homeward flight. All this actually passed quite orderly and quickly, considering the huge dilemma it was.
Here is the family text story when I contacted Burt for help as the RHI plane was taxing to the gate in MSP.....
(We already had a group message going for Lou updates.)
We had played Balderdash over Easter weekend and Burt kept voting for my made up answers...
It was a beautiful plane, roomy. At least for me and the lady in the window seat. We had an empty seat between us. Free movies. I watched
Hacksaw Ridge.It is a violent movie, but a wonderful true story of Desmond Doss, a medic conscientious objector during WWII, who saved 75 wounded soldiers.
Once arriving in Portland, I made my way to baggage claim and watched as all the other passengers retrieved their luggage. No suitcase for me. At their service desk they were able to confirm it had gone to Phoenix, but assured me it would be delivered to my home by later in the next day. Sure enough about 6:45 PM the next day I received it. And now time to reconnect with my PNW life!
This has been a good 4 "airplane tale" days in the life of Grandma G.
"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals." (Psalm 36: 5 & 6)
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