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05/17/2007: "A tough weekend"
It was a tough weekend. We are both getting over having colds. I got it first, this is one of the benefits of working in an elementary school, and then gave it to Cori. We were both hacking and stuffed up on Friday when we headed off to the airport. The only healthy one was Ben, our boat bear, who was going to make the trip with us. We had booked a 5:00 PM flight from Raleigh NC to Duluth MN, scheduled to arrive about 10:00 PM central. We made it on time to the airport without any problems, got our boarding passes and made it through security without any problems. We had to book First Class seats in order to get the connection to Duluth so it was a comfortable flight. Ben likes First Class better then Coach, but don’t we all. When we checked for our connecting flight in Minneapolis we found that it had been canceled. There was another flight scheduled to leave around 10:00 so we headed off to that gate to get our new boarding passes. While getting the passes we got to watch a passenger that had been pulled off a flight get into real deep trouble. He had been pulled off his flight to Kansas City for being intoxicated. They were trying to book him to fly on Saturday when he would be in better condition to travel. He got upset about being taken off his flight and not being allowed to continue. He got louder, swore at them more and then peeled off his shirt inviting the agent to come out from behind the counter and get his ass kicked, all the while swearing and calling them every name in book. When the agent called the police he decided to get out of there. Unfortunately there are not many places to disappear at an airport and he was picked up shortly. When I talked to the agent about getting our seating straightened out he said that, yes, he had been arrested and would be spending the weekend in jail before seeing a judge on Monday. He also would also be banned from any Northwest flights from now on. If you are traveling through Minneapolis, Northwest is pretty much your only option. I am sure he had more problems in the morning then just a hangover.
Back to our travels. By being bumped to a different flight we lost our First Class seats, or at least the computer thought that way. It took a little time to convince it otherwise and we were back in First for the second leg of the trip. Ben behaved himself and got a set of wings from the Flight Attendant and when boarding the plane to Duluth he stopped in the cockpit to meet the pilots and got his picture taken wearing the Captains hat. Photos will be posted later. We arrived in Duluth and were met by my mother (Dale’s) who had been expecting us on the earlier flight. No one had told her it had been canceled when she got to the airport. We were late and the only problem was that I had left all my papers on the boat and did not remember where we were staying. I took a guess but was wrong but used their computer to get the information.
Saturday we were up early, had breakfast and started the drive up to Lutzen MN in my mother’s car. Lutzen is a very small town about 90 miles north of Duluth with several very nice resorts, an outstanding golf coarse and skiing in season. We were going there to pick up the car I had bought on eBay. Ever since they came out I had wanted a Mazda MX-5 Miata. After handing over a check and signing the papers I was now the proud owner of a Pearl White 1994 Mazda Miata.
To keep this from getting to long I will stop here and add another entry about the trip back.