The last time I put fingers to the keyboard for this blog, I was sitting in the gate area at the Denver airport, yesterday afternoon.  The last time my travel experience was smooth and good was about the same time.   Here's the short version of how it went from there, and it's a perfect example of how tedious it can be to "get to work and back" every week.

A huge storm was rolling in from the west as we waited for our flight to board, but it looked like it was going to stay south of the airport.  The pilot came out and asked the gate agents to hurry us up, however, because he was worried (for good reason) about getting out of there before that big black bank of clouds closed in.  I stood up to head over to the boarding door, where I stumbled upon Nelson Jones and Rahn Tobler, and things were still seeming pretty optimistic as the three of us talked about the wonderful surprise of finding 10,000 elite miles deposited in our NWA frequent flyer accounts in the last couple of days.  That's a really good thing, and apparently all the elite flyers got the bonus as a "thank you" from Northwest and Delta.  I might even come close to making Platinum because of it, so I'm really thrilled.

Anyway, we boarded the flight and they did the best they could to get us on there quickly, despite the fact boarding an airplane seems to be a very difficult thing for some people, who can single-handedly hold up an entire plane-full of people without breaking a sweat.  We pushed back from the gate, and taxied over to a runway, and the woman sitting next to me (she had the window seat) said "Oh my, lots of traffic out here..."  We appeared to be about 10th in line for the runway, and the rain drops were starting to fall...

We pulled onto the taxiway and sat.  And sat.  And sat.  Finally, after about 30 minutes, the pilot came on to say the storm had the airport down to just a couple of runways, and it was taking a long time for the traffic to clear ahead of us, but we should just hold tight.  What else were we going to do, eh?

Well, we'd already had a couple instances of passengers not staying seated when they're supposed to be buckled in, and just about then a guy comes barging up the aisle to say something to the flight attendant, as we were actually rolling forward on the taxiway!   They made him go back to his seat, and the attendant immediately called the cockpit to tell them about it.  Moments later, the pilot came on again and said this, with a VERY stern tone to his voice:

"Okay folks, this is how it's going to work.  When you stand up, I have to stop this airplane. When I stop this airplane, we lose our slot in the sequence.  When we lose our slot, we have to sit here and burn fuel.  If you get up again, I'll have to go back to the gate to get more fuel.  I need everyone in their seats and I need you to stay there!"   He meant business...

After about 45 minutes of sitting there, I saw one of the planes ahead of us pull out onto the runway, but just taxi down it rather than take off.  Turns out, that plane was just the first in our entire procession of jets to do that, because the storm had caused the winds to shift and now we had to change runways.  At about the one-hour mark, we finally took off.  That was just an inconvenience for me, since I was headed directly to my home airport, but Nelly and Rahn were like most of the people on the flight, trying to make a connection at MSP.  I would suspect most of them missed their connections.

Finally, when I got down to the baggage claim level, and our bags eventually emerged, I was ever so pleased to find they'd broken one of the wheels off my suitcase.  A fitting ending to a very long day.   Here's hoping the trip to Seattle will be smoother.  I'll be in the Shakespeare seat on the way out there (that would be 2-B, or not to be) so that's a good start.

Barbara and I also did one of our "ships passing in the night" routines yesterday, since she was boarding a flight for Boston about the same time we were sitting on the ground in Denver.  She'll be back tomorrow night, so at least we'll see each other before I leave.

This morning, I awoke with my PR guy hat on.  Not literally, of course, but as soon as I woke up I found myself thinking about themes and headlines for my pre-Seattle feature story.  I was thinking of using the word "Cascade" if I could, since Mount Rainier is part of the Cascades.  Then I was thinking of a way to use the word "Star" and "bucks" together in a sentence.  Finally, I landed on another Seattle coffee landmark, "Seattle's Best" and used that because that's really what we aim to be, if you boil it down to the essence.  Fun with brand names is a fine pursuit, but it works better if the product name makes sense in the story....  But that's just me.

I just checked a couple of weather forecasts for this weekend, and I'm really hoping they're right because it sounds delicious.  Accuweather.com calls for highs in the mid-70s to low 80s, and their description for each day is "Mostly sunny and nice."   Sounds good to all of us after Denver!

I got an email from Tom S., who was at the Norwalk race when he clicked this pic of me holding the video camera, and I quickly came to one inescapable conclusion.  Man, I gotta go on a diet.  Who's the round guy in my uniform?  Sheesh...  Mix in a salad there, Wilber.  And while you're at it, maybe back away from the double-serving of Ranch dressing. 

Judging by the background in the pic, I'm guessing I was actually viewing the last run through the viewfinder, as opposed to shooting video.  We're obviously well back from the starting line, and by the looks of the concrete I'm probably off to the side somewhere.  I always check to make sure the tape is at the end of the previous run, so that I don't tape over anything...

Here's one sign the economy is at least coming back a bit.  I just got my statement for my IRA and I'm now back "whole" for the first time since the markets went kerplooie in '08, and I got back to even thanks to a sizable amount of "return on investment" in the last quarter.  I'm still missing all that investment growth I had accumulated over the 15 years I've been contributing, but at least now my balance is back to being equal to the amount of money I've put in, and the fund has been buying stocks that are depressed for the last 10 months or so, which means the growth should continue for a while.  At least I feel good about that!  There were some months there when I wondered if it was all just going to go "poof" and disappear.

Finally, here's the real reason I'm blogging today rather than tomorrow.  I met a guy named Don Greenwood in Englishtown, and he told me about his history with the sport and the fact he's even become an associate sponsor on Shawn Gann's Pro Stock Motorcycle.  He mentioned his son, Daniel, and it was instantly obvious that he and his boy have a great father/son relationship, and that Don is very proud of Daniel.  After the race, he sent me a pic of Daniel and his son Brayden, with Shawn, and mentioned that July 14th was Daniel's 26th birthday.

Today is July 14th.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!   If you're reading this, you should know how much your father thinks of you, and to what lengths he went just to have something as simple as a birthday wish posted on some Team Manager's blog.  He told me about your first trip to the drags, when you were 9 years old and he took you to Rockingham.  He told me all about how going to NHRA events became your special thing, and how you'd go to as many as nine races a year together.  And he's extra-proud to see you continuing this tradition with your boy.   Enjoy the day, Daniel!  And appreciate what your dad thinks of you, and how much he cares.

That's about it, gang.  Tonight I'll watch the All-Star Game, being played in my original hometown, and tomorrow I'll start getting ready for Seattle.  Right now, I've got to fold the stuff in the dryer and put the whites in after that.  This is really a glamorous life we lead...

Wilber, out!