Ready for Flight

We made one last visit to Kristine's before we started our final prep for our trip to Chicago tomorrow. Kristine was working on a report for school that required her to acquire a book about an individual who has made a difference in this world. We went to Barnes and Noble in Lakewood to check out options. The books were very expensive and there were so many choices that the decision was made that she would try a used book store today to get a book that would satisfy the requirements. She has a 99% grade average for her classes this quarter and we are very proud that she is serious about the program and doing well. It was an enjoyable visit and we were home by 6 PM to begin our final preparations for our trip to Chicago.

The travel requirements, coupled with the Controller Furlough issues, has us wishing that we were already there. We don't anticipate any problems, but it is getting tougher and tougher to travel on planes today. Our boarding passes were printed this morning - you have to wait until 24 hours before scheduled departure before performing online check-in and obtaining the boarding passes. I did that exactly 24 hours prior to the scheduled flight - 6:35 AM - and we are still in boarding positions 59 and 60 for the flight. I don't know how many total passengers are scheduled for the flight, but those positions still have us in Group A (out of 3 groups) for boarding. I purchased an Early Boarding capability for our return flights for $25. If I had known about this early boarding fee on our flights tomorrow, I would have probably purchased the same capability on those tickets. We had to purchase those at least 36 hours before our flight and it was too late when I realized that requirement could not be met. The Early Boarding means we are guaranteed an early position for boarding the flight and don't have to check-in 24 hours prior to scheduled departure. I'm sure there are many other fees that can make our flights more enjoyable, but I don't even want to think about those. The Airlines are already bilking travelers for every cent they can get.

Our plan is to leave our rig at around noon today to travel to Seattle for our hotel stay this evening. We figure that we must get up about 3:30- 4 AM tomorrow morning in order to catch the hotel shuttle and get us to the airport by 5 AM. At this point, I'm not too sure how or when I will do the blog tomorrow AM but I'll try to get it done before we leave for the airport. We are really looking forward to seeing Patty, Mark and the kids, so it will be a fun trip...