What. A. Day.

Holy.  Moley.

What an ordeal.  Today made me see why people don't like to fly.  First we were up at 4 AM to catch our 6 AM flight out of CHO (however I had been awake all night).    It went smoothly.  We boarded the plane and I got to watch Lance experience his first flight.

sunrise

landing in Dulles

We landed in Dulles at around 7 AM, just in time for breakfast.  We had planned on having almost a 3hr layover. Not a chance.  Try 7.  About 30 mins before our flight was supposed to take off, the screen suddenly changed to Boston instead of Denver.  Then they announced that they had changed our gate.  So the entire group had to move down the airport. Once we got to our new gate we found out that Boston traded out our good plane for their bad plane and now we were delayed do to mechanical problems with the engine.  They didn't know if or when it would be fixed.  They said they MIGHT have an update by 12:30!  Keep in mind we were supposed to leave around 9:30.  Finally around 10 they announced that the plane seemed fine and they were going to take it out for a 15 min test run.   It took almost an hour.  Finally around 11, we boarded.  We were sitting there for a while when the captain came on the intercom and said that they were trying to burn off fuel from the test run (or whatever) and they were also waiting to be refueled.  Well the refueling truck finally showed up but then IT broke so we had to wait for another one.  Finally we were all fueled up, healthy plane and ready to go.  We moved away from the gate and got in line to head to take off.  But there we sat.....and sat.....and sat.  Finally the captain comes back on and says, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the problem we had with the left engine earlier is happening to the right.  We will have to wait for another gate to open so we can get this fixed.  In the mean time, we'll have you all wait in the terminal.  It doesn't look like this plane is going to be fixed any time soon."  So we all get back off the plan and back into the airport.  By now, so many people had missed their connecting flights in Denver.  There were people that had flown from South Africa, Tel Aviv, etc, that had already been up for over 24 hrs.  Everybody was trying to figure out different routs to get to Denver.  All the flights were booked except for a 10pm flight.  They also were not rerouting anybody who had Denver as their destination.  They also didn't know if or when the plan would be fixed.  Many people were looking at possibly having to spend the night at the airport; including us.  The best remedy the airline could give us was a voucher for a free on board alcoholic beverage, 10% our next flight and tourist info for the DC area to occupy our time.  Pa-leeeaase.  Lance and I were exhausted, tired of waiting and sitting and worried we weren't going to make it to Denver today.  Since there weren't any other flight til 10pm we figured we might as well wait to see what happened with this plane.  Out of nowhere, they announced that the plane had been checked over, fixed and was safe for travel.  What remaining passengers there were, re-boarded the plane.  We got stuck again at the entrance to the runway (for no real reason) but at least we made it further than we did last time.  Finally we were called for take off and the entire group cheered as the tires left the ground.

enjoying or free drinks

Once in the air, it was peaceful and we were finally, FINALLY on our way.  For the first 3rd of the trip we had some turbulence (my first time!) and those were pretty exciting.  That was caused by clouds, so the view was pretty uneventful.  But once we got out of the thick cloud cover it opened up to what looked like an endless see of puffy white clouds.

We found packman

Soaring at a steady 17,000, we crossed the mighty Mississippi!  Everything on the ground turned flat.  It was a patchwork quilt of farms.  A mixture of squares, rectangles and circles.  After almost 4 hours the captain came back on and said that we would be landing in Denver in 40 mins!!!  I had talked Lance into letting me have the window seat so I could capture the first glimpse of the Rockies.  Unfortunately there were lots of clouds and haze hanging on them.  But even still we could tell their immense size.  The Denver airport is beautiful!!!!  It was such a relief to arrive (and to find our baggage all in one piece).  Even the captain was greatful.  I heard him say to a flight attendant as I was getting off the plane, "I really need to get away from this plane."

landing in DIA

art in DIA

We got our rental car and headed off an hour down the road to Limon.  By the time we got there we had just enough time to put on another layer of deodorant and headed off to the hall to check in with the friends.  They were so happy to meet us and the ones that knew we were coming were happy to see that we made it safe and sound.  We told them about our ordeal, how we were exhausted and that we hadn't even had dinner yet (7:00 their time, 9:00 our time).  So we wouldn't be staying for the meeting.

They told us about this really great little Chinese restaurant at the end of "town".  I was a little sceptical at first because I was thinking, "yeah right, a really Chinese restaurant out in the middle of nowhere.....yeah, ok."  But I was so tired and hungry that I was willing to try almost anything.  We found it and it was small but really cute inside.  And the owner, she was VERY nice, just as they said.  The menu was amazing!  Not only did she have Chinese, she had Thai AND......VIETNAMESE EGG ROLLS!!!!!  I was so excited and exhausted, I could have cried.  See, Vietnamese egg rolls are happiness in my mouth and they are definitely on my list of favorite comfort foods.  I had a friend in high school who's parent's owned a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant in Cville.  I would go there often for her mom's Vietnamese egg rolls.  Since I don't live there anymore, whenever I'm in town (and hungry)  I would head over and grab and order of egg rolls.  Recently, to my disappointment, the restaurant no longer exists.  It it now some weird combo of Mexican and Chinese .  No more Vietnamese egg rolls.  So to have had such a tumultuous day and to find this little gem in the middle of an unlikely place.....made my life, basically :)

found this bear at a gas station in Limon

So on that note, I'm going to wrap this up and head off to bed.  We have a fun and long first day ahead of us :)