We started our travel to Rapid City, SD for a family reunion of my grandmother's siblings children. All of the grand-siblings are deceased and we wanted the 3rd and 4th generations to make some connections for the future of the family reunion planning; because you know the old folks will want to make this an annual thing now. So 6/28 at 8:00 a.m., my extended family - parents, sister and bro-in-law converged at our home to catch the airport shuttle and have a community breakfast. I had been up at 3 a.m. covering the many myriad of things crossing my brain in fleeting ferocity and was a little drained by 8. We arrived at SeaTac and I began my wheelchair experiences for the trip just after snaking through the security area. That wheelchair was a welcome sight at that point. Flew from Seattle to Salt Lake City (SLC). The SLC airport is adequate except for 1 small thing - there are no chairs without arms enabling someone to say, stretch out and take a nap (which I was really needing by that time). I tried to nap on the floor, I tried to nap close to a door, I tried to nap from 1-4 and there was no nap to be had for sure. So on to Rapid City, SD. Flight was OK, sat next to a private charter pilot from Florida who brings FL bigwigs to SD and other areas in their private planes for fishing, R/R, meetings, whatever. Too interesting of a seatmate to sleep on the flight. So we arrive in Rapid City about 5:30 p.m., tired, hungry, disoriented. Decided to fix the hungry first at a restaurant called Sanford's Grub and Pub - if you leave hungry there is something wrong. I had a deep-fried OREO sundae that was a near-BTS (better than s*x) experience. Then we began the navigation process to get to our lodging. From the instructions we had, it would be 25 miles from the airport - as the crow flies maybe... we rolled into Palmer Gulch Lodge about 2 hours later. THEN, my mom rolls in to claim her reservation and finds out she made our reservation to start SUNDAY night, not Saturday. At that point, I had been near tears since about 3:30 p.m. due to extreme fatigue, and just the strain of travel, after navigating with Dan for hours I dissolved right there in the lobby into convulsive hysterical sobs. We did however manage to get 2 rooms for the night promptly. When we were safely in our room, Dan's comment was "Nice job on the pity cry timing," few words and subtle humor, that's why I keep him around. High points of the day were 1-we all arrived safely (including luggage), 2-saw Mt. Rushmore lit up at night en route to our hotel, 3-had a great meal in RC, 4-my wheelchair service was excellent in airports, and 5-the boys were helpful and cooperative all the way. More anecdotes for your amusement tomorrow.
Peace and Blessings,
Michelle ;-P
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