Day 1a: Rocky Mountain High
O'HARE, GATE D14 -- The day so long, so action-packed, it started yesterday and requires two posts.
My plan was to drive up to Columbus to make my 6am flight, and that required going to bed at an earlier-than-usual hour. Except I wanted to make sure Dad would get my papers -- which he said he'd get to. So I called about 6:30 wondering where he was.
"I'll be there in about half an hour." He rolls in at 8:10. *frown*
I still had to finish packing and load up the car. That took an hour, and I jumped into bed at about 9:15.
I was able to start the drive to Columbus at about 1:10 this morning.
An hour into the trip, I'm came into Point Pleasant -- home of the Mothman -- on US 35. About a quarter mile after starting on the four-lane portion of the highway, I saw a dog crossing the road ahead of me. I slowed down and let him pass.
Well, as I reset the cruise, another dog crossed the road. Sad to say, neither it nor I had a chance. (I described it to Dad later as a "Ka-thunk, ka-thunk.") You can save the jokes; Chad and my aunt have already chimed in.
And the ironic part about it was, about five minutes later, in the audiobook I'm listening to (Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult) one of the teenage characters was whining about having to attend Mommy-mandated grief counseling over the death of the family dog. It may have been the slight amount of sleep, but I burst out in laughter.
About an hour later, Continental's trip-alert text message informed me that my Columbus-Houston flight was now delayed until 8:45am, from 6:05. So once I got to the Continental ticket counter at CMH, they shuffled me over to United for my route, which leads me here to Chicago. (And I do believe United waived the carry-on fee for me.)
With the adjusted airline/schedule, I'll now be getting into Colorado Springs about three hours later than expected. As a result, I will no longer be "climbing" the highest point in Kansas, Mount Sunflower.
At 4,039 feet and located in the far western part of Kansas, Mount Sunflower is really part of the slow rise from the Kansas prairies to the Rocky Mountains. As a result, it's indistingushable from the surrounding terrain.
My plan was to drive up to Columbus to make my 6am flight, and that required going to bed at an earlier-than-usual hour. Except I wanted to make sure Dad would get my papers -- which he said he'd get to. So I called about 6:30 wondering where he was.
"I'll be there in about half an hour." He rolls in at 8:10. *frown*
I still had to finish packing and load up the car. That took an hour, and I jumped into bed at about 9:15.
I was able to start the drive to Columbus at about 1:10 this morning.
An hour into the trip, I'm came into Point Pleasant -- home of the Mothman -- on US 35. About a quarter mile after starting on the four-lane portion of the highway, I saw a dog crossing the road ahead of me. I slowed down and let him pass.
Well, as I reset the cruise, another dog crossed the road. Sad to say, neither it nor I had a chance. (I described it to Dad later as a "Ka-thunk, ka-thunk.") You can save the jokes; Chad and my aunt have already chimed in.
And the ironic part about it was, about five minutes later, in the audiobook I'm listening to (Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult) one of the teenage characters was whining about having to attend Mommy-mandated grief counseling over the death of the family dog. It may have been the slight amount of sleep, but I burst out in laughter.
About an hour later, Continental's trip-alert text message informed me that my Columbus-Houston flight was now delayed until 8:45am, from 6:05. So once I got to the Continental ticket counter at CMH, they shuffled me over to United for my route, which leads me here to Chicago. (And I do believe United waived the carry-on fee for me.)
With the adjusted airline/schedule, I'll now be getting into Colorado Springs about three hours later than expected. As a result, I will no longer be "climbing" the highest point in Kansas, Mount Sunflower.
At 4,039 feet and located in the far western part of Kansas, Mount Sunflower is really part of the slow rise from the Kansas prairies to the Rocky Mountains. As a result, it's indistingushable from the surrounding terrain.