Hat Tips

Hello,

You know I don’t fly a lot. I used to. Once in awhile to a legislative deal, or on an annual vacation. But I don’t really get excited about amassing airline miles on my credit card. Because when you get a lot of miles, you are tempted to use them on an airline ticket.

But a week ago, I went. I saw. I conquered. Never mind, different story.

A week ago, I had the opportunity to spend five days fishing with three of my grandsons and one of their cousins in Alaska. I couldn’t pass this opportunity up.

To get to Alaska, unless you have an awful lot of time, you need to fly. That entails going through airports. You know, spend $15 on a burger, $8 on a beer, jostle shoulder to shoulder with thousands of people, and try to keep your sanity.

The flight from Bismarck to Minneapolis went fine. Except planes aren’t built for a 260 pound man with a bruised tailbone. But I kept thinking, Lewis and Clark had it worse. Maybe.

In Minneapolis a thunderstorm kept us grounded a couple hours. No big deal, right? We missed our flight from Seattle to Juneau. Overnight in Seattle, which wasn’t real bad. Except we will miss our ride out of Juneau, heading to the fishing lodge. Now it is getting to be a big deal.

In the morning we get to the Alaska Airline counter at 4:30. Flight to leave shortly after six. No problem. Oh, there is a problem. They have tickets for four boys aging from six to thirteen, but no tickets for four adults. You know we can’t send four boys to Alaska fishing without a little assistance.

So we stand there for two hours watching this guy type. That’s what he did. He typed. Fast. For two hours. Occasionally saying there is nothing he could do. “Call Delta.” “I don’t have their number.” “Google it you idiot.”

We would walk down to the Delta desk. They would reassure us, “Everything is fine. You are ticketed on Alaska.”

At Alaska. “Four children. No adults. There is nothing we can do.”

The plane takes off. Without us. Our fishing trip has hit a snag.

After over two hours of watching Idiot type, he agrees that we can buy four more tickets on the next flight. Which I am sure we could have done on the flight we had already missed. We gladly bought tickets. Or my nephew did. He’s such a nice man. And we did make it, only missing a day of fishing.

Next week I will fill you in a bit more about the fishing adventure. Right now, I hear a hay field calling my name.

“Thar she blows!”

Dean