I am buying a camper van from a family in Oregon today. I have been looking for this specific type for some time. I finally found "the one" and flew out to Portland yesterday in order to pick it up today. I do mean yesterday; all day long... From what I remember, I woke up at 5am, hauled butt to the airport, and I finally got to my destination and in bed at around 3:30 am.

My brother is a pilot and he gave me a guest pass on his airline to make this one-way journey. I still had to pay $50 for this non-rev ticket but that surely beats the $300+ for a normal ticket, especially a last minute one. Problem is that I had to fly standby with little to no priority.

To assist in driving back from Oregon to Texas, I enlisted my nephew who is able to fly completely free to him since he is the son of a tenured pilot. Also, he gets priority and ends up at the top of most any standby list.

So here we are rushing to catch the 7am flight out and we are running late, so I split with my nephew at the ticket counter and I run to the gate since I already printed my pass. I make it, but I do not make the cut. Turns out that 20 people were waiting for 4 seats. And to boot, after ten years with this company, my brother had never set up anyone in their online system for flying, so he messed it up somehow, my nephew's ticket was canceled, and he couldnt even get past the ticket counter.

So we went home.

Tried again for the last flight of the day out. My nephew was first on the list and I was 11th. He was called first and he told the people that he couldnt fly without me so they didnt just stand him aside to wait and see if I got on or not, they just tore up his ticket and said thanks but no thanks.

Well, giving up his spot must have been the magic I needed because I was the last name called due to a no-show and I got on the plane at the very last second on the very last seat.

Four and a half hours later I am deplaning alone in Seattle and the plane is a bit late and I have only two remaining flights to get me to Portland for the evening. I haul my butt across the airport train and to the correct counter to get myself listed and I do not make the 10pm flight. Crossing my fingers for another hour, I wander around the desolate airport searching for some coffee and everything is closed. I eventually get lucky and find a vending machine with a single line of Starbucks Frappuccino at the very top and I rejoice in my luck. Sliding my credit card for this worth-every-penny-at-the-time $4 beverage, I make my selection and then WHAM BAM BAM WHAM, the machine pushes the helpless little bottle over the edge from over 6 feet high. I watch in awe as the bottle impacts the bottom at great velocity and wonder why the bottle didnt expolode on contact. I try to figure out why the glass bottle had to be put on the top shelf of the machine but find no answers there.

The 11:00pm flight begins to load and I nervously await my judgement. The gate person finally calls over the PA, "all full" and turns everyone away for the night. I was first in line to get my "tomorrow" ticket and he told me to stand aside for a second as he is waiting for one more person to show. I happily did so and prepared myself for travel. Person never showed and I got the "go" and skipped happily down the stairs to the tarmac gate, tossed my luggage at someone who wanted it and I climbed the steep stairs to my temporary twin turbo prop tuna can haven which did in fact deliver me safely to Portland where I was able to soon find myself at a friends home sleeping on the beloved floor.

For those of you in the Texas 103F oven, I slept with the windows open last night and I got very very chilly. Brrrrrrr!

I think my nephew is going to try to get up here today or tomorrow on his own and then we will begin our lengthy fun-filled roadtrip back home to the oven.

In our future I see some cascade mountain trails, sand dunes and atvs, caving, possums, and other various adventures along the way...

See ya soon Billy Bob!

 

kazko
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NUTHOUSE (3) Pican 4/30/2002, died 6/02/2010 Buddy 5/01/2006 Hazel 2/01/2007, rehomed 11/28/2011 Maya 4/25/2007 Pili 4/25/2007 MISFITS (3) Big Guy 9/23/2003, died 1/29/2014 Lil Guy 9/23/2003, died 5/13/2015 Hunter 4/19/2006, died 3/23/2014 JP 8/12/2006 Shikoni 2004 Kioko 2003 Washi 2003, died 5/27/2014 SUGARSHACK (3) Chico 1/15/2006, died 9/14/2011 Cookie 10/15/2005 Kimmie 10/15/2005 Lucky 5/25/2007 Spritz 8/24/2007, died 7/06/2011 Ginger 8/24/2007, died 12/16/2012 Rock 9/09/2007, died 3/23/2013 Crystal 9/09/2007, died 11/01/2012

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