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These posts are the creation of Doran L. Barton (AKA Fozziliny Moo). To learn more about Doran, check out his website at fozzilinymoo.org.

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Unexpected Diversion

Posted: 11 June 2002 at 09:10:00

Yesterday really turned out a little different than we expected.

We went to Wes's house for breakfast in the morning and then headed out of town around 10 a.m.

Not too far south of Mount Pleasant, Iowa - near Fort Madison, we were pulled over by a patrol car. Dad was ticketed for going 65 in a 55. The officer said he got my dad on radar going 69. We were cool about it and took a picture of the officer giving Dad a ticket.

On our way to St. Louis, we stopped in Hannibal, Missouri - the boyhood home of Mark Twain. There were lots of stores and museums related to Mark Twain and his stories.

I walked up to a lighthouse on the north end of the historic district. You had to walk up 184 steps to get to it. Once you were there, however, you had a pretty good view of the Mississippi River.

On my way back down from the lighthouse, I stopped in at a gift shop and they gave me a certificate which proclaims that I made the hike to the lighthouse.

As we approached St. Louis, the sky got darker with clouds. After we returned the rental car and took the shuttle bus to the airport, it had started to rain... hard.

We checked in our baggage and got on our plane, but the plane was kept at the gate for about 20 minutes because of the weather. Then, after we pushed back from the gate, we had to wait on the taxiway for about an hour.

As a result, we were more than an hour late getting into Phoenix and missed our connecting flight to Salt Lake City.

We had two choices: Rent a car and drive home or stay the night in Phoenix with a distressed traveler discount at a local hotel and fly home in the morning.

At first, I was pretty sure we were going to rent a minivan and make the drive north, but pretty soon I was the only one of the four of us that wanted to do it.

The America West customer service people we dealt with we only marginally friendly and were very slow in helping anyone. We all felt they had ample opportunity to prepare arrangements for those flying in from St. Louis who would be missing their flight. It took them forever to fill out the small amount of paperwork we needed to get a new flight and discount reservations at a hotel.

Then, we had to find out luggage. After what we went through with the customer service representatives, we were hoping our luggage would be an easier feat.

We talked to the America West luggage personnel near the baggage

We checked into the Holiday Inn Select around 8:30 p.m. and had some dinner at the hotel restaurant. Then, Allison and I went swimming.

Our flight this morning was at 7:22 a.m., so we had to be to the airport at 6. We caught the hotel shuttle at 5:30.

Everything went okay and now we're on the flight home and it feels like we're descending into Salt Lake.