Typically when we head out to Sturgis we jump on the bikes about four days ahead of time so we have time to cruise around and sight see and enjoy some time on the road. Then we spend a week running the Black Hills and then it’s back on the road to bomb 1600 miles back home in two days. The only problem with this is that we end up being out of the office for nearly two weeks. Two weeks out of the office equates to about four weeks of catch-up work.
Typically when we head out to Sturgis we jump on the bikes about four days ahead of time so we have time to cruise around and sight see and enjoy some time on the road. Then we spend a week running the Black Hills and then it’s back on the road to bomb 1600 miles back home in two days. The only problem with this is that we end up being out of the office for nearly two weeks. Two weeks out of the office equates to about four weeks of catch-up work.
This year to save time and money we decided to fly out. I must be the world’s worst travel agent because I left my house at 4:30am to fly out of Ontario, CA at 6:00 am. The first flight was c fine, I slept the whole way, and it was short only about 1-1/2 hours. I arrived in Salt Lake City, at about 9am (that includes the time change). As soon as I got off the plan I went looking for a kiosk to find when and where my next flight was leaving. For twenty minutes I stared at the screen looking for my damn flight and it never showed up. So I began to panic, and started thinking maybe I only booked myself to SLC. Crap!!!
I walked over to one of boarding gate desks and asked the lady here my next flight was, for five minutes she pecked away at the keyboard hemming and hawing, then she finally said, “oh…, your next flight isn’t until 5pm. And it’s doesn’t show up on the screen because it’s so far late in the day. Oh and by the way, your luggage was only checked through to SLC, so it’s sitting down in unclaimed baggage. You’ll have to go out, pick it up and re check it then o back through security again.” I asked if there was another flight, which there was but that wasn't 'till three and it was already booked. My only option was to hang out at the terminal bar (by the way, if you’re ever in the SLC airport stop in the Squatters Brew Pub and say hi to Adam the bartender, he’s a cool guy.)
After sitting for several hours it was time to go take care of my luggage. I walked out of the secure area down to unclaimed baggage and handed them my luggage receipt. The lady took me back in this room full of black suitcases and says, “What color is your bag.” “Black,” I replied. “Of course it is,” she snapped. Ten minutes into the search a fat man behind a wall of suitcases says, “What’s your last name?” “ E-L-L-I-S” I spelled. “Oh, I saw your were continuing on to Rapid City so I pushed it through,” the fat nab said. “Of course you did,” I replied.
I head back through the wonderful security screening process to see if I could get onto the 3pm flight, no dice. The planes flying to Rapid City are the size of a Campbell’s soup can and it seemed like everyone in the airport was trying to get on that flight. So I headed back to my seat at the bar to continue learning bartender Adam’s life story---ask him about snowboarding.
4:30 rolls around so I head over to the gate where my Rapid flight was departing from. Stepped on the plan, found my seat and was out in five minutes. When I woke up we were in Raid City at 7pm. I turned on my phone, and a had messages from Toph (Baggers Associate editor) and Jordan. There were flying out of Orange County and were supposed to arrive in rapid before me. Their flight was delayed and they would be in at 8pm.
It’s about 25 miles from Rapid to Sturgis where our rental house was so I decided to just wait it out and get some dinner. After dinner I got a call that their connecting flight out of Denver was delayed. So I continued to wait. This went on for about three hours until they finally arrived at 11:30pm. These two guys looked like crap, they were exhausted, had been jumping back and fourth between terminals and had actually had a much longer day than I did.
We finally got to the house at 12:30 and we were all passed out by 12:45. What a way to start a 6-day work marathon. Hopefully to day will be better.