World tour Part IV

By now you are probably sick of reading about our trip to NY and really could careless about it. Well the good news for you is the following story does not take place in NY…mostly.

Ah so we arrive at the Rochester airport in time. We go through security and lounge around waiting for 4:50 or so when our flight was supposed to leave. We get near 4:40 and something is suspicious- there is no announcement of boarding and there seems to be something afoot. We get word that there is no crew. Ok fine, so we wait. Well eventually the crew comes strolling in and we’re like ok good- we can still make our layover in Detroit. We only had a half hour gap to make our connecting flight. Well as they’re doing the pre-flight check they find some sort of minor mechanical problem. The flight is delayed- so now we are faced with a conundrum- will they be able to get us to Detroit in time for us to make our connecting flight? They say there’s a 50% chance we make it but cannot guarantee anything.

Well Annie and Diana being the eternal schemers, decide to see if we can stay in NY an extra night rather than risk going to Detroit. William and I just practiced Thriller, which we are very rusty at apparently. Finally the word came down, they booked us a hotel right by the airport in Rochester so we were staying 1 more night. Which means Pageant, Part II.

So we went down to rent a car (everybody claimed they were out of cars) except for National who quoted us 40$ for a car but then ooops it looks like were out of the 40$ cars and all they had was 60$. Fortunately (sic) the guy upgraded us to a SUV (with gas at 4.25$ this was not an upgrade) but we weren’t going that far. So we’re back in the car, back at Palmyra, back at Pageant. I gotta say I was too thrilled with seeing the Pageant again because it was a “good 1 time thing.” Everyone got excited when the rotary club potatoes went BOGO, but it was odd to me because here were these people who’s ancestors threw out the Saints in the first place making a ton of money off of us and yet, as Nephi would say, “we suffereth it.”

I took Joseph during a calm down walk during the Pageant but he never went to sleep. Annie had to miss part of the last Pageant because of Joseph so it was my turn. So the Pageant was good but there was a bunch of Antis yelling at us. Whatever.

So then we went back to our NWA paid for hotel- a Marriott. Far and away the best hotel we stayed in, including Niagara falls. The pillows….yum…the beds soft. The problem- by the time we got back from the Pageant it was 12:30 and our flight left at 5:30. That’s only about 5 hours for you keeping score at home. So we “slept” an dragged our beds out of bed at like 4:30 or something awful like that.

So we get through security (flagged again for additional screening by the airline!) and get to our gate. Seems like this plane works, has a crew and is not over booked. So we fly to MN without further delay.
We had like an hour or so in MN before our connecting flight to Denver. By now everyone is exhausted and we all want to get home. I wanted to go badly. Very badly. William had tickets to see the Rockies in a luxury box so he had to get home. Within 20 minutes of our flight an eerie foreboding swept across the terminal- an all too familiar feeling. “Attention NWA passengers to Denver…we have overbooked this flight. Would anybody be willing to take a later flight for $300 in credits?” Would we? Annie was all over it and so was Diana, but then I got torn, do I want to stay or go home? I raced and checked the paper Minnesota Twins v. Texas Rangers 1:10 Metrodome. Yikes! We gotta stay I’m giving up my seat! Diana was none too pleased as she wanted the credits (which I would gladly give up if I could) but I wanted to see the Twins. I was beating myself up for potentially missing the Tigers I sure wasn’t missing the Twins. So I 180d and decided to give up our seats to the later flight. Originally they had us on a flight at 2:00, and as compensation they had us in First Class. Ah but the game starts at 1:10 theres no point staying if not going to the game. So I convinced annie to take the 4:50 flight so we could watch the twins. She agreed, and gave up her dream of first class.

So Diana, William and Joseph took off for home while we stayed, just the two of us. I had a backpack full of books which everyone asked if I wanted to send home. I declined. Big mistake. So then we decided hey since were in Minneapolis why not go to their famous landmark- the Mall of America!

Quick fact-did you know the Mall of America doesn’t open until 11 am? Yeah me neither. We got to the Mall via train (a thrifty 3.00$ roundtrip for 2!) at 9:30 thinking the mall would open at 10. It didn’t. By the time the mall did open it was almost time to get back on the train and head for the world famous Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

The Mall of America was underwhelming although maybe it was because a) we were so tired b)I had those books and c) it wasn’t open yet (we went inside the mall but all the shops were closed) Frankly the Mall wasn’t that big. I imagined miles and miles of retail but really it wasn’t that much bigger than our Colorado Mills. We ended up buying some clothes for Joseph (whom we truly missed as I do now) and a couple of ties and an ornament.

Then it was onto the main event- Twins- Rangers-Metrodome.

Now I don’t know about you out there but watching baseball inside is just not Christian. We descended the train and got our tickets in the “cheap seats.” One good thing about the Metrodome is the cheap seats are general admission so we could sit pretty much anywhere on the top- I liked this idea. So we bought our tiny tickets with a huge receipt/stub and went into the Metrodome. Now having been spoiled by the best baseball park in the world, we both thought the same thing upon arriving on the concourse- Weird! Weird. It’s almost as if a different game started with baseball and evolved on a different path and arrived at something that closely resembled baseball but not quite. Weird. Astroturf. Designated Hitter. White ceiling (difficult to follow the ball on a pop up) fake dirt. Weird. The game was enjoyable but not the same. The Twins actually ended up losing 1-0 but the twins pitcher pitched a 1 hitter- the 1 hit being a home run, and he got the loss.

It was weird being inside and watching baseball but it really made the trip for me. Now I have seen the Twins- just as I was worried I wasn’t going to make it to a road game this year.

So then it was back to the airport for the last time (?) a bad omen- on the train to the concourse the power shut off and the train stopped moving and the doors sealed. Well we finally got there, had us a California Pizza and got on board the aircraft. Then an announcement… “We have overbooked this plane would anyone be willing to give up their seat for a $300 voucher?” Well my hand shot up right away, but Annie gave me a scathing look. The Flight attendant came by and asked if I wanted to give up my seat, I hesitated then finally relented- “No. I want to go home.” So we did.