Thursday, February 23, 2006

 

Heavenly Day

Today was another fantastic day at Snowmass. The powder was packed by the machines overnight and a bit loud (loud powder), but it made for some great downhill skiing. The moisture content was fairly low and there were almost no icy spots anywhere on the mountain all day.

After Robby and Meghan got to their lessons this morning, the adults headed out to tackle some of the more challenging terrain at Snowmass. Here we are at the top of the Big Burn lift. Later, Michael and I bumped edges half way down the Sheer Bliss lift doing about 60mph. Luckily, our speeds were closely matched and we both kept skiing. Good thing we had our helmets on nevertheless.The weather and visibility were superlative once again. The photo above was taken after landing at the top of mountain off of the new Cirque lift. The Cirque lift is powered by wind energy, and built on top of National Forest tundra.
12,510 feet above sea level. After the photo op, we tackled the double black diamond head wall runs. The gully skiing to get out of the bowl was a lot of fun, too. Tomorrow is our last day and high pressures is promising to provide similar conditions again.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

 

Family Carnival


This afternoon there was a special event on the mountain with free food and games. Here is a shot of the kids at the event playing hockey to win prizes. We also took the opportunity to get a family photo on the mountain.


 

A Mid-Winter's Daydream

A fabulous day! Robby said it best - "That was awesome!!!" Of course, he was referring to his first ski down the half-pipe, but all the same it was true of the entire day.

Michael and Dad had the day off today, so here is the clan getting started at the top of the Burlingame Lift.
Here is Meghan and Robby getting a quick groomer in before heading up to the top of the mountain to carve some blue slopes.

Now at the top, a quick energy and re-heat break is in order. Here is the crew just after lunch. This lodge i at the top of the Big Burn lift, and is renowned for some of the best pizza above 11000 feet. We agreed that it was quite good!



Robby is carving away. Meghan takes a quick respite from all of the turning.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

 

Shooting blanks

No pictures today. The camera refused to believe that either pair of rechargeable batteries could produce power at temps below 28. Arg.

After lunch yesterday, I headed back up the hill with Michael and Dad for some afternoon top of the mountain skiing. As I mounted the skis, I noticed something was askew with the binding....the rear clasp was bent, or more accurately, broken.

Well, I knew on the way out here that these skiis were 8 years old. So, I went back to Christy's to see what they could do. The idea of investing any money in these skiis was not on the agenda. As it turned out they had a newer pair of Volants in the rental inventory that I could use for the afternoon for a modest fee.

I ended up skiing mostly by myself for an hour until the kids made their way up the mountain with Mom at 2. I liked the skiis. I had inquired about options to buy, and I ended up doing exactly that.

The kids had fun, but clearly were still fatigued from all of the travel and adjustment to high altitude. The weather improved to mostly sunny.

Monday, February 20, 2006

 

Catching up with vacation

Snowmass. There are six inches of new snow everywhere and it is cold. The view from our accommodations is off to the right. This is the best news on the trip so far.








Having gotten some sleep, it is time to track down skis for the kids and get out on the mountain.



The weather was workable as can be seen from this view from the lift.

 

Chapter 4: Nothing Is Ever Easy

0805. “Well folks, we are on a taxiway and we have gone past the point to where we could turn around. The aircraft in front of us is disabled, so we’ll just have to wait here until they can move it.”

0820. We start moving again, and pass by a United British Aerospace jet being attended to by a fire truck. So, it could be worse.

0822. We are holding short of 35R-17L. I see four aircraft lined up for the approach. “Folks, we are holding short of a runway and the tower isn’t letting us cross yet. We should be moving again soon.”
0836. We are still holding short of 35R-17L. The last airplane is rolling out… to the 8000 foot turnoff.

0838. We are taxiing. The flight comes to rest at the gate finally at about 0845.

0910. I am off to see if Alamo will be renting us a car, or not.

0915. Not.

0920. I am heading back to the terminal. Marybeth has the luggage and is headed for the other car rental agency.

0925. I catch up to them. We get the car – I upgrade to a minivan-like Pacifica and we are on our way to Snowmass at 0945. The car has 383 total miles on it, and the new arrangement costs me $50 more than the arrangements I had made in October. The car is All-Wheel Drive. I feel some sense of consumer retribution.

We reach East Dillon at 1045. Burger King is closed. We press on. The kids are sleeping. A few more exits and we get off at Dillon for a drive thru snack, cocoa and personal needs break. The restaurant is closed, so we go to the gas station. We are back on the road to Snowmass.

It’s snowing in the mountains. I am able to maintain 35-55 mph speeds depending upon the curvature and slope of the highway. There are about 2 inches of snow on the road.

We arrived in Snowmass at 100am on Monday, the 20th of February. We started at 0430 on Saturday the 18th….

I am starting to rethink the practical options of flying from Virginia to Denver. It’s about 12 hours, in a 172, 16-18 with stops. Obviously, something with a little more speed and payload would make this very possible.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

 

Chapter 3: If at First You Do Not Succeed

The airlines will try to screw it up for certain.

Car rental agencies can help.

After trying to rest much of the day, it was on early Saturday evening that the thought of revising our rental car arrangements in Denver occurred. I called Alamo, and the agent politely informed me that for changing our reservation to Sunday, the rate would be recalculated at current market rates, which was now $230 more for the week. Why did I bother making a reservation in October? Silly me. Even though there was no possible way to pick it up because the airline cancelled our flight, which is beyond our control? Yes.

Thank you so much!

Lesson to file: Make nonbinding car reservations for every day of travel in case you need one of them.

Memo to self: Make a call to AOPA. There are 400,000 pilots that need to know if they cancel their trip in the interest of safety, this car rental agency will gouge them silly.

Time to start shopping for cars.

Sunday morning. We have all caught up on our sleep, and it is time to go to Dulles. At 0930 the flight is still scheduled and on time for a 1220 departure, the cab is coming. I have another rental car option if Alamo won’t reconsider honoring its previous rate commitment when I get there in person.

1005. We are at Dulles. The porter takes us and our bags inside. This was a good idea. He knows how to bypass the 50 person line and check us in. Except he can’t – of course!

We try again, and again the computer says no. We look to the ticketing agent. Her first response is that we are in the self-service line… in a tone that definitely implies that she can’t or won’t help us. I explain that we have tried twice and the computer has spit out rejection letters both time – here!

1015. The ticketing process starts again. I’ll cut to the chase.

1100. Marybeth spends several minutes working with TSA to make sure the ski poles are actually hollow and that stainless steel skies won’t spontaneously combust. For a minute, I had no idea what was going on. I thought Marybeth knew the TSA agent and was unaware that I had actually finished.
1105. We head to the gate. All of our boarding cards have SSSS printed on them. We are all on the Watch List.

Sidenote: At Dulles, we have to take off our shoes. I keep wondering why Orlando and some others don’t have the same requirement. Well, I don’t protest.
The security agent manning the magnetometer informs the supervisor that Robby has been selected for additional screening. The supervisor looks up to heaven and sighs – this makes our weekend. Then they learn that all four of us are selectees. We stand in the holding cage as a family unit – violating the max 3 person rule.

1115. We are screened, but the kids luggage is not so easily put back together. The agents make a couple of jokes with the kids to keep it light – we appreciate their efforts and just get on our way

1120. We are at the gate. The temperature in Terminal D21-24 is about 47 degrees. We are amused that American is concerned about are climatic pre-conditioning for skiing considering temperatures in Denver have been below minus 11 for the last two days.

1145. Our flight is now showing a status of delayed until 145pm. The plane was del;ayed leaving St. Louis. Here we go again.
1155. An agent finally shows up to make an announcement in the gate area. The kids start watching Ice Age – a fitting title considering the temperatures. The agent can’t help us. He wants to let us know that the agent that can is on the way. I note that United has a flight leaving at 1235. I call United. There are 20 seats available for a one-way cost of $270 each. American would just cancel our flights if we show up in Chicago without any kind of coordination.

1200. I ask the agent why the gate agent was not at the gate one hour before departure. He admits that he can only say he doesn’t know. I make the observation that they are clearly short-staffed. He concurs. I ask about getting on the flight to O’Hare at 1235. He can’t help us.

1210. The gate agent arrives. I already know that the chances of getting tickets signed over to United and actually getting the family to gate G17 in 15 minutes is unlikely. There is a fellow who claims he is in front of me. I invite him to go ahead. The guy behind me starts whining that this his second schedule change today – his flight out of DCA earlier was cancelled. I offer him some perspective. Realization that it can get worse changes his demeanor to something best described as resigned comradery.

1217. It’s our turn again. Start the 30 minute ticket issuance clock. I don’t even ask about the United flight. The agent asks if we would like to go through Dallas. I promptly decline unless absolutely necessary and the weather is confirmed to have improved. She calls someone and asks that seats on the Chicago Denver flight be released to her for handling rebookings.

1240. She finishes ahead of my estimate, but not by much. We are now on the 235pm to Chicago.

135. “Chattaqua 5299 to Ops.”

136. “Chattaqua 5299 to Ops.”

137. “Chattaqua 5299 to Ops.”

137. “Ops, go head.”

“We’re 15 minutes out and going to need a Ground Power Unit at the gate. Our APU is deferred. We’ll need that to get going again.”

138. “We’re kind of busy down here, make that request once you are blocked and at the gate.”

Another chance to pick up some lost time abandoned.

145. Ice Age finishes. Thank God for portable DVD players.

200. Boarding begins.

240. We’re airborne and climbing. The CRJ climbs like a brick suspended from a birthday balloon. I really don’t care.

330. We have finally made it to the next time zone.
445. We start boarding. A 505 departure is not happening.

500. We are loaded and ready to go, but there is a board meeting of 6 in the cockpit.

509. “Turn off all portable electronic devices, including cell phones.”

510. “This is your captain speaking. I know the flight attendants just told you otherwise, but please go ahead and continue using cell phones if you wish. I can see that they just pulled up another tug to load more cargo. We should be ready to go in 10 minutes.”

525. “This is your captain speaking. I know I told you 10 minutes, and while I really can’t say for certain, I am hoping it will only be another 10 minutes.”

I am so numb to this, but I know my Big ‘N Tasty isn’t getting any warmer. I dig in.

540. “This is your captain speaking, I think we’re almost ready to go.”

550. I see the hint of blinking of anticollision and strobe lights. We start moving. This is O’Hare. We keep taxiing. There have been no new messages from the cockpit.

600. We are airborne. The lastest message from up front is a 135 knot headwind, a 330 knot total groundspeed, and 777 miles to go.

800. We land. We stop. At least we are in Denver.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

 

Chapter 2: Robby is on the TSA Watch List



US Gov't: Have you seen this person of circumspect affiliations?
Age: 6
Gender: Male
Status: Frequents airports for fun

Now at National Airport, we unloaded the bags and met with the curbside porter for check in. Time now 0530. After several attempts, the porter is unable to check our bags. He takes Marybeth and the kids inside. I drive away to drop off the rental car.

0605am. I have found the off airport car rental location, picked up gas, parked the car, paid for the rental, and made it back to the terminal. The family is still in line. The line is not moving.

0612. We have made it to the ticket agent. She can’t find our reservation. Correction, she has not found our reservations. Our one reservation is now 3. Some of us are on the TSA Watch list….

0613. “I need to change all of these tickets. I can’t get this done before the flight leaves. You did not get to the airport in time. “

0613.30 WHAT!?!

0613.45 Wasn’t this all handled by the agent on the phone – it took an hour then!

The agent begins the process of issuing our tickets. (Later we learn that for some reason, the tickets were converted from electronic to paper… why?) On at least two occasions, the agent calls out to the supervisor that the computer won’t allow certain changes.

0645. The computer finally spits out the tickets. The flight is now closed and we cannot possibly get through security before it leaves. There are no other flights we can take, and no airline has 4 available seats to get us out of there. Given that we turned in the rental car, we are now stranded at National.

We are now on the noon flight out of Dulles on Sunday – our seats on the 0740 had been cancelled when we accepted the 0650 flight. There are no seats left on the 0740.

UNBELIEVABLE.

0655 Robby gets sick. Poor kid. The Hi-C he had a few minutes before is now on the floor in the ticket agent queue line. Several nice people help us out. It’s just sleep deprived nausea; he’s otherwise fine.

I start dialing for flights. I call the American 800 number again because the ticketing agent needs to help other customers who are now stranded, but don’t know it yet.

0710. The 800 reservation agent says that she now has us confirmed on the 0754 flight to St. Louis. I start working the system to get an agent to issue the boarding passes.

0715. We are working with a new ticketing agent, who is worried that a break might be missed if she tries to work with us first.

0730. She has finally found all of our records again. She starts the process. This is not happening either.

How many keystrokes does it take to issue a ticket?

0745. The agent starts the process of confirming us to fly on Sunday and issue the tickets. The next concern is getting home.

0800. I wonder if Uncle Silvio is awake yet? He lives in Arlington, about 15 minutes away. Hi Silvio, I am sorry to wake you, but need your help. Any chance you would be willing to come pick us up at the airport? It’s a long story.

Yes.

Thank God for Uncle Silvio.

0815. Our itinerary for tomorrow is finally finished. We can go home and the agent can go on break.

0820. Silvio calls that he is on the premises, where are we?

0822. Silvio pulls up at the terminal, we load the bags and head home to Herndon.

0854. We are home in Herndon. The all night odyssey for nothing comes to an end. Thank you American Airlines. Mom and Dad start napping in the living room; the kids watch the Olympics.

We don’t know it yet, but this story is far from over.

 

Family Vacation to Snowmass, CO

Takeoff Clearance Cancelled: Expect another flight tomorrow

On Friday the 17th, we were preparing for our 10am departure on Saturday to Denver via Dallas, of course on American. I went to check in online, and the only resulting message was “Your request cannot be processed at this time, for further assistance contact a reservation agent.”

Uh oh.  So at 1230 am, I called American.   Our flight from Dulles to Dallas was cancelled.  Lucky I checked I guess.  “You’re confirmed on the 0740 flight on Sunday.”

WHAT!?!

Is there nothing else on Saturday?  An hour later, the reservation agent came back and said that everything was set if we wanted to fly from National to Denver leaving at 0650 on Saturday.  We would connect through O’Hare and St. Louis, but at least we would get there on Saturday.  There was also a good chance that we could find standby seats to Denver in Chicago.  After some discussion, we accepted.  Being now 2am, we continued to make preparations to leave and forgo any kind of sleep.

The next thing to do was request a change in the rental car that we had to get to Dulles. I had obtained the rental car for a number of reasons.  Anyway, I contacted the rental car company and asked to move the dropoff location to DCA.  That went through with no extra fee. We would later find out that this was amazing.  We awoke the kids at 0430 and headed to National Airport instead. We arrived at about -0520.  



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