Robert drove me down to the Baltimore airport where I’d catch a plane to Denver that connected in Charlotte.   It turned out that the flight was delayed but the check-in desk informed me that I had plenty of time to catch the connecting flight.   Famous last words.   So I called up Robert, who was waiting outside, to let him know that he could go on.   Of course, as we were being pushed out from the jet-way, the little rod that connects to the vehicle that pushes the planes out snapped!   So, there we are sitting about 20 feet away from the jet-way.   I was certain I’d miss my flight now, but amazingly they found a new rod and replaced it within 15 minutes.   I still had 30 minutes to catch my flight.   I ignored the conversation in front of me – something about storms in the area.   We were in line to take off when the captain came on and said that the plane had been grounded due to the weather.   Baaah!   Had that little rod not broken, I would have been on my way.   Instead, we sat on the runway for an hour and a half or so.   When I finally arrived in Charlotte there was a colossal line moving at a glacier’s pace to catch a make-up flight.   I was in the back of the line with a nice woman from Chile and her son who was going to the University of Colorado.   We sort of banded together and were delighted when a US Airways worker picked us off the back of the line and got us tickets for the 6PM flight the next day.   Well, that was great except for the “PM” part.   That would mess up my schedule in Colorado.   What to do?   We were told that we could try to get on the other standby flights at 9:30 and 1:30.   We caught a cab to a hotel, the Red Roof Inn or something, that we had to pay for (to be reimbursed by the airline…we’ll see).   I got a smoking room.   How nice, but still less smelly than the room that Robert and I had in Washington, PA.

When I arrived, around midnight, I decided to walk down to the closest convenient store and get some juice to drink.   I walked in and saw that they had corn dogs as well (thanks to Robert Meshew for the continued inspiration to eat corn dogs).   I picked up some juice and then asked the attendant for two corn dogs.   She responded with an apethetic, “Huh?   OK.” and then sauntered off to get them.   In the mean time, a black fellow came in and said “hi”.   He had picked up a bottle of water and was waiting in line behind me.   The cashier, taking her time, prompted him to ask, “Hey, is there only one person working here?”   I said, “Yes”, and he yelled out, “Hey, I’m buyin’ some water.   Here’s a 10!” and he promptly slapped down a ten dollar bill and left.   Other folks in line were laughing <edited for the kids>:   “Man, he’s crazy.   Ten dollars for a bottle of water!”   The cashier came and grabbed the ten.   With some added levity, I asked if I could use that ten to pay for my corn dogs.   Didn’t work.   No matter, it was a good story to end the day.