Vacation Is Good for the Mind, Body, and Soul no matter the Hassle

With travel and vacation comes hassle and delays. It seems you can't fly anywhere these days without being delayed, losing your luggage, or something going not as planned. For me, this happened recently on a trip to Colorado.

The day began around 4:30 waking up for a long day ahead, but one that was suppose to end with me miles away from home in snowy Steamboat, Co. So the getting up early to catch an early flight actually didn't bother me because I knew in several hours I would be in Steamboat and as long as there were no delays I would be skiing on the mountain that afternoon. How sadly mistaken I was. The flight from B'ham to Dallas Fort Worth was uneventful, actually we arrived about 10 mins. early. The layover in DFW was about 2 hours, which gave me the first time to do something good for my mind, body, and soul which was to rest in the comfort of the Admiral club. For a certain fee per year you can sit and wait for you flight in the leisure of this huge area all while enjoying complimentary food and drinks for a fee or you can apply for an American express card and get in free (I applied for the card). The admiral club is where the rich and famous sit and wait for their flight, seeing as if the rich and famous don't have their own plane. In all seriousness it is a great place to wait for a flight and not have to fight the hussle and bussle going on out in the terminal. Enough about the admiral club though.

Believe it or not our flight leaving Dallas was on time as well. We pushed back from the gate and we were on our way to the little airport out in Steamboat known as Hayden/Craig field. The flight out to Hayden was a little bumpy do to a storm blowing through. It came to my attention about 10 mins. after we were scheduled to land that WE HADN'T landed. About this time the captain (a woman) came on the speaker and said that we didn't have visibility clearance to land. Our plane had to have a mile and a half visibility land and there was only 3/4 of a mile visibility at the time. No fear the captain said we have fuel to circle for another 60 mins. The captain then said she would give us updates on where we stood. At this time I'm calculating the amount of time I am going to lose skiing that day but I fig. I still will be able to get up on the mountain. 55 mins. go by before the captain comes back on the speaker, after passengers, including myself, ask for an update. Once on, the captain says the visibility hasn't changed and we were low on fuel so we needed to head to Denver. When I heard this, I was thinking this is great not only am I not going to get to ski today I am now going to have to ride on a shuttle from Denver to Steamboat which takes about 4 hours. I was getting a little heated to say the least. When we landed on the ground in Denver everyone was ready to get off the plane and figure out what to do, but to our surprise the captain said the storm had lifted at Steamboat, and we were going to refuel and fly back out. Even though I knew my chance of skiing that day was gone I was totally fine with us flying back to Steamboat which takes 35 mins. as opposed to riding to Steamboat from Denver which takes 4 hours.

Well, yet again things didn't go as planned. We got back over Steamboat and the captain came on the speaker and said "welp folks, bad news the storm is back, good news is we have fuel to fly around for a while so we will try to wait it out." There is not much more you can hate than flying in circles 35,000 ft. in the air, air which was very turbulent due to the storm, waiting to land. We flew around Steamboat for and hour and 15 mins. at this time I heard the engines go way down, which either meant we were about to crash or we were landing. My mind went directly to crashing since the captain had yet to come on and tell us that we were landing. Right as I was grabbing a pen to write my will she came on and said we just got clearance and we are gonna try and throw her in there. This statement came with loud cheers and applause from a tired crowd on a full plane, a plane that include crying babies and kids asking the parents ARE WE THERE YET!!!! half way into the landing i realize we are climbing again, and again I am thinking WTF is going on now. Our captain them comes on and says "the ground crew forgot to tell me the runway changed and I was lining up for the wrong runway" aka I wasn't paying attention and I forgot which runway we were to land on. Well thanks to our captain, she used to much fuel trying to land so we couldn't realign and try the other runway and instead had to go back to Denver. At this time everyone is cranky and just ready to get off the plane after having been on the plane for over 6 hours.

Once we landed in Denver an American Airlines worker got on the plane and said you can either be booked on a flight back to Dallas or you can try to get to Steamboat on your own but there is nothing we can do for you. Basically American dumped us in Denver and said "do what you want, we are done with you." As you can imagine this is not what a group of angry and irritated passengers wanted to hear, and at this point I am thinking not only am I not skiing today I may not be skiing tomorrow or even this year. After 2 hours of arguing with American they finally agreed to get 5 buses in the morning and shuttle us all to steamboat and they would put us up in a hotel (at a discounted price) for the night. Finally, I knew we would be making it to steamboat.

The next morning turned out to be just as eventful as the night before. Upon arriving at the airport we learn that the shuttles were going to drop us off at the Hayden airport which is 40 mins passed Steamboat, you would literally drive by Steamboat as you go to the airport. Already losing an afternoon of skiing now at least a morning of another day of skiing I was getting pretty mad with American. I took my anger out on a worker for American. I was not going to stand for these buses going to the airport all while passing Steamboat on the way. After a few choice words he gave me the bus people's number and I called them. After several mins of discussion they said they had no problem with dropping us off in Steamboat. RELIEF!!!!! I would be skiing in a few hours.

About 6 hours after that conversation we were in Steamboat, and I was skiing. When I got on the mountain I forgot all the happenings of the past day and a half, waking up at 4:30, flying over Steamboat twice, attempting to land once, flying in circles for over 2 hours, and a 4 hour bus ride to Steamboat. It was amazing to see the beauty god has created out there. The snow covered mountains are just indescribable!!!! My mind, body, and soul could ask for no more, this was PERFECT. The entire trip was great. Steamboat is an amazing place and it is a great place just to go relax, ski, have fun, and just enjoy being with your fam (if they take you out there like mine). After leaving Steamboat I flew to New Orleans for my good friends bachelor party which I was throwing. Although New Orleans is a far cry from Steamboat, it is one of my favorite places in the world and we had a blast, even though my team did lose the sugar bowl (no comments Lacey or Blaire). Trips like these make you realize, the hassle involved in traveling is just part of it. I have found out that the best way to deal with it is just to roll with the punches. If you sit around and dread what happened on the trip out there, you are not going to enjoy the time you are out there on vacation. Vacation is suppose to be good for you mind, body, and soul so do all of those things a favor and when things don't go exactly as planned just let them roll off your back because the vacation WILL still happen even if it, is delayed to.

Quote of the blog:
"There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. "
Carl Jung