Traveling Observations Part Two

So yesterday turned a much longer day then I could ever imagine, and something I will remember until senility sets in. Without further ado here is some more of my travel escapades...

• After arriving in Denver 3 and 1/2 hours late, I was lucky enough to be put on another flight to Aspen. It was delayed due to weather in the Aspen area. Once we were allowed to board, we ended up sitting on the tarmac for an additional 90 minutes of wait time, while they unloaded 40+ bags of luggage and rebalanced the weight on the plane. Once airborne we took the 26 minute hop to Aspen, but the weather has changed again and visibility was about nil. The pilot made an attempt to touchdown, but could not get a visual of the runway so the try was aborted. I am not one to worry about flying but I was nervous, his pull-out game was strong, and we did some aerobatics to get out of there without crashing into any peaks all the while flying practically blind through snow clouds (yes you actually see sprarkly crystals like glitter inside the clouds). We made another nerve wrecking run and once again scrapped the mission and headed back to Denver. Of course the flight that was scheduled after us left first and was one of two of the nine  daily flights that actually landed in Aspen yesterday...
• All the other flights to Aspen, were either cancelled or booked (none made it by the way), United decided to bus us to Aspen at 6:00pm. Usually this is a 3, 3 1/2 hour ride (but the weather predicted it was likely to take about 5 hours), we met the storm just outside of Denver that was preventing us from landing in Aspen. This turned into a 10+ hour tour, that included 15-20 mph speeds and treacherous road conditions the majority of the way. Including a slow motion bus accident. And when I say slow motion, I mean both buses were completely stopped and the one bus slid sideways into ours. This held us up an additional hour and forty five minutes waiting for a wrecker to separate us and get a small repair to get us on our way again. From there it still was an insane 3 hour ride from the Vail area to a closed Aspen airport.
• By the time I arrived at Aspen at 4:30 am, all the local buses were shut down and not scheduled to start for another few hours, and then it would be an hour bus ride down valley to Glenwood Springs. I sweet talked the bus driver from Denver who was going to Glenwood Springs for some rest at a cheaper hotel than what is found in Aspen for a ride. So after getting everyone unloaded and back on the road for another hour long trek to my daughter.

Total travel time with the time zone changes was 30 hours door to door from my house to my daughter, total sleep time during that trip...90 minutes.