CO Trip: Part 3

Our last day (Tuesday) we did some last minute errands which, in the end, made us an hour late to head to the airport in Denver. My sister dropped us off and we rushed through check-in, security (we actually had no issues with the TSA as we have in the past in DEN.) Apparently, right before we got to the airport a tornado had touched down on one of the runways and so our flight was delayed. We took the train to the gate and then went to the smoking lounge – the only one in the airport. There one of the waiters gave us a hard time. He said we couldn’t stay in one area which was open, but had to put the chair blocking the door. I also had strong words with him when he started touching me. We decided to leave the lounge and go to the gate.  

At our gate it was complete chaos. People in wheelchairs were pushing and shoving to get in the front of the line to board first. The majority of them are what I call “wheel on – run off.” They get the airline to use a wheelchair to allow them to pre-board and get a good seat and then they are the first ones running off the plane at the destination. That is just plain disgusting to abuse the system like that. It makes it harder for those of us who actually need the extra time. We had to wait over an hour to board. We then had to wait another hour on the runway due to all the other planes waiting to take-off because of the tornado. This time the flight attendant was very professional and did her job well.  We had no issues during the flight. We landed around 2 am (two hours late.) There was an incident with an airline employee. Apparently she got the chair for us and gave it to my dad, but didn’t help us further. Then when we were ready to go up to the gate she said that another employee would wheel the chair up. Since they hadn’t helped us load into the chair I wasn’t going to let them take the credit and wheel it up. Plus I have always wheeled the chair myself. The woman started saying that it was the law that they had to – which I know is not true – and when she wouldn’t let go of the chair I let her have it. I swore worse than a sailor (not my finest hour, but I would do it again) and basically told her to let go. She was so “shocked” that she did. I grabbed the chair and pushed it myself. Like I said: I would have been fine if they had helped us the whole time, but they didn’t and then to openly lie to my face just made me lose any respect I had in the beginning. Once you lie to me I no longer care about anything you have to say or do. We got our bags quickly, found the car and went to pay the parking fee.

The parking garage had problems with their credit card system, but the guy was very nice and professional and made sure it got fixed and then apologized for the delay – which is exactly what you are supposed to do when something goes wrong. Since it had been many hours since we had lunch we stopped at McDonald’s (McD’s is one of the few places in my state that are open 24 hours) for dinner/breakfast. Then we headed home in the dense fog. We picked up our held mail from our box and started unpacking. I like to unpack when I get to/from a trip. I didn’t get to sleep until 6 am today.

All in all while it was nice to see my family in Colorado I hope that I never go back to that state. Every time we go there (ie last January and now this trip) our health issues get worse and we spend more time sick and in pain due to the high altitude. I wouldn’t mind meeting everyone here or even in a neighboring state from CO, but not in Colorado itself.