Unforeseen Circumstances

We awoke this morning to a beautiful day in Breckenridge.  Once again, it was sunny and the skies were blue.  Freshly groomed snow awaited our arrival on the mountain.  We got up early, checked out of the condo, and hit the slopes.  My legs were really tired today, but the conditions on the mountain were perfect so I couldn’t let myself quit early.  We found some great blue trails on Peak 8 and rode those for most of the day.

Our skiing ended around 2 pm since we had a 7:30 flight out of Denver.  We had a few things to do before heading out of town and wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to make it to the airport.  Our plan was moving along perfectly.  We were on time.  Actually, I think we were running a little ahead of schedule when we stopped by the property office to drop off the keys and change back into our “civilian” clothes.  While I was waiting for Gary, I noticed that there were couple of voice messages waiting for me.  One of the messages was a notification from American Airlines that our flight had been cancelled.  Since it was the last flight of the day, they had already rebooked us on a Tuesday morning flight to DFW.  Argh. 

Both Gary and I were planning to be back at work on Tuesday morning so I quickly called the airline to see what other options were available.  There was only one flight making it out tonight — the 5:25 pm flight.  We’d be pushing it to make it to the airport in time, but after a great weekend, we were feeling lucky. 

Traveling at a very safe speed (coughs), we were making great time.  We were really starting to think that we could pull it off.  Sure, it would be close, but…wait, what did that sign say?  Expect 20 minute stops in Georgetown.  What?  That’s strange.  Surely, it meant some simple traffic delays, nothing else.  A few minutes later, the announcer on the radio chimes in with “expect 20 minute stops in Georgetown”.  Okay, now we were starting to get worried.  You have to go through Georgetown to get back to Denver.  There’s no other way (that we know) to get out of the mountains.  Sure enough, when we hit Georgetown, all traffic came to a halt.  The entire Interstate highway was standing still.  No one moved an inch — for 20 minutes (maybe more). 

Apparently, they were shearing the rock walls that run along the highway so that the rocks don’t fall on cars and kill people.  Now, I’m a fan of not having a rock fall on my car as much as the next guy, but seriously, isn’t there a better time to do this than on a busy weekday?  How about closing the Interstate highway on the weekend or maybe later at night?  Anyway, to make a long story short, we didn’t make it to the airport in time.  We’re stuck in Denver for the night.

After making the necessary arrangements, we decided to make the best of it and enjoy our evening.  We found a great little hotel by the airport, the Hyatt Place.  It’s a smaller property, but it’s got style.  It’s sort of like a mini “W”, which is my favorite hotel chain.

We’ll be getting up early to catch the 7 am flight.  Hopefully, it won’t be cancelled also.  I hear it’s snowing in Dallas tonight.  They are enjoying the same storm system that dumped snow on Breckenridge yesterday.  For anyone who lives in Dallas, you know that snow wreaks havoc at the airport.   So, wish us luck…we’ll need it.