Adventures in Traveling: Part 2

It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in the Las Vegas airport waiting for our airplane to be deiced and wondering if the previous day’s snowstorm and airport closure was a premonition of what was to come. It was. We flew into wonderful weather, if you recall, leapfrogging our storm so we could experience it twice. During our stay in Iowa we were not disappointed by winter. We experienced snow, fog, rain, ice storm, sunshine (I’m not sure I remember sunshine), windchill down to a -30 F and a January thaw in December when it got to 51 F. Quite the swing. And of course the ice storm had to wait until the day we left. In terms of an ice storm it wasn’t a big one, but it doesn’t take much of an ices storm to mess things up.

So here we are at an airport once again, this time in Des Moines, Iowa waiting or our airplane. We are hopeful the delay will be short. Delay you say? Yes, not only was their an ice storm in Iowa, but frost on the planes in Las Vegas and we all know how efficient deicing is in Las Vegas.

An ice storm is not my favorite kind of storm, but fortunately the airport is functioning and our airplane is coming in from Las Vegas and won’t be on the ground too long - at least we hope. I just took a photo of a United Airlines aircraft with icicles on its wings. I later found out that one of the deicing trucks was broken and folks were waiting for another plane to be deiced before they were going to have their plane deiced. They had been waiting for over 4 hours. I even saw the pilots get up and leave, shaking their heads. Maybe the keystone cop thing is not reserved just for Las Vegas, but Des Moines has their own keystone cops.


At one point while I was in the restroom I heard from the stall next to me at the “little boy’s urinal” a small boy ask his dad, “Why doesn’t if flush?” (They were auto flush urinals).

Dad responds with, “Let’s not worry about flushing, let’s just get your pants up.” [That sounds awfully familiar. The boy was maybe 4.]

Boy, “Dad, I think you broke the toilet, it won’t flush.”

Dad,with just a touch of frustration, “Let’s go.” As they turn to leave the automatic urinal flushes. No response from either of them, Dad was moving too fast.


Home again, home again and how good it feels. Bright sunshine, beautiful red rock hills, our own home, a cat anxious to spend as much time on our lap as she can. It is always good to be gone, but it is also good to be home. We already miss the kids, but know we left a spoiled grandson behind as a reminder. It was a great trip.