Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

It's late and I'm very tired, so this may be more fragmented than I would like.  Hopefully it will capture all of the day's adventures....

Today was a day of mixed blessings.  We left the cozy confines of our Connecticut home at 4am in order to make our 6:35am flight. After several long lines and lots of waiting, we had the familiar pleasure of Dunkin' Donuts in our hands and were ready for our long day of travel.  The plan was simple: fly from Hartford to BWI and wait all of 20 minutes for our connecting flight which would take us to Salt Lake City.  Well, easy doesn't really work for us.  Instead, our 50 minute flight lasted almost two hours as there was a terrible storm in the Baltimore area and flights were in holding patterns.  By the time we reached our gate, it was 10 minutes past our connecting flight's scheduled departure. Thankfully, however, the weather caused a major bottle neck and our flight was delayed two hours!  And we were psyched that our flight was delayed?!  This was the moment we knew it would be a long and wacky day of travel.  The second flight was just under five hours and replete with many children ranging from newborns to tweens--all of whom made sure we never forgot they were present.  But it was fine.  Why? Because we were on an adventure!  

While killing time in the airport, my counterpart was reminded of the fact that I've never gone to Las Vegas.  After lots of teasing and mockery, I decided I could take it no more and needed to get myself to Sin City! Once we finally boarded the plane, we had an additional 30 minutes to entertain ourselves before we were finally airborne.  How did we spend that time? Why, we sorted out how we could add a short trip to LV before we returned to CT of course!  Thank goodness AAA sends so many goodies when you order trip info because it took us no time at all to come up with a game plan.  Hours later, we were able to change our flight for a nominal fee and now we've added Vegas to our trip.  We will drive from Salt Lake City to LV on Wednesday morning and then return Thursday night.  Our new flight home will be midday on Friday, and not a minute too soon, I imagine as we've already spent a lot of time in the car and it's just the beginning.

OK, I've skipped some important information about the day.  Upon arrival in SLC, I was pleased to be off the plane after the four hour long delay.  The first thing that caught my eye that is worthy of this blog is the picture to the right. 

What's for dinner?!

Please understand two things about this Tyson's Chicken vending machine: 1) it's real and includes chicken, fries, and all sorts of fun-filled treats; 2) IT WAS TOTALLY SOLD OUT.  Seriously.  NOTHING TO BUY AT ALL. And this was our first fins/lashes moment, but it was somewhat unpredictable.  My counterpart was totally disgusted by the machine.  I, however, was fascinated and totally intrigued by the inner workings of such a creation.  Perhaps my years of loving the Texas State Fair has prepared me for this very moment.  Or maybe it's the mad scientist in me.... Either way, I was ready for the adventure to begin as Salt Lake City had already surprised me!

Local Flavor

From the airport, we headed north towards Montana.  About an hour outside of SLC (please note that the drive from SLC to Big Sky, MT is supposed to take around 6 hours), we stopped for treats and a much-needed bathroom break. That's where we discovered the delightful candy pictured to the left.  What is it? It's a nougat/taffy-like creation with peanuts.  My counterpart LOVED it and plans to bring many BIG HUNKS home with us.  Of course, the sentiment "if it were only that easy to bring home a big hunk" was left unspoken....

Also, because of a couple of experiences I had today, I've decided to keep a black people count.  What happened? Well, when we walked into the convenience store to fill up on diet coke and other necessities, we received many strange looks.  Everyone was very pleasant, but we were clearly an oddity that they couldn't sort out.  And as dynamic as our duo is, I knew we would stand out so I didn't think much about it how these encounters would play out.... That is, until we stopped off at Wendy's in Idaho Falls for a quick dinner and the 12+ young blond children in the restaurant were beyond fascinated with us.  And I mean standing up in their chairs to ogle.  One brave boy about 3 or 4 years old playfully engaged with me, but the rest were all sorts of confused.  As we finished eating amidst all of the stares, I realized that it's quite possible that I'm the first black person these kids have seen.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  But this is the first time I've had that experience in the U.S., so it's going to take some getting used to. And I'm not sure I want to get used to the circus freak greeting.

Day One Black People Count (BPC): 3 (one police officer at the SLC airport; two young-ish males fishing from a bridge somewhere between the Idaho and Montana border.) Here's hoping my brethren are awaiting us in Wyoming tomorrow!


In addition to counting brown people, we've also invented our own version of the silly VW Punch Buggy game.  Instead of counting cars, the objective is to find churches.  Boring? One would think it could be, but it's been rather informative and a great time filler.  And as many of you know, I like any game that I win easily. I think the score is gnw 88, counterpart 2.  We'll see how he does when I'm driving tomorrow!

Somewhere in Idaho

The rest of the drive was less eventful. Although it took us seven hours and we had some technical difficulties, it was a success. We saw our first magical sunset (unfortunately, it was while driving) and lots of cool landscapes.  If the two pictures here are any indication, I will have AMAZING things to share with you tomorrow! By the end of the drive,

First Sunset

I was thoroughly exhausted and unable to keep my eyes open.  It's a good thing that I wasn't driving and that I've been faking being awake for years.  Anyway, we survived and are super excited for the next week of adventures!