This spring break we decided to go visit our good friend Cole who just moved to Crested Butte, Colorado. We fly standby with Delta (for free) and Cole had a hook up in Crested Butte at one of the resorts so it was going to be a fairly cheap trip. We ended up flying into Vail (Eagle Co.) airport (first class-very nice!!) We rented a car and planned to meet Cole at the Gunnison airport where we would drop off our car and ride to Crested Butte (20 min. from Gunnison) with her.
We brought along our GPS to make the drive easier. Everything was looking great. Our arrival time wasn't as long as we had expected. The GPS took us through a very small town and on some very back country roads. Before long, the road we were on turned into a dirt road and eventually became completely blocked by snow. Note to self: When using your GPS in Colorado always take into consideration summertime roads vs. winter roads. Needless to say our ETA drastically changed after that little detour.
We ended up having an amazing time in Crested Butte. Since it was their last week of the ski season it was not crowded at all. There were times when we were the only ones on a run. Madee went to ski school the first day. Since there were not many other people she was the only one in her class which meant she got a private lesson at a group rate. She learned a lot that day and so the next day she just came out with us.
We did some snowshoing while we were there as well. That was a lot of fun. The snow out there is so deep. They have had record breaking snowfall this year. It snowed a foot one of the days we were there. That was pretty cool to see. When we left another storm was coming in bringing in another foot.
So the end of our trip was nearing and we began checking the flights coming home. We figured we should probably start heading back on Wednesday just to make sure we got home o.k. We had to drive to Colorado Springs to fly home (Delta was not flying in any of the airports near Crested Butte). Colorado Springs is about 3 to 31/2 hours from Crested Butte. We left on Wednesday and planned to stay in C.S. that night and fly home on Thursday. All was well until Dave checked the flights one last time before going to sleep that night. 14 open seats had turned into -2 seats. Dave stayed up checking other options (we were open to getting creative and making multiple stops). Nothing was open. American Airlines had canceled thousands of flight causing all those standed passengers to switch to Delta flights. Thus making standby nonexistent!!
We decided to go the airport the next day anyway and just try. We listed for a flight to SLC and to ATL but didn't make either one. We were stranded. It was a very sickening feeling to not be able to get home. To make things worse the whole weekend looked very bad for standby.
We ended up having to rent another car and driving to Denver where we BOUGHT tickets on Southwest to NASHVILLE!! They did not have any direct flight to ATL. Luckily our friend Max works in Nashville during the week and comes home on Friday. His dad actually picked us up from the airport and let us hang at their house until Max got off work. Then it was another 3 hours drive home. We finally made it home by midnight on Friday!!
We brought along our GPS to make the drive easier. Everything was looking great. Our arrival time wasn't as long as we had expected. The GPS took us through a very small town and on some very back country roads. Before long, the road we were on turned into a dirt road and eventually became completely blocked by snow. Note to self: When using your GPS in Colorado always take into consideration summertime roads vs. winter roads. Needless to say our ETA drastically changed after that little detour.
We ended up having an amazing time in Crested Butte. Since it was their last week of the ski season it was not crowded at all. There were times when we were the only ones on a run. Madee went to ski school the first day. Since there were not many other people she was the only one in her class which meant she got a private lesson at a group rate. She learned a lot that day and so the next day she just came out with us.
We did some snowshoing while we were there as well. That was a lot of fun. The snow out there is so deep. They have had record breaking snowfall this year. It snowed a foot one of the days we were there. That was pretty cool to see. When we left another storm was coming in bringing in another foot.
So the end of our trip was nearing and we began checking the flights coming home. We figured we should probably start heading back on Wednesday just to make sure we got home o.k. We had to drive to Colorado Springs to fly home (Delta was not flying in any of the airports near Crested Butte). Colorado Springs is about 3 to 31/2 hours from Crested Butte. We left on Wednesday and planned to stay in C.S. that night and fly home on Thursday. All was well until Dave checked the flights one last time before going to sleep that night. 14 open seats had turned into -2 seats. Dave stayed up checking other options (we were open to getting creative and making multiple stops). Nothing was open. American Airlines had canceled thousands of flight causing all those standed passengers to switch to Delta flights. Thus making standby nonexistent!!
We decided to go the airport the next day anyway and just try. We listed for a flight to SLC and to ATL but didn't make either one. We were stranded. It was a very sickening feeling to not be able to get home. To make things worse the whole weekend looked very bad for standby.
We ended up having to rent another car and driving to Denver where we BOUGHT tickets on Southwest to NASHVILLE!! They did not have any direct flight to ATL. Luckily our friend Max works in Nashville during the week and comes home on Friday. His dad actually picked us up from the airport and let us hang at their house until Max got off work. Then it was another 3 hours drive home. We finally made it home by midnight on Friday!!
