what a long strange trip

Robert and his coworker Dawn had a business trip last week to the world headquarters of their company -- Glenwood Springs CO, between Aspen and Vail. I somewhat resented that his return travel day was Saturday, leaving us just Sunday together before the week started up again. But I was trying to be a grownup about the whole thing.

Apparently, on the way out, things went smoothly until Denver. The plane took off for Aspen, then turned around and the passengers were told that no planes were landing at Aspen. Robert's boss (and brother), who was standing at the Aspen airport at the time, reported that plenty of planes were landing there, and that skies were clear and visibility good.

They considered renting a car, but were told that the mountain pass was in whiteout conditions and chains were required, and the two travelers were just too tired to make the drive by that point.

The next morning, they set out again, got all the way to Aspen. Dawn (who's had some flight training) reports looking down and completely agreeing with the pilot who said it was unsafe to land. So back to Denver they went.

And finally, after getting advice from the airline (there's no way we'll find a flight for you), they crammed into a van, rode to Glenwood Springs, and arrived perhaps 18 hours after their scheduled time. This late arrival of course pushed the meeting into overdrive, so they were run ragged over the next couple of days.

When they tried to return to Denver, they discovered that in canceling the third leg of the journey, someone had managed to cancel legs four through six too. And maybe the plane from Aspen to Denver wasn't flying either -- things got a little unclear. All I know is that I received a series of calls updating me on new arrival times. Back they got into a van to travel the icy roads to Denver with a driver who was on a hand-held cell phone the whole time.

They arrived in Boston at midnight and I picked them up; we finally got to bed at 2 am. And yesterday, in the snow, I got to drive the two of them up to New Hampshire to retrieve their cars (they'd started their journey at an entirely different airport). When I returned home, I went back to bed for a nap so that I could keep my eyes open until bed time.

And now it's Monday. I'm counting on my day off tomorrow for a little recovery.