I’m fairly sure it was after 9:00 by the time our plane limped towards the runway and left the city lights of Saskatoon in its rear view mirror. Once the plane was in the air, we knew we were finally headed home…hopefully! Kent sat next to a beekeeper heading to Michigan. She would fit right in with our group. Yes, that was her making the bunny ears for Jim. 🙂 We made it to Minneapolis shortly after 11:00 (I think). All I know for certain is we had missed our connecting flight – all of us. We were met at the gate with the next day’s tickets and told which hotel we’d be staying at. Kent was left out of our little party. He was routed to Days Inn and the rest of us headed to Comfort Inn. The goodbyes were short and sweet and all at once our time together was done. Patience was on the verge of being next to none and the level of frustration was on the rise! Tomorrow’s flight would begin at 1:30 and would not be finished until 9:30 via Detroit (8 hours that should have only taken 45 minutes). It was midnight by the time our heads hit the pillow. It had been an exhausting day! We met Jon and Missy for breakfast at 8:00. They were going to have to leave at 9:00. I took a few pictures of the record snowfall in Minneapolis as we walked back to our room. Jim laid back on the bed for a nap (we had several hours to kill). I dug out the computer to check the flight status. While doing that, a notice popped up announcing there were optional flights available. So I clicked. I see a direct flight to Omaha which leaves at 11:40. It was 9:45. “Jim (I had to wake him up), it looks like we can get on a direct flight home and we’d get there at 12:52. Should I make the change” “Well YES!”, he says. It was at this time I realized that what I thought was “viewing my options” was instead “changes being made”. “I think we’re already checked in with the new flight!”, I say in a panic. We had less than five minutes to gather our stuff and get to the shuttle in time. No stress!! We made it. We made it to the airport on time AND through the exceptionally long line at security. We were going to get home BEFORE midnight and that was all that mattered to me. When we arrived in Omaha, the 25 degree temps felt like summer! Callie had a basketball game and we were even going to make that! The sunset was AMAZING! I tried to take a picture of it but it may be a little blurry.Our long awaited trip to see our Northern friends was over. We had a great time and the end of the story has provided new memories – some that won’t happen again for a while (hopefully). Gosh…I really hope we run into a few of them along our route this summer! Before we left, I turned my 2011 blog into a book. I can now tell anyone and everyone “I’m published!” It’s fun reading the posts and reliving the memories all over again!
