Flying to Rapid City by way of Denver..Huh?

With a basic itinerary planned out and a ton of guide books and brochures stuffed in my suitcase, it was finally time to head out. I was driving to Gansevoort NY to crash at my sister’s house. I can’t call it sleeping there because we would be leaving in the wee hours of the morning to drive to the airport in Albany. I figure I’ll get more sleep once we’re on the plane. My trips always seem to start out this way…in the dark!
I left Taunton at 2 pm and made good time until I arrived in Albany right at rush hour. It took so long to get through the traffic and onto RT 87 north that Sandy called to see if I was OK. I guess there were a couple of accidents that happened right before I got there so traffic was at a standstill.

I finally arrived at my sister’s at about 6pm. We headed right back out to dinner at the Peppermill Restaurant. I don’t know if their food was really good or if it just seemed that way because I was so hungry at that point. From there we went to the local Walmart to stock up on “snacks” for the plane.
On the way back to the house we spooked a deer. Made me flash back to my encounter with a deer last spring. That encounter resulted in $1000 worth of damage to my car and put a crimp in my vacation budget since I had a $500 deductible. Thankfully this time there was no harm done and it was kind of exciting.
Little did we know at the time that this was a “preview” of things to come.

Back at the house we chatted a bit and printed out our boarding passes. Then Sandy showed me my bed for the night and we turned in for a couple of hours. I think we set the alarm for 4am but we didn’t need to because we were both awake by 3:30. We needed to be at the airport an hour before the flight to get through security. The boarding time was 5:45 AM for the first leg of the trip. We were flying United from Albany to Washington DC. Changing planes there to fly to Denver, CO and then change planes again to fly to Rapid City. Sort of a round-about way to get to Rapid City but the flights and transfers went smoothly. Before we knew it we were landing in Rapid City, collecting our bags and picking up the rental car.

For the most part, I take this part of any trip in stride. When I start to get nervous is leaving the airport in a strange city driving a strange car. Of course by the end of most vacations I’ve gotten comfortable with the rental and learned my way around pretty good.

All we had to do now was find the Foothills Inn and get checked in. It was still early. I was already thinking about how to spend the remaining afternoon and evening. Sandy just wanted to get to the motel and crash…But more on that tomorrow!


Don't forget...It's not too late to suggest a name for the Prairie Dog! See the Prairie Dog page for the suggestions we have so far. Can you come up with anything better?