It was snowing lightly as has been the norm for the past few days, but I'd checked the Aspen airport channel before leaving and all flights were on time.
And there were three planes on the ground. Joanie Valentine had assured me last night that as long as the planes were on the ground they would be able to get them away even if the weather was dodgy. Landing in bad weather was the problem. So I felt confident as I sipped my coffee.
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| Limelight L-R: Harry, Andrew, Jamie, Joan, Mason, Claire, Me |
At 8:15am we were informed the 9:20 flight had been delayed until 10:00am due to a snow storm over Denver airport. No big drama I would still have time to make my connecting flight in Denver.
At 9:50am the delay was bumped out to 10:30am. Starting to get worried now because that would make it extremely tight for the connecting flight. Ground staff assured me that the connecting flight out of Denver to Salt Lake City was delayed also and I should be fine. And in any case there was a 3.30pm Denver to SLC flight in the event I missed my connecting flight.
Finally at 10:30 the flight was cleared to go, however a minor maintenance issue would delay departure until 10:45. At 10:45 another announcement informed us that the maintenance issue was taking longer than expected and there would be a further delay of 1 1/2 hours. Expected departure 12:30pm.
I called a United customer service number and was told I'd missed my original connecting flight, and the 3.30pm flight was full but they could get me on a 6:55pm flight. Not much good to me, the ball game was due to tip off at 7pm.
I resigned myself to getting into SLC around 8:30pm and missing the ball game.
Eventually the maintenance issue was resolved, we were allowed to board and were away by 12:40pm. The flight was brief...35 minutes, so I was into Denver by 1:15pm. Raced to the United customer service desk, and the very nice man confirmed me on the 6:55pm flight and also gave me a standby boarding pass for the 3:30pm flight. He said it was full, but you never know your luck and he had put me near the top of the standby list. It appeared there were quite a few people wanting to get on the 3:30 flight.
I grabbed a coffee and sandwich and headed over to gate B92 to wait for boarding. Eventually the boarding announcement was made, the gate attendant said there was one spare seat and they would see if there were any other no shows after final boarding.
Finally all confirmed passengers had boarded and there were about 10 people hovering hopefully around the gate. The standby competition.
The attendant announced that there was one empty seat only and would Mark Power please come to the gate. I could not believe my luck. It was like winning lotto. I could feel the daggers in my back as I collected my boarding pass, thanked the attendant profusely and bounded down the air bridge.
The flight was fabulous. The descent into Salt Lake City was particularly impressive. SLC is nestled in the foothills of some pretty spectacular mountains, so as you lose altitude you're glancing across at jagged peaks that you feel like you could touch.
Got the shuttle to the hotel, dumped my stuff, quick change and legged it a couple hundred metres down the road to the light rail station. Bought a ticket for $2.50 which got me to the station right outside the arena.
The teams were still going through their warm up drills as I settled into my seat. The seat was awesome. Five rows back directly behind the Utah Jazz bench. The atmosphere was amazing. It was a great game although the Jazz trailed for most the game and ended up losing by 10 points. The size, speed and agility of the players was impressive.
I really enjoyed the game and was stoked that I got there in the end.
I caught the light rail after the game and was back at the hotel by 10:00pm.
Gonna have a bit of a lie in tomorrow, breakfast in the hotel and then back to the airport to catch the shuttle to Snowbird at 11am.
How lucky are you. And you didn't even need me to assist.
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