Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Christams 2015 (Part VI - The Trip Home)

Saturday, 26 December: We loaded up the car, and were on the road by about 7:30a. It was cold. The car thermometer said it was 8° F as we left Salt Lake. We stopped at Chick-fil-A in Spanish Fork for breakfast around 8:30a. Roads had some slush and icy spots but wasn’t bad. Those conditions continued until south of Cedar City. The wind got worse the farther south we went though. When we stopped in Beaver, Utah, the temperature was 18° with a wind chill of 4°. (Temperature in Rock Hill at the point was mid-70s). But most of the way we were able to travel at or near the posted 80mph speed limit. We got to Vegas around 1:40 PST. 

We met the family at my brother Mike and Kelly’s church for a get together. My dad, and all my brothers’ and sister plus all of their family were there, except for Chris and Laura and their family. (Their daughter Rachel had just gotten home from having surgery so they could not make it.) We ate and visited for a couple of hours. Afterward we checked into the Hampton Inn Airport and set up transportation to the airport so Peter didn’t have to get up at 4:30a to take us.  We then went to Jason and Sherri’s house where my dad lives to visit with them for the evening. About 8:30p we started back to the hotel. RATS!!! We had a flat tire. Somewhere along the way we picked up a screw in the tread of the right rear tire. Peter got it changed in about 20 minutes (I held the light!) and we headed to the hotel.
Family get-together in Vegas









Sunday, 27 December: We got up in time to catch the airport shuttle at 4:30a. No TSA pre √ this time so we had to go through the full drill at security, but the line was short and it didn’t take long. We were at the gate by 5:07a for our 6am flight.  The flight had only 90 people on it, so we didn’t have to deal with the center seat being taken. Again we got the emergency exit row. The ride was somewhat bumpy the whole way (light to moderate chop) and the fasten seat belt light never got turned off. JoAnne and several others had to ignore the light to visit the necessary. The flight crew had to remind everyone that they shouldn’t get up, but were pretty understanding about being stuck in your seat for four hours. After passing Albuquerque, there was total coverage by clouds so there wasn’t anything to look at out the window, so I found some Travel Channel programs to watch on my tablet. JoAnne signed up for internet on the iPad. We got a hangout message that Peter got the tire fixed at Wal-Mart for $10 and they were on the road back to Salt Lake by 8:42a. (Who wants to drive 400 miles at 50mph on space saver spare!)

We landed at Atlanta at 12:37p EST. By 1:23p we were waiting for MARTA. We missed train that was sitting there when we got out because the sign on the train didn’t say where it was going!!! We had to wait about another 20 minutes for the next one. After a 40 minute train ride, we found the car, but couldn’t find the parking ticket. We were going through the process of paying without a ticket when Mom found it. I-85 in Atlanta wasn’t that bad, but once out of town it was BUSY! We stopped in Jefferson for a potty break and some food.  We had to go the back way around Commerce because of accident on freeway that had it stopped up. We finally arrived home at 6:58p EST.
Doraville MARTA Station
What a great time we had! We had all the family together and Jessi, Peter, and Kira and planned lots of fun things to do. Only bust was the Polar Express train ride, but we don’t control the weather, and we found lots of other things to do.

Thanks, Salt Lake Burnetts and Tureks for your hospitality!

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