Month: June 2007

Well we made it back home. We were just about 4 hours too late for Gnorm get his photo taken with any of the “Smiling Faces” inside the SC Welcome Center. We spent 6 days in the northwest where it rained one morning and the rest of the time it was sunny with above average temperatures. When we got back to the southeast, it was raining.

It was a mostly uneventful trip back.

When we got to Sea-Tac and checked our bag we were given our boarding passes. Our first flight was number 337 to Phoenix and left from gate A4. When we got to gate A4 it said flight 337 was going to Las Vegas, so did all the digital flight display boards. I got in line at the only US Air counter open to ask where we were flying to while Donna went back down to our gate to see if anyone came to there. I was second in line, but the woman in front of me was taking a long time. Donna found out that the display boards were wrong, some sort of glitch, flight #337 was indeed going to Phoenix.

Unlike the 2-1/2 hours we had to kill at Sky Harbor airport on the way out we had like 15 minutes this time. The Phoenix to Charlotte flight started boarding at 11:25 AM and #337 landed at 11:15 then took 6-7 minutes to pull into it’s gate. By the time we got off the plane it was 11:25. Of course we deplaned at gate A11 which was at one end of the terminal and needed to get to B14 which was at the ned of the next terminal. We were about halfway through our speed walk when us and another couple heading for the same plane were picked up by one of those beeping motorized carts. We made it just as the last of the ticket passengers were boarding. Had we not got the ride, some standby passenger might have gotten our seats.

Much to our surprise our luggage made it to Charlotte. We were convinced it wouldn’t be because of 1) our mad dash to change planes in Phoenix and B) the skycap in Seattle was not too pleased that I didn’t tip him when we checked in. He solicited us from the regular airline queue and we rolled our own bags to his station, all he did was print the boarding passes and tag the bag. I would have given him a buck or two, but all I had was a 10 and a 20 dollar bill.

After we loaded the car, left the airport and got on I-77 south we picked a place to get dinner. Ended up a Ruby Tuesday at the Arrowood exit not too far from the HI Express we spent the night at 8 days prior. The ribs were good, but the Caesar’s Salad and the service left a lot to be desired. When we left to get back on the interstate it got exciting. I hit the on ramp at a good clip and stepped on the go pedal to get to speed and the back end started to come around. Yikes! fortunately it was a three lane on ramp with nearly zero traffic, so I had plenty of room to do a 180 and then a modified 270 trying not to hit the guard rail. Weee! Scared the crap out of Donna, me and the folks in the Audi Q7 a hundred yards behind me. The last 2-1/2 hours and 130 miles were much calmer.

We are ready to go home, but are not ready to stop being on vacation. Today we walked around in a very dry rainforest, saw a very wet waterfall and drove in a lot of traffic.

The Hoh Rainforest section of the Olympia National Park was very interesting, but it was a little disappointing because we expected wet. June and July are the driest months there and so far May has been very dry too. The trees are huge and covered in moss and would have been befitting of a rainforest if only they had been dripping moisture.

The Marrymere Falls were at the end of a half mile easy hike and a 1/4 mile straight up hike, but worth every effort expanded to get there. As a bonus we got a home baked chocolate cookie at the upper look out. There were a group of 4th graders touring the falls and Donna and I arrived just as they were taking a break. One of the chaperons was handing out cookies and they had a couple left over and offered them to us. When we asked where they were from they told us from down south near Tacoma. When we told them we were from down south in South Carolina they seemed more impressed with that, then the stupid ol’ waterfall.

At this point we still had a long drive to get back so we bypassed a couple of other interesting things to do on the Olympic peninsula and headed back to Seattle. It was Friday afternoon, so with the traffic and the construction delays it took us a lot longer to get to the hotel than we thought. Oh well, it is a late night, but tomorrow it will all work out because with the time change we will lose even more time, huh. I’ve stopped making sense so it must be time to quit….