The Navair Visit...

I just got to my hotel room, and today deserves to be highlighted as one of the worst days in my life.

I woke up at 6:46 this morning so I could drive to Spokane Airport to get on my flight to Salt Lake City. This was fine, everything went just fine. I had a layover in SLC for 2 hours. Then we left for Los Angeles. Just as the plane started to board, I looked over, and saw a really tall man getting on the plane. Here is what went through my mind: "Is that...?? no, it couldn't be.." I got on the plane, and sure enough, it was Phil Jackson. Wow. That was pretty cool. We got off the plane in LAX, and I had a 3.5 hour layover. So, I found a seat where I could read (but also "people watch", because I like looking at people). Airports might be the most uncomfortable places on earth... there is never a seat worth of sitting in. They're worse than the old wood school desks. I'm hanging out in my chair, reading Angels & Demons, and a couple of people come over and sit right in the chairs next to me. I keep reading, and kind of listen to what they're saying. Apparently they've hit some sort of snafu in the watertight airport security system, and they're waiting for something. Finally I look over, and get a decent look at who it is, and its Queen Latifah. Two celebrities in one day... WOOHOO.

Now is where things hit the downhill slope.

They tell us to come through the gate, and get ready to board. Which meant they were putting us in an outdoor coral, and it was pretty cold out (of course, I come to LA, and its like 60 degrees). We wait for 10 or so minutes, then they say we can board our plane. We board the plane and we're sitting there for a few minutes, and the captain comes on the speaker and tells us that there is 50 MPH wind at our destination (my final destination of Ridgecrest). So, we can't go.
The desk clerk gave us 3 options:

• Wait for the 10:45PM flight, and hope the winds die down.
  
• They'll get us a hotel room, and fly us in the morning (and hope the winds die down).
  
• They'll drive us there (160 miles). Most people opt for this.
  

Little did we know, the guy driving us would be going 45-55 MPH the whole way (on a FREEWAY!!!). It took almost an hour longer than they had predicted to drive here. Luckily, the people on the shuttle were pretty cool (extremly conservative, but cool, nonetheless) and that made the drive go by faster.

So we (eventually) get to the Ridgecrest airport (actually called Inyokern), but the terminal is closed, so I can't get my rental car. So, my friends from the shuttle ride gave me a ride to the hotel.

Here I sit. Sharing with the world, my day of traveling pain.
I'm going to bed, and I'm going to leave this post "unpolished" until I get a chance to go over it. But, I thought people might want to read about this at work tomorrow.