Note: I wrote this on Sunday, when I was flying from Minneapolis to Missoula with a lay over in Seattle. I'll post an updated post soon.
My four friends went snowmobiling and snowboarding the three days they were here. I had to work and didn’t go with them, but the stories they told proved how much fun they had.
They saw a moose when they went snowmobiling and had a minor run-in with a tree. While they were snowboarding, a new word to describe fresh powder entered their vocab: freshies. They traversed the freshies= they snowboarded in powder. I’ve never heard that.
At night we hung out in Polson and Ronan. I took them to my favorite pizza place and we hung out with Sasha. They got a good feel for Montana.
Then came the 22-hour drive.
We left on Tuesday night after I got done with the paper. Driving wasn’t too bad until we got to Bozeman/Billings and the western part of North Dakota. The snowstorm wasn’t too bad to drive through, but I didn’t drive. I played the part of navigator from 4 a.m. to about 11 a.m.
It wasn’t a bad drive. Compared to the train I took, it was more entertaining, as four guys in a car for close to a day was fun. However, the train was definitely roomier and weather didn’t matter.
Christmas was awesome. My family is loud and crazy and I couldn’t imagine not being in the middle of that during the holidays.
Flying, though, is by far my preferred way to travel. Driving can get long and you cannot really sleep but you do get to see the country and I like stopping at the gas stations to get a feel of the local area. The train was great but I was alone and was really antsy to get home. Flying is perfect for impatient people like me.
Except when there are delays.
The flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was delayed about 30 minutes and the one to Missoula was delayed as well. I hate waiting.
In Minneapolis, there was a girl circling the group of chairs I’m was sitting in gabbing on her phone. Her plane to Vail, CO was supposed to leave at 11 a.m. Currently, it was 4 p.m. She walked out of range before I could hear what happened to cause the delay.
That would suck. You can’t leave the airport because when things are fixed, the plane will take off. It’s not going to wait for me to come back.
I also heard she was jealous of Bella because Bella got an ipod from Santa.
That’s what happens when you are in a public place talking on the cell phone. Bored people will eavesdrop.
Another gem from a guy in Seattle:
“This is the last time I let me parents pick out a flight for me. I sat in front of three four year olds and got the complementary back massage from them the whole way. I wish their parents sat in front of them.”
I wonder if people ever laugh at the things they hear when I am on the phone. Probably.
Usually in airports, I put my headphones in and drown out the noise, but when I was traveling to Alaska eight months ago, I missed three calls over the intercom for boarding my flight. Now I’m paranoid I will actually get stuck somewhere.
Traveling alone just isn’t as fun as when you are with a group of people. Driving back to Minnesota was definitely better because I was with my friends. For hockey in college, we had to fly twice to the National tournament during my four years and that was always a ton of fun. Much better than sitting by myself watching the crazy cart drivers almost hit people and swerve around.
Those drivers are intense. I don’t think I would ever accept a ride from them, even if both of my legs were broken. They tailgate the people riding in front of them and I have seen like two people actually RIDE in the cart.
In Minneapolis, the carts have horns on them. Terrible idea. The drivers just lay on the horn.
I love this time of the year because newspapers, media outlets and anyone with an opinion put out a list of the best stories/teams/athletes of the year. Since we are ending a decade, the best of the decade lists come out too.
I really enjoy reading these. Most have two or three similar story lines but each seems to find one or two gems that I forgot about/never heard about.
The one story that seems to be on every list is, of course, Tiger Woods.
Yes, it did happen this year but its weird to have it on the list. It hasn’t ended. We all know his return to golf will be on that year’s list as well.
In Minnesota, my dad has a subscription to Sports Illustrated and when I go home, I try to read them all. I never get through the stack but I was able to look at the one with the best pictures of the decade. Those pictures are so cool. I often wonder how the photographers can take such amazing pictures. I find that some of my good ones come from luck.
I can’t think of my top-10 list, thank you indecisiveness. I have close to two hours in the Seattle airport and I cannot come up with a top-ten list of athletes or sports stories.
I’ll work on those and get those up soon.
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