After a faulty airplane, seven hours exploring the Denver airport, a yummy lunch and dinner, and following my adventurous shoes...I finally made it back home to Springfield!
The airplane that was supposed to take me from Salt Lake to Denver had some...problems. I wasn't really worried about being late or having to spend some time at an airport, but I was really worried about staying on the plane! We tried to take off and were actually partially off the ground and the plane shut down. Not exactly what is supposed to happen. They said it was a computer problem... they ran some tests and then went back to the gate to have a mechanic check it out. He gave us the ok to leave and after some paperwork we were back on the runway only to have the exact same thing happen. I was really scared at this point. I wanted more than anything to tell us that there was another plane waiting for us, but no such luck. But third time was the charm. We landed three hours later than we were supposed to many of us missing our connecting flight. I got to stand in a line of angry passengers while the flight attendants worked hard to help everyone. I was very pleased with their patience and their help.
I ended up booked on the next flight to Springfield but it wasn't going to for another six or seven hours. The nice lady at the counter gave me two food vouchers and made sure my bags were going to be on the right flight. The gentleman at Panda Express (my choice for lunch) added a drink and an egg roll so that I could use the whole voucher. I was so glad there were people who were looking after me.
After lunch I still had loads of time to kill. I decided to do some writing in my journal about my eventful flight but that didn't take nearly enough time... So I went on an adventure. The Denver Airport is definitely bigger than Springfield or Branson and even bigger than Salt Lake City, but it was not nearly big enough to keep me exploring for five hours. I ended up taking a nap after walking through the whole airport two or three times. And then I went around a couple of other times to scout out the options for dinner.
The flight to Springfield was very nice. Though it was a small plane with little room,
I was lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me so I was able to take the window and stretch out a little more than normal.
