Spokane: the (mis) adventure!

Remember the $99 flight? Well, it was a great plan in theory but it fell apart in the details. It meant taking the last flight out on Thursday evening (11:00PM) and the first flight back on Sunday morning (5:00AM). We started the mess ourselves by leaving Lynden 30 minutes later than we should have. We would have made it (barely) except that when we got to Everett the DOT had chosen that evening to narrow I-5 to just ONE lane! We crawled for miles and watched the clock inch closer to the time we were supposed to be at the airport. With minutes to spare we parked at SeaTac and raced to the airport and frantically ran to the ticket counter. At this point we were well past the 30 minute time limit to board but the ticket agent told us if we ran we could make the plane but because they had already closed the cargo hold we could take NO luggage! Not only that, because this was the last flight of the night we could not leave our luggage at the airport overnight for security reasons! Someone was going to have to stay behind with the luggage and fly over first thing in the morning. Well, this created a huge delimma because Cindy and I each had a suitcase full of supplies for the Eagle Forum booth we planned to showcase at the Spokane convention. We also needed to be there very early on Friday morning for set up and meetings. Before we could even process all the implications of this situation Charlie and Anne said, "GO! GO! we'll come with all the luggage in the morning." Mercy me...I opened my suitcase to see what I could grab but of course everything I needed would be confiscated at security so I just zipped it back up and ran for the gate. Cindy had the presence of mind to grab a pair of pants and stuff it into her purse. We bolted for security, threw off shoes and jackets and begged to go around the other people. One look at our faces and they stepped aside with haste! I have never been so grateful for my marathon training as we literally had to run all the way to the end of the terminal. We arrived at the gate, barged onto the airplane and collapsed into our seats. Neither of us spoke for a very long time as we contemplated our situation... no clothes, no pajamas, no makeup, not even a hairbrush! This was going to be a long night!