Tuesday, January 5 - Sad Departure (and home to a bomb scare!)

The motel was nice for being $49, but the glass doors are definitely not sound-proof. I went to sleep at 10 and was woken up repeatedly between 11 and 3 by people talking, headed to and from the hot tub, etc.  I tried the bathroom fan and it was really noisy, not "white noise", so I turned it off. It was also noisy from 5 am on with people opening and closing doors. I had planned on sleeping in, but gave up and got up at 7:30 and watched tv and read my book.  I'll stay here again but will ask for a big fan to block out the noise, or get a room on a higher floor.

I took my time eating breakfast and checked out at 11.  My first stop, of course, was an antique store.  I had been saying in November that I needed to go to Montana to get an antique spoon for my cool Polish Pottery sugar bowl.  And I got one...an antique silver baby spoon with a cool curved handle. So now I have a Montana connection every time I put sugar in my coffee.  It's the little things...right?

I also bought an antique Glacier Park little circular copper thing...I want to start collecting old things from Glacier and Yellowstone but there apparently aren't many around...they're bought up as quickly as they become available.  I then went to the Sportsman's store to return my bear spray that hadn't even been taken out of the package since I didn't spend time snowshoeing by myself  in the areas where there could be cougars.  Then I headed to the airport.  It was snowing in every direction and I couldn't even see the mountains. In hindsight, I could have driven over to Willow Creek for lunch  at the saloon (it plays a central role in one of my favorite books,( Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West) but there wasn't enough time by the time I thought of it. I shouldn't have taken my time at the hotel.

I returned my car easily (so fast at this airport!) and then while checking my bags discovered they were heavier than when I arrived...I forgot I was taking lots of my unused food home.  But I shuffled things from one bag to another and still had two free bags.  Then I went through security.  They asked to search my purse and wanted to know if I had a tape measure or candle in it, which I did not.  But I told him I didn't mind, search away...I am VERY happy they are being so careful.  It turned out it was my little copper Glacier thing that looked suspicious.  They tested my purse for explosive residue and then put the Glacier thing through the scanner again.  It was fine, of course, so I went to find the restaurant.  The restaurant was OUTSIDE of the secure area, I discovered.  So I had to let the nice security guys let me out.  I had lunch and had to go back through security but at I got the Glacier thing out right away and didn't have any other problems.  They were searching people very thoroughly, I was glad to see.

While waiting to board   the plane I thought I saw one of my fellow confirmation leaders from St. Andrews but it's someone I've never met and I wasn't sure it was him so I didn't say anything.  (Note:  I discovered at church the next night that yes, it  WAS him). 

As we took off into the clouds I tried not to cry but couldn't keep tears from rolling down my face. I know it may sound silly and ridiculous but leaving the mountains is really, really hard for me.

The flight was very smooth...as usual, I counted to 60 at takeoff and then relaxed a little although I really didn't like going up through all the snow clouds.  But at least I didn't clutch a teddy bear the whole time, like the woman sitting next to Matt on his flight to Amsterdam yesterday.

I called Marc when we landed and were taxiing, as we were 40 minutes early.  He told me there had been a bomb scare at the airport that afternoon.  That is NOT what you want to hear.  It was a false alarm, but still scary.  There seemed to still be a lot of law enforcement people around, and some media crews were still there as well.

It was a short but very sweet trip...not exactly what I had planned since I didn't get much exercise in (snowshoeing)  but that's ok, the wildlife-watching was phenomenal and I can snowshoe here in Minnesota anytime, but I can't see wolves, elk and bison.  I have to say I am now wanting to move West even more than before....I cry when I arrive there (happy tears) , cry more when I leave....I think I need to be there.  Now if I can just convince my kids....Logan has basically "dared" me to find a job out there.  Stay tuned...
© 2010 Tara Morrison