Sunday started off great with getting up at dawn to go Hot Air Ballooning. In the early afternoon our friends took us to an area where due to the recent rains, and warm weather, the hills were abloom with yellow poppies.

The only problem was that everyone else seemingly had the same idea,

When we got back to their place we finished packing, and left for LAX at around 6:00 P.M. to have plenty of time to get there, return the rental car, and get through security in time for our 10:30 flight.

There were only a few traffic snarls on the way and we arrived in the airport area around 8:00. We had some trouble finding the rental car return (we picked it up elsewhere in LA, but arranged to drop it off at the airport) We got on the shuttle bus, and it took almost 30 minutes to go the mile or so to the airport, plus another 10 minutes to get to our terminal.

The security line was slow but not too long and we got to the gate about 40 minute before boarding. However the flight was already showing as 1 hour late, and given that we had a 1 hr 15 min connection in Phoenix it seemed like it could be a problem.

The customer service agent checked everything, but apparently since the UVA students were returning from spring break, there were almost no seats available into Charlottesville, either from LA or Phoenix. She found one route that wouldn't leave until 11:15 the next morning, and was scheduled to arrive at 9:50 P.M. (two hours after the now was scheduled to start in Charlottesville.) We decided to continue with the original itinerary and hope we could make a 15 minute connection, but when the flight info updated that the initial flight would leave 2 hours late, we decided to opt for the flight the next morning at 11:15.

Since the airline claimed the delay was due to weather they wouldn't pay for a hotel room, but they offered a voucher for a "reduced rate" which when we called ended up being $184. We then used Orbitz, and found several cheaper closer hotels, after calling a couple and being told "no vacancy" or them simply never answering the phone, we booked a place though Orbitz which was cheap-ish ($100), close-ish (1.2 miles) and had a free shuttle although it said call for details about the shuttle bus. It turned out to be one of the places that never answers the phone.

We flagged a taxi and he apologetically told us that there was a $15 minimum fare plus a $4 surcharge to go anywhere from the airport, so $19 to go 1.2 miles.

I was sure that he was making that up (apparently he wasn't), and that the hotel would not actually have our reservation and not have a room (but they did). We reserved spots on the 9:00 A.M. shuttle and checked in. Although the room was sort of run down and disheveled it looked fine if your eyes were closed.

We got back to the airport without much trouble, got through the security line again, and made our way to the gate. While we were waiting we called to reschedule a doctor's appt. that my wife would miss, notified friends that we wouldn't make it to their birthday party that evening, told my sister (who was going to pick us up) when the new arrival time was. And last we called the auto repair place that had both my car and my wife's truck to see whether we could pay over the phone, and arrange to pick up the vehicles that night since they are between the airport and our house, and also since those vehicles both have 4-wheel drive and heavy snow was predicted.

The auto repair place said we could do that but that also the owner was flying back on the same final connecting flight, and he might be able to give us a ride from the airport to the repair place.

We got contact info for the owner and boarded our first flight to Atlanta. We found our way to the connecting gate, grabbed a quick dinner, and found the repair shop owner, chatted briefly and boarded the flight. It was snowing and icing as we approached the airport. I could see ice starting to stick to the leading edge of the wing, but apparently not enough to be a problem.

We rode with the repair shop owner to the shop, picked up both cars, and drove the rest of the way home. In the morning we looked out to see how much snow had fallen since 3"-6" was predicted. The actual amount was more like 0.3" to 0.6"