Yay!  The day has finally arrived for my long awaited Stormscapelive Trip!  I can hardly contain my excitement!!!!

My ride to the airport arrived right on time to whisk me into Logan Airport in Boston,  There was no wait at bag check in and barely a five minute wait at the security line.  As I stepped up to be screened, I was frisked for the first time in my life!  LOL  what a way to start your trip than with the cheep thrill of a frisking…Ah it was a lady officer…oh well. After passing inspection I was off to find my terminal…of course all the way to the end of the United Terminal.  I joined in the queue at Dunkin Donuts (known to many as either D&D or Dunkies) and got an iced coffee and muffin and sat along the wall facing the crowd so I could people watch.  There were an awful lot of families with little ones taking this flight…I mean babies & infants!  There was even a youth ministry group that was traveling on from Denver to Wyoming to do some mission work of some kind.  It was inspiring to see so many of them.  I hope their work was rewarding for them and the folks whom they were going to help out.

Once on the plane, I walked right passed my seat.  So used to sitting near the back, I forgot I had been upgraded to a door row..D’oh I just walked through the door and passed my seat!  One of the attendants helped to put my bags up in the overhead compartment.  Unfortunately since I had the door seat, there was no place for me to keep my tote bag with my MP3 player or purse.  I could have gotten them after lift off but I opted for silence.  I could see the movie which I have no idea what it was…some cartoon, but my attention was looking out the window and watching the parade of people to the rest room… When they call a bathroom the “water closet”  they must have had airplanes in mind, this thing was barely big enough to be called a closet!

The flight itself was uneventful, a little minor turbulence here and there but pretty smooth.  We arrived 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.  Awesome I can get to the hotel earlier right?   Wrong!  The darn luggage carousel kept jamming up and it was 12:30 before my bag came out.  I got out to the pickup spot for the shuttle and just missed one.  had to wait about 30 minutes or so for the next one.  I was the last to arrive at the hotel and we were waiting for Mike Phelps to get back from having the oil changed in the van.  Or so we thought.  Turns out there were 3 hour waits where ever he went and silly SIRI sent him 13 miles away to a closed Oil/lube location.  Thanks’s Siri!  So the oil will wait until Monday or Tuesday morning.

We took a brief rest and then met down in the lobby for our meet & greet and great big hugs.  We chatted a bit and then headed out to Cracker Barrel for some dinner.  None of us had eaten anything since early morning and we were all famished.  Mike had insisted that Neely & I try the catfish so we did.  I was a little leery as I usually just eat cod, scrod or haddock, but I was surprised that it was quite good.

After dinner we headed off to see the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  On our way up there we encountered our first double rainbow.  Oh my the colors were so vibrant!  It was spectacular.  We were hoping we could get a view of it from GOTG but alas it wasn’t meant to be, but the views we were met with were just spectacular!

We drove through the park and arrived at the balancing rock….yes it had been anchored so it will not tumble down on anyone but still it was a pretty awesome site.

We then drove back down a ways to have a little stroll…get out and stretch our legs and get some great landscape shots.

After leaving this magnificent place, Mike took us on a little ride through Manitou Springs and then back to the hotel.  All in all our arrival day turned into a bonus landscape day and I’m so thrilled that I got the chance to see The Garden of the Gods in person.  Last year a portion of the park was damaged in the wild fires and has been closed but the portion that is still open is just breath taking.  The red coloring in the rock formations is a true work of art from God himself.  If this is any indication as to what the rest of the trip will be like, then I won’t want to go home!

Stay tuned for more adventures.  The first three days of the tour look to be storm chasing and we have a lot of driving ahead of us.  First up is a drive from Denver to Montana, but things may change after Mike checks the weather models in the morning.  And the Adventure is underway!  Chow for now my peeps!