4/17/08 Getting Sarah to the Denver Airport

We had an ulterior motive for arriving in Colorado – it is very cheap to fly from Denver to San Jose, California. Sarah had an invitation to travel with Act!vated Storytellers, the acting troup of Kimberly, Dennis and Zephyr Goza, another Family-on-the-Road, while they performed at elementary schools and libraries in the bay area.

It meant that we were on a very tight schedule in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas, without a day to spare if we were going to have her on the airplane of the morning of April 17th.

Now, being broken down in the RV is not my first choice of fun, but being towed into a Truck Center in Wichita with an airline ticket deadline can be nerve wracking. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go to Plan B which would have meant leaving the RV in Wichita, because it the batteries were able to be replaced with more powerful, new sealed gel batteries over a couple days and we were on our way to Colorado with only a couple of small details to overcome…

Detail 1: It was 525 miles away. RVer’s usually have a 250-300 mile per day maximum. There was a lot of distance to cover. San Francisco to Orange County is only 425 miles…

Detail 2: There had been a wind advisory in effect due to 45-55 mph gusts for the previous sixteen hours – we waited for the advisory to be lifted at 10:00 am – even though the worst winds were over, we did the drive with 30-35 mph winds. I hate driving in the wind!

Detail 3: as we crossed into Colorado, it began to sleet. I’m not a fan of driving in bad weather, and after eight hours of driving fighting the wind, I was toast. I finally gave up and stayed at a KOA in Strasburg, 45 minutes from our planned campground at Cherry Creek, because I didn’t have any more driving in me. We parked the RV for the night and came out the next morning to 3” of snow!

Getting Sarah to the airport in the morning was a breeze and the airlines allowed me to have a pass so I could join her through security and see her onto the plane myself. We enjoyed our time together and I tried not to cry too much. She will be in good hands with Kimberly Goza; plus there Zephyr and Sarah will attend a get-together of the teens to plan this summer’s home school conference and Sarah will get to spend special time with her friend Libby. It was easy to be happy for her!