Alaska to Utah: The Journey

Who would have thought that trying to get packed up and ready to move from one state to the other could take so much time. . .THIS GIRL! But I didn't expect the actual travel from Alaska down to Utah to take quite so long. Had everything gone according to plan, I should have been in Provo on 30 September 2012, however I didn't end up getting here until 3 October 2012. I didn't have any clothes, make-up, etc. with me in between all this time as well. It was quite the experience, but in the end I made a surprise visit to Daniel (totally worth it).

The Journey

My boss was kind enough to let me off early on Friday, 28 September so that my mom, sister, and I could drive the 300+ miles down to Anchorage for me to catch my flight the following evening. We had a grand ole time driving through a snow storm that had snowflakes the size of quarters (and that is NOT an exaggeration), rain, and icy roads. My sister decided she would just read her book, while mom and I were forced to entertain ourselves. It was actually quite fun; we finally made it to Anchorage and drove over to the hotel. Well the Westmark Anchorage is in the middle of downtown, lots of one way streets and such, oh and did I mention NO PARKING. So we pull up, I go in to get us all checked in and find out that I seem to have misplaced my debit card (aka I left it in Fairbanks), I check through all of my bag and cannot find it. I ask my mom if she will kindly foot the bill (this was supposed to be her birthday present, can you imagine how embarrassed I felt?) and that I would write her a check as soon as we get upstairs. Leah and I bring in all of our luggage and have it on a cart to take up to the room while mom goes to park. . .except there are no spots left. She gets really, really frustrated and I finally tell her to just come back so that I can take the car over to where she is supposed to park it (she couldn't understand the poor ladies directions). She does so and I go park the car without a problem; we go upstairs to our room only to find out that there is no refrigerator for my mom to have a cold soda the next day (this is very depressing, I mean seriously what hotel doesn't have a mini-fridge in this day and age?!??!!) So I go find us some ice to put a soda in.

The next morning we do what girls do best. . .SHOP! Well actually first we mailed a couple of my Rubber-Maid totes to Utah and had lunch, then we SHOPPED! I was able to get a couple of adorable sweaters and a pair of boots that I have been looking for for ages. I wasn't able to get my leg warmers however like I was told by a vendor at the fair that I would be able to (very disappointed), but we did get to go to Olive Garden (what a mess that was). Unfortunately that was not a good experience, they took forever to bring out any of our food, my mother sat there for another 10-15 minutes without food before I finally got the attention of a waiter to ask where the heck her food was at. No discounts were offered for the horrible treatment/lack of any kind of service which was unfortunate. We had been looking forward to eating there for weeks (it's the only Olive Garden in Alaska at the moment).

Then it was time to go to the airport. I gave hugs and kisses to my mom, sister, and grandma and went it to check in, give them my luggage and begin my journey! Going through security was a dream, literally I walked right through the entire thing without really having to stop. I get to my gate and wait, and wait, and wait. . .and waited some more. Meanwhile all the other confirmed passengers get on and the flight takes off. . .without me. The ticket agent tells me that there isn't much room on the flight early the next morning to Minneapolis so we decide to put my name down for the same flight as this evening but for the next night (which had 45 seats available). I call my friend/her husband and tearily tell her I won't be coming in the next morning. Mom picks me up and we leave so we can get some sleep that night (by this time it's like 2:00 AM)

We go out to breakfast the next morning with my grandma, hit up Costco and then they dropped my Grandma and myself back off so they could drive back to North Pole. We kind of just lounged around and before we knew it, we needed to head over to the airport for round two. I get myself all checked in, go through security, and go wait at my gate. I wait, and I wait, and I wait, and I did some more waiting. Again, all confirmed passengers board, the door is locked, and the flight leaves. . .and again I am not on that flight. So I called my friend to let her know I wouldn't be coming, called my mom to tell her we needed to figure something else out in the morning (that was the last direct flight out of Anchorage to Salt Lake until the next weekend) and waited to be picked up by my Grandma. We headed over to her condo and got some beauty sleep.

I was abruptly awakened at 8:20ish by my mother who told me she could get me on a flight that evening to Las Vegas (where Daniel is) for a really good price, she told me to call Daniel and see what the possibilities were of someone driving me from Las Vegas up to Provo. Daniel told me that if I could get in that evening then I could ride back up to Provo with his twin brother and his girlfriend/fiance. Mom looked at that ticket (it ended up costing more) and booked me on the flight. Only thing was I had to be at the airport right then! So I wake up my Grandma, we rush over, I checked in my last remaining bag (I forgot to mention, on that first flight all my checked luggage was taken to SLC even though I was not on the flight, I had absolutely NOTHING with me) and rushed through security. Thankfully the line was not very long and I got right through and back to my gate just as they were boarding my flight.

The flights were pretty uneventful, I almost missed my flight from Seattle to Las Vegas because I lost track of time while getting some food. Then I get to Vegas and get my luggage while I wait for Daniel to pick me up. I wait, wait, wait, and again wait some more. We finally figure out that I am in the ONLY terminal that is not connected to the main terminal and that Daniel as to take an Airport shuttle over to pick me up. I was so incredibly excited to see him. . .I might have possibly jumped on him. .

Being the sweet boyfriend that he is, he grabs my bags and we rush over to catch the shuttle back to where he parked. Because of the delay in finding me, his brother ended up leaving without me and I was stuck in Vegas/St. George. Well stuck isn't the right word, because I had a blast while I was there (see St. George post). On 3 October I caught the St. George shuttle up to Springville where Jacey was waiting to pick me up/take me Salt Lake just so we could pick up my luggage (I have pretty awesome friends). During the car ride we were able to catch up on everything that happened while I was 3000+ miles away. We got back to Provo safely and that is the end of my 5 day journey to Provo, Utah from Alaska.