Seven of us let Austin on Monday for a ski trip at Heavenly mountain in South Lake Tahoe. The three guys took a crack of dawn flight while the four gals waited for an evening one.
The guys adventure: At 345am we departed the house for Austin airport. Two flights on Southwest to get to Reno = uneventful. We were worried after all the Southwest problems last week, but the guys had no problems. They picked up the rental car and headed to Costco and Walmart for grocery shopping. Chris is normally not “allowed” to shop by himself at Costco, that restriction has now been extended to not being able to shop there with Derek either. But really, they bought the entirety of the grocery list I gave them; it’s the amounts of those items that might be worrisome.
Next stop was South Lake Tahoe for a ski boot fitting appointment and then on to the condo to pack in before having to head back to Reno (90 minutes on these snow covered roads) for our arrival at 9pm. while pulling into a parking spot at the condo the Chrysler plug-in hybrid minivan that we rented started acting up and errored out to the point that the vehicle wouldn’t do anything, including turn off. Derek called Hertz roadside for assistance and was assured someone would be out within an hour. Ten minutes later he received a text stating that his roadside assistance was cancelled as requested. A call back to Hertz resulted in an apology and reinstatement of the roadside. Yes, you guessed it, minutes later it was cancelled again. Grrr.
Meanwhile, Chris was shoveling the parking lot and trying to get access to the exterior steps to the condo. He spent the next 90 minutes clearing the steps and entrance. Derek finally finds a neighbor and borrows some tools to deconnect the battery and reset the electrical error. Chris and Derek called the rental company and told them that they were headed back to Reno to get a new car.
The girls: We arrived at the Austin airport 90 minutes before our flight. As we were checking our bags, we noticed that there was a large collection of bags behind the counter and we asked why. The worker told us that there was a baggage conveyor problem that would hopefully be solved before we left, assuming we had arrived 2-3 hours before our flight. When we told her it was only 90 minutes until our flight, she crossed her fingers. Not getting a warm and fuzzy.
We were delayed heading to San Diego, our connection airport, and they announced that it was for loading more bags. Yea! Our bags are getting onboard. When we arrived in San Diego, we learned that our flight to Reno was delayed. Final result was a two hour delay, so we arrived at 11pm instead of 9pm. The boys met us with their new rental vehicle (an SUV) and we greeted them with the info that only 2 of our 4 bags made it on the flight. We made arrangements for the bags to be delivered and headed into the snowy night to brave the roads with out AWD vehicle and tire chains. Phew! This was a day we were ready to be done with!
What else do you need from Costco – liquor and shovels