FLIGHT DELAYS

We were up to an early alarm to get things cleaned up ,loaded, have breakfast  and get to the airport for our 12:05 flight to Newark, NJ. Our "deer" friends came around as if to say good bye this morning.

After we had breakfast we were on the road back to Bozeman, MT to the Yellowstone International airport. The interstate we drove on to get there had very little traffic on it and was surrounded by the same beauty of anywhere we have been out here.

At the airport a little early we turned in the rental car and went through the scanners without any problems.
However when we went up to the counter to check in Tif's and son's bags we ran into out first trouble when the lady there said out flight had been delayed until 2:30.
Okay we thought that wasn't too bad as we had a 3.5 hour  lay over in New Jersey before out flight out of there to Greenville, SC.
The bags were checked and we headed up to find our gate to sit and wait an extra 2.5 hours. This was a smaller airport and not as crowded as Chicago for sure.

Just as we settled in the flight schedule board blinked our flight to a delay until 5:20 which would cause us to definitely miss our connecting flight in New Jersey.
Son went up to ask what was going on and see what our options were. At this point it was delayed because of severe weather with flooding rain in Newark, NJ and she wasn't sure when they would fly.
She looked at all our options to fly into other places but found none except 4 seats on a plane that didn't leave Newark until tomorrow at 2:30 and would get us into Asheville. Son went ahead and reserved those 4 seats and then we still hoped for maybe a delay in our connecting flight out of Newark and we might still get there in time.
It was a very boring afternoon as we ate lunch in their café and took turns charging our phones and watching the clouds build outside of the windows in Bozeman.

A new flight crew that one of the stewardess said were flown in from Denver arrived to take over for the crew that was on our flight since the delay cut their allotted time short.
However they found out that the delay was even more extended and we wouldn't be flying until around 7:00.
Finally the plane arrived to applause from all the many waiting passengers. We loaded the plane around 8:00 and then we sat there without moving for an extended length of time.  This was the same sized plane we had flew into Bozeman on last Saturday night.

Finally the captain came on the intercom and announced that the computers were down and he was having to load everything manually and was having trouble getting a call into Chicago because the lines were all jammed. He also noted that with the 4 hour flight this new crew only had an hour to get all this done or they would run out of their time slot.
I figured we weren't going to be flying anywhere tonight and gathered my things back together to be ready to get off the plane.
With 10 minutes to go and around 9:00 Bozeman time the flight attendant came on and said we were taking off.
Believe me I really wondered about this decision as soon as we lifted into the air as turbulence started bouncing the plane all around fiercely.

Just as we leveled out lightening flashed all around the plane and I started to wonder if the computers were down how did the pilot know what kind of weather we were headed into???
I was so surprised I didn't take any pics out the window and soon it was pitch dark outside the window anyway with all the cloudiness.
It was a very rough 4 hour flight with turbulence almost the entire trip and all the poor babies on board screamed loudly the entire flight.
I think I did dose a couple times but as soon as the plane started to moved around I would wake up.
I and all of us did a lot of praying through this journey in hopes that God didn't pick this night to call us all home.
God Bless and Good Night.