It was time to head back to Vermont.. it’s been a very good visit. We said goodbye to the goats, the ducks, and the dogs,  I hope we remembered to say goodbye to Steve and Denise 🙂 

 

Steve and Denise gave us a ride to teh brand new MCI aoport in Kans City Mo.. it’s only been open a week. It really is nice.. lots of good public art.   

The flight hoem was pretty interesting. On the trip home I logged my millionth mile on United. I got nice acknowledgment  from the plane staff. Kinda cool that they watch that sort of thing.. 

But that wasn’t the only thing that happened on the trip back. We were about to board the flight to Burlington when we heard there was sort of ground hold at the airport in Burlington. there was a rumor that it was a sick passenger on an incoming flight , then it was a story of an unruly passenger. United told us they were waiting for other passengers (but on an incoming flight ?).. We actually boarded our plane at dulles, but immediately had to unboard.. 

After an hour or so we started to see stuff on twitter and facebook … some folks near the BTV airport reported that all flights were on hold there and the road outside the airport was blocked. I got on my work Slack and found some  friends who were at work (amazing how many folks are there on weekends).. They were listening to Air Traffic Control. We heard that it was a security issue and the  plane in question had been towed to an auxiliary runway far away from the airport.. and that they  were waiting backup from several agencies.  We also read a few tweets from a couple of passengers on board the plane including from a local newscaster who was on the plane that htey’d been parked for more than 2 hours and not been told anything. We then heard from ATC that there was an unsubstantiated bomb threat that was being checked out.  
Officials unloaded the baggage  and brought bomb sniffing dogs along the baggage and on to the plane.. 

Eventually the plane was cleared and the airport opened up .. We were able to board our flight and flew on to BTV. When we got there was a backup  were several other planes in front of us waiting to unload.. We finally unloaded.. but the baggage clain was super backed up..

 

It was nearly 5 hours later than expected.. We were happy to be home with everyone safe.!what an adventure !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Today we had a mini-reunion with Steve and Denise’s family.     Our neice Stephanie and our nephew Michael came over with Michael’s   son Austin, his wife Melissa and Melissa’s son Tyler.  We hadn’t seen them in a long while . it was so nice to  see them. We spent  the afternoon catching up, eating pizza and playing games .

We also spent time looking at pictures of the family’s past..|

 

Good memories …

 

nite all, nite sam

-me

One of the fun things about visiting my brother and sister in law Steve and Denise in Kansas is being able to check out Denises quilting. SHe’s the most advanced quilter I know.. she’s got a 8 foot wide computer controlled quilting machine, a computer controlled pattern cutter and a computer controlled embroidering machine.. just like grandma used to use..

Seriously, Denise’s work is amazing and their house is a museum !. she has stacks and stacks of the most beautiful sewing i’ve ever seen…

Denise is going to make one for us.. .. we got to pick out the design and buy the fabric.. cant wait to see it !
nite all, nite sam

-me

It was tiem to leave Santa Fe.. We’ve had a great time with Max . Becky and Violet,.
We took one of their cars to the Santa Fe airport and got there by 5:50 AM. It’s the tiniest airport I know.. After 2 short flights we were in Kansas. Diane’s brother Steve and my sister-in-law Denise met us at the brand new MCI airport  and whisked us back to Leavenworth where they live. We haven’t been here since our nephew Michael’s wedding in 2019 (?) .. Visiting here is always fun for many reasons.. One is the animals !

It was also very good seeing the humans. Part of our mission here in addition to catching up is to get some help from Steve on planning our trip to italy in September. Steve has written 11 (I think) well edited books on the geneaology of his and DIanes family. There are 2 whole books of data on the parts of italy we’re visiting.. It’s so great to ge his help

It’s also very cool to check in on Denises quilting.> She’s the most sophisticated quilter I know.. More on that in a day or so.

Nite all, nite sam

-me