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Hello everyone in blog land. I'm down at the US Mexico border and it has been one interesting trip. And I'm not talking about the border itself. Everything was going great as I boarded the plane in Salt Lake City on my way to Phoenix. But that's when everything easy ended. Once arriving in Phoenix I sat for two hours in vain trying to get a hold of the commanders on the ground to arrange a meeting that night where I could do some interviews and go look at what had been done. Not reaching them however turned out all right because by pure luck (or blessing depending on how you look at it) I ran into Major Hank McIntire, who has been back and forth between the border, in the airport who gave me a lot of info and told me how to get to the work sites etc.
So the storm literally blows over and there's a line of who knows how many planes on the runway waiting to take off. But then our pilot who didn't turn the props off during the hour (this might be for reasons I'm not privy too) informs us we are low on fuel and have to go back to fill up. So we leave our position in this gigantic line of planes to go back and fuel. That's when they tell us it's going to be several more hours to get everything back to normal so get off the plane and wait in the air conditioned building. That sounds good until you get inside and they tell you the real reason is because they just canceled your flight.
Then they say we should run to the other side of the terminal to the customer service desk to see if we can make it on the next flight. Well, I'm still a rather young man and made good time even after making a wrong turn. So I was about the sixth person there and got the last ticket to Yuma. Over the next several hours they kept changing the gate over and over again. It was like musical chairs and people who just get sick of it drop out and go to a hotel. Of course the airline doesn't pay for the hotel because it is a weather delay. So after another nearly three hour delay we finally make it aboard the flight with the assurances our bags have been transferred and life is wonderful we should be there by midnight. I'm going to attempt to attach a reporters journal audio file that has this touching moment when they tell us to board.
Now if you've ever been on one of these smaller passenger prop planes you know they don't do well in turbulence. And it didn't. The ride made all the roller coasters at lagoon seem pretty tame. The bonus though no one lost their dinner which we all ate in the airport while musing over our dilemma. We landed and walk to the airport and once again I won the dash to the rental car desk. All but one was closed and luckily I was booked with that one because not everyone got a car. Then we all gathered around the baggage claim and our tired somewhat miserable faces turned down right sour when almost no luggage came off the plane. Luckily I had my trusty laptop and microphones with me on board. But the other radio equipment was checked along with my clothes. So if you listened Thursday morning I was doing my reports over the phone thanks to what is now probably my favorite airline. So that was my adventure just getting here.
I hope you enjoy my reports on what I really came for: Utah troops on the border. And If my ramblings here don't make any sense, just remember I'm half way through my second day with only two hours of sleep.
