Prepare for a great tale that gets better each time I tell it. Above is a picture from my hometown, Bemidji. It was taken briefly after I received news that my flight from Bemidji to Minneapolis was cancelled. A flight that was supposed to leave in less than 12 hours from when we were told it was cancelled, oh, and all other flights for that day are cancelled too. This left us with few options, and no good options. We could:
- Call it quits. This was not an option.
- Call it a wrecked day and try to get in on Friday. Not a great option, thanks to how much I had planned to do on Thursday.
- Drive to Minneapolis instead of fly out of Bemidji. The problem is shown above. A blizzard was coming through area and we'd be driving right through it.
With those options on the board we picked number three, bundled up, got in he van, and prepared for a long drive through snow and ice. We decided to play it safe and ask Minneapolis if their flights were cancelled. They assured us they were not, but there was a new snag... since our flights to their airport were cancelled they had already removed us from our respective flights. Hrrumph.
Yeah really. Eww. So my wife spent 30+ minutes getting that all worked out. Now all that I had left to do was to drive through a blizzard. Four RedBulls and hours later, I got further and further south the weather got less and less severe. What was once snow and ice that surrounded me and covered the roads soon became wet slush, to eventually mere watery roads. I had expected my endeavor to take six to seven hours, but I got us there in just under five which is a good time for that distance even without the snow and ice. This got us there in time to take a two hour nap in the airport terminal. My first and only sleep of the 36+ hours that have led to this point in my coverage. As I finish writing this, and having watched the Jund centric LCQ, and enjoying the elation of the player party I can safely say that I am more tired now that any time in my adult memory. And it's been 100% worth it.
4 Comments
I dunno, kids today. In my day, we walked to PTs through the snow, and we liked it. Uphill both ways, of course. That was when we had proper PTs, of course, held inside the cold-store of a Target somewhere in Bismark, North Dakota. 400 of us there were, in that cold-store. Including Steven OMS.
And we didn't have none of your fancy-dancy RSS updates either. We had to carry typewriters, yes, typewriters, with us, so we could submit copy for the Duelist, to be published three months later. *And* we expected our article to be pulled for another crappy Mark Rosewater "Puzzling"....
Tell that to people nowadays and they won't believe you.
Very funny! :) I should point Steve to this just to read that :p
Thank you so much for going Hammy! I was really looking forward to your coverage and I would have been very sad to have missed it.
Thank you for your dedication to the community. 3 cheers for Hammy!
Didn't realize the weather was that bad up there. We had some snow here (St. Paul) but I was oblivious to the rest. Kind of silly how things work out.
I was reading your post and immediately knew you'd be packing up the car for the long drive! :-) Hope you're having a blast in HOU! Safe travels on your way home. =)