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Overnight - 2010
"June 9th"
Since Delta canceled the flight to Yellowstone on June 9th, it was easier to book a hotel in Salt Lake and cancel the hotel for the 9th in West Yellowstone than it was to rebook the whole thing. I picked a hotel in Salt Lake that was near Temple Square.
Got to Salt Lake and since we didn't have any checked bags, we went right to the hotel pickup and the wheelchair lady used the phone and called the hotel van which came in about 5 minutes. The hotel (Salt Lake Plaza) is right across from the Temple and is owned by the Church. We can see the capitol building from our window which is on the 9th floor.
We dropped our stuff and I changed out of my slip-on airplane shoes into walking shoes and set out on our afternoon. First afterthought -I had to go back for my cane.
Printed out the boarding passes for tomorrow and then we headed over for the Family History Library - taking photos on the way.
We were going to look up my grandson's other grandmother's grandfather Alonzo Selby and see if we could find his discharge papers from the Civil War.
My grandson pointed out that he could not have served in the Civil War, as he was not born until 1878. We did find 13 Selbys from Indiana who were in the Federal Army, but the one named Alonzo was born in 1844 and was not the father of her grandfather. We did find our Alonzo in the census with his widowed father. I relearned how to do searches there and get the microfiche and make copies of it.
Got out of the library about 8 and I would have walked to a restaurant, but my back was hurting so we just went back to the hotel and ordered pizza. My grandson had his half sausage and I had my half pineapple. I also ordered cheese garlic bread and we couldn't eat it all. The basic order was under $20, and I tipped the delivery person who came up to our room. (i.e. we didn't have to go down to the lobby.) We have a wake-up call, room service breakfast and a shuttle to the airport on order.
I will not have internet access again until the 12th as the Old Faithful Inn does not have it.
"June 10th"
My grandson woke early and took some photos of the state capitol and an industrial complex that we could see from our window, and also some aspects of the hotel room (like the safe). We got our breakfast and he loved his sausage gravy and biscuits. I didn't eat all of my breakfast. I found the hash browns greasy. I took an English muffin thinking I could eat it later, but by the time I got to where I want it it was too hard to bite pieces from it.
I checked out of the hotel on the phone and then went down to the lobby to wait for the shuttle van. The van was doing another errand and we had plenty of time this was the 8:00 van and our plane didn't start to board until 10:00 or so.
My grandson went into the gift shop and bought some things, and I decided to do that too at the last minute. They had some deer antlers displayed on the top of the bookcase, and some other interesting items but what I got were CDs of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. What would say Salt Lake better than that?
We got to the airport and I asked for a wheelchair. There were two of us ladies who needed wheelchairs and one skycap pushed us both up the elevator and through security. Again they didn't need to see my grandson's ID. Then the wheelchair person left me and went to take the other lady to her plane. Before he left I gave him $2.00
The SLC airport is big, but the little Embraer Brasilia turboprop aircraft we are taking was in E terminal. Terminal E had five or six gates all squashed together for the little regional aircraft each with two flights listed. They left me sitting in the wheelchair as there were no seats. My grandson briefly sat on my small bag although there was an empty wheelchair he could have used. He also went to the bathroom, filled his water bottle and got something to eat and then got my water bottle filled at the Starbucks stand.
We were supposed to board at 10:10, but of course we didn't. Four different
wheelchair people came to me and explained that there would be a 20 minute delay. Before the flight was called they allowed me to board and there were three wheelchair people competing to push me out to the gate. In this area instead of the planes coming up and having a direct connection to the terminal, you walk down a long corridor and then open a door and walk out to the plane and up the steps. (Like in the olden days.)
We got to the actual plane about 10:45. My grandson gate checked his bag. We were right in front of the wing, but in back of the prop. There were less than 10 of us on the plane. I was by the window as my grandson does not like the window seat. We took off about 11:30.
They gave us peanuts as a snack but my grandson attempted to sleep instead.
Next: West Yellowstone
