5.29.2011

My Planes & Trains Adventure

I recently went on an adventure with a friend. We went to Minot North Dakota by way of planes to Minneapolis MN, then train to Minot ND. The first leg of our journey went pretty smoothly. Only an 90 minutes late into Minot. She was going to surprise a friend from grade school and I went to surprise my son who serves in the Air Force up there. We both had wonderful reactions to our surprise visit.
We went our separate ways for 4 days and had a wonderful time with family & friends.
We met back at the train station at 9:30 pm and then began our real adventure.
You see I had wanted to take the bus from the airport to the train station, but we were told this was too dangerous by a kind gentleman at the airport info both. So we took a taxi.
Well our journey home was not to be that easy. We ended waiting until 3:15am for our train to arrive into Minot. We then slowly made our way to Minneapolis. The train was already 7 hours behind schedule for those that had started in Seattle WA. I knew we would never make our flight at 10:30 that morning, so we contacted Delta on our trusty cellphones to see what we could do. Everyone flying was having to re-book their flights. Some had to pay over $200.00 for this. Delta was very easy to work with. We just had to know what time we would be at the airport, which we didn't. So we said our prayers and waited until we arrived in Minneapolis. We met a gentleman that also would need a taxi to the airport, so we shared a cab with him. This turned out to be a little tricky. I went to the first taxi van in line and asked how much to get to the airport, he did not speak English well and I thought he said $35.00, which was 10.00 more than when we took it to the train station. I asked why and he said it might be $40.00. He had already started the meter and grabbed my bag and put it in the van. I went to the next car taxi and asked the big burly white man how much to get to the airport and he said $20.00 at the most. I went over to the van and grabbed my bag out of it and said no thank you. He got upset and I then said I did not feel like getting screwed that day. The poor gentleman sharing our cab just watched . . . I got his bags and threw them in the back and he got in the front seat and said what just happened? I said I saved us $20.00. He laughed. We were on our way to the airport . . .
We arrived just before 3pm and made our way to the Delta counter to tell them our sad story and hope for the best. It was just like you see in the movies, he tapped on his keyboard for a few moments then said I have 2 seats on the 3:55 flight, do you want them? How much? $50.00 each. Praise the Lord!!!
We then breezed through security and what pull sup as I am putting my shoes back on . . . an airport taxi thingy . . . you know the ones that fly you through the airport . . . He asked if we needed assistance and I looked at him and thought why not. Never had this luxury before. It was a good thing, because our gate was clear at the other end of the airport. We arrived in time to board and be seated right next to each other.
Home by 8pm. Slept like a baby. I love a good adventure!!

5.04.2011

Art paper scrap collage

          I loved doing this page.
First I covered the background with black gesso.
Then I tore my paint paper scraps. (These are the papers I put behind the pages in a book when I paint them. I use them over and over again so they are very colorful.)
Then I used gel medium to adhere them to my book pages. I allowed everything to dry overnight.
I came back with black acrylic paint and painted the words. I used painted stamps for the word believe.
       Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I have been trying to get our huge lawn mowed and also keeping up with my 60 minutes of hiking and exercise each day. Doesn't leave much time for anything else before I head into work for the afternoon.
        I posted a slideshow of my North Carolina hiking vacation on the side bar of the blog.