We left home early Sunday morning for the airport excited and sleepy. Once we got there, we checked our baggage and began the first step of many in preparation  for our flight to Vail, CO. As we were standing in line to check our bags, there was a sign posted with items not allowed on the planes. On the list were guns, mace/pepper spray, lighters, screwdrivers, pocket knives and other various items. I had a lighter in my pocketbook and a set of six small screwdrivers in my CPAP bag. BOTH items went through with no problem. What they did question was a small desk fan that I travel with. Apparently they had concerns over this because it showed up as a cylinder shape in the bag. Chip opened the bag and all they did was look at the box! Not what was inside the box! Airport security at it’s best. All shoes were removed from everyone though. They were placed in those little bins and sent through the scanners to be x-rayed. I told them that I was diabetic and would NOT remove my shoes and stand on the dirty carpet for fear of picking up something that would cause infection to my feet so they passed me through the arch which beeped because of the buckles on my Birkenstock sandals. Anyway, we got through security with no real problems, hopped the Handicap Shuttle and were on our way to Denver. As most of you know, flying scares me to death so I wasn’t looking forward to boarding the plane. Once we got on the plane and the beverage cart came around, I ordered two bottles of wine and that made the trip more bearable.

Once we landed in Denver, which is a huge airport, I was detained under suspicion of being a terrorist! Yep. You read that right.  We got a little turned around and when I followed an employee trying to ask for help, he stepped into a door while I was talking to him and shut it in my face! I was guilty of nothing more than trying to hold the door open to finish asking him where our gate was. We were detained for 20 mins! The idiot I chose to ask help from was a black non-American. As were most of the Denver airport employees. Anyway, security was called. Guess what showed up. You got it. Another black non-American who hardly understood English! Here Chip and I stand trying to make this clown understand that I am NOT a terrorist, that I am only lost and need help when the security officer gets on his radio and calls his supervisor to come down to where we are standing, and guess what shows up – yep, you guessed it - another black non-American! I’m thinking to myself at this point “Are there any Americans working in this freaking airport?” Thanks to these idiots we only have a handful of minutes to catch our plane, which is the last gate on the other end of the airport at least a mile away. Well, the old black guy that got in on the action last knew enough English so when we explained that we were simply lost in an airport we had never been in before that day, he took us immediately to a Handicap Shuttle, found us a driver and got us to our gate with 15 mins. to spare. I spent that time crying from frustration at being detained for doing nothing more than trying to get help from an employee. At this point I wanted nothing more than to change my ticket and fly back to Charlotte, NC and come home. It was extremely upsetting. The whole experience caused me to have chest pains, a bad asthma attack, dizziness and numbness in my left arm! They didn’t care that I was in distress from their stupidity even though I was on a cane and requesting a wheelchair. I will give credit to 2 of the ladies at the last gate though. They were white, spoke English and were so angry that one of them put in a call to her supervisor about what happened. These ladies were very upset and angry at the treatment I received and said that the situation most assuredly would not end when I left their gate to board the prop plane to Aspen. They were just incredibly nice about the whole thing. They genuinely cared about my distress.

Well, we finally made it to the prop plane only to have to wait for them to cool off the plane before we boarded. Ten mins. later, they tell us that there will be another 10 min. delay because they ran out all the fuel cooling off the plane! Still crying and upset over the security incident, I am nearly hysterical and begging Chip to let me go home. At this point, I wanted NOTHING more to do with Denver or Colorado for that matter. I just wanted to get back home no matter what it took! Chip could see that I was experiencing physical as well as emotional difficulties and told me that if I would just hold on until we got to Aspen, CO that we would get the rental car and drive home. I was all for that. For me, home was the key word. I was soured on Colorado by this point. Big time!

We finally boarded our little “puddle jumper” and in less than 30 mins. we touched down in Aspen. They had called ahead and a wheelchair was waiting at the bottom of the steps for me.( I still had it in mind to drive home at this point. Damn the Rockies! I wanted to go home.) The girl with the wheelchair pushed me all the way to the rental car counter where we expected to pick up our Lincoln Town Car only to find out that we had a choice of a Mercury Grand Marquis, or as Unca Walt would say, a Skeedadillac Deville. I was sitting outside the rental car office smoking a long needed ciggie when he came out and told me what car choices we had. I wanted to try the Deville so back inside he goes. As he is inside getting the car, there was a group of business men who had been on the plane with us and knew of my distress, the whole group stopped on their way to their taxi to ask if I was ok and could they do anything. This touched my heart and I thanked them for their kind words and told them I would be ok. I even got hugs from some of them. As I was watching them go, I saw an Eagle flying over the mountain range in front of me and it was breathtaking! I had to smile at its freedom in flight. It was so majestic! Well, Chip came back with the rental car keys and I was smiling like the village idiot at this point and more determined than ever that I was staying in the Rockies. When I told him this, he said “Good! Why let some $10 an hour idiot keep you from enjoying a place you have always wanted to see?” I looked him in the eyes and said “I’m NOT!” So off to Vail we went!