The Time is Nigh!

I woke up this morning at 3:45 to catch my flight from Indy. The plane was one of those small jets that holds like 50 people max and we had to walk out onto the tarmac. Watching the sunrise over Indianapolis from 10,000 feet was quite beautiful, I only wish I had brought my camera with me (our "carry on" was stowed in the cargo hold because of the limited space in the plane itself).

When I got to Cincy, there was (and at this point still is) no gate info for my flight to Minneapolis, so I found where the rest of the delta flights to Minneapolis were leaving from, hopped the shuttle to another terminal (this place is huge) and lo and behold there is the gate all set up for my flight. Well, I hope my luck keeps up through the rest of the day/week.

**Update**
I'm now sitting in my hotel room at the West Yellowstone Holiday Inn local time 8:07. let me run you through the rest of my trip.

While waiting for the plane in cinci, we had a delay - not a mechanical problem - the pilot was missing, so we got set back half an hour. after that we got to Minneapolis where I had a whopping 25 minutes until my next flight left and let me tell you - huffing it across MSP with 30lbs of photo stuff on my back and another 15 in my shoulder bag is no easy task (it felt like I was being red carded again!). I made it to the flight just fine. Finally a break in my luck - the first two planes were small connecting flights that sat only about 50 people - we had to hand stow our carryons under the plane. this flight was your standard 737-esque plane so none of that (thankfully). I was sitting in a row of three chairs and no one sat in the middle (so basically a free upgrade!). I had the window seat, the view was beautiful, and i even managed a 10 minute power nap.

I waited for my ride (Steve and Scott) to arrive by demolishing a bacon cheeseburger in the Bozeman airport restaurant. Once they got there, we loaded up the fan, fiddled with the GPS, and struck out for West Yellowstone. The ride was amazing! we saw a few birds, but no big game, on the way. After checking in, we hit up the local grocery store for some supplies, and hit one of the only two restaurants that are still open this time of year.

I'm tired now and Steve, Scott, and I are heading out tomorrow morning for sunrise with Old Faithful then a trip to the Grand Prismatic Spring. Ta-Ta for now, I'm gonna play with my new (rented) toys before I'm off to bed.