Family Tradition
Sunday, I started the long journey home from Winfield to Anchorage (with a two date work stop in Seattle): The first stage of the journey was the drive from Winfield to the Wichita airport. The drive usually takes about an hour. So, it should have been a simple task to plan ahead in order to arrive at the airport in plenty of time.
Au Contraire.
The mad dash to the Wichita airport is a Thompson family tradition. For the last 50 years, we have invariably ended up driving at Indy 500 speeds across both interstates and farm roads on the way to Wichita. Mom has been so permanently scarred by the experience, that no matter what, when, and where, she strives to arrive to an airport at least two hours before takeoff.
Last year, I cut it very close - I made it to the gate just as the plane was starting to board.
This year, I swore that I would arrive at the airport an hour before takeoff. That would give me plenty of time to return the rental car, check in at the ticket counter, go through security, and make my way to the gate.
I also planned to geocache on my way up. I gave myself plenty of time. The plane was scheduled to depart at 3:00 PM and I left Winfield at 11:30 AM. I puttered my way around the back roads between Winfield, Oxford, and Mulvane and snagged five caches. I was contemplating going for sixth when I stopped to do a time check and distance calculation. And that’s when I discovered that I had somehow lost almost an hour. I was south of Mulvane at 1:40 PM. I still had twenty miles to go, much of it on farm roads. Uh Oh.
Time to kick it into mad dash gear. I zoomed through the back road maze, fought traffic and construction on Kellog and pulled into the rental car return lot at 2:30 PM. I got my bag checked, went through security, ran down to the gate, and walked on the plane. I was the last person to board and they shut the door behind me.
Whew!
The Thompson family tradition continues!
Here are a few geocaching pics:
Grapevines!!!! Who knew that Kansas had wineries??!
I never would have known if there hadn’t been a geocache located at the winery.
A defunct railroad bridge over the Arkansas river just east of Oxford. The cache was located in the bridge infrastructure over the water.
Getting the cache involved walking on gaping railroad ties 20 feet in the air over the water. Definitely fun - although I don’t think the Ski Boy would have been pleased.
A giant grain elevator.
Hello. I am 
Good thing it is easy to get through security there. In Denver you would have been waiting for the next flight.
DIA (Denver Airport) is THE worst ever. Heck I would have missed the next two flights if I had been in Denver. DIA as a whole, is a giant monument to inefficiency.