And so, it begins. Our travelling band of “Rough Riders” as we were named left for Dulles Airport at 4:30 a.m. when we picked our last passenger up. Vaughn was waiting outside, bag in hand.
But let me step back and explain a little bit about our group. I am Mitch, and I am the foot man for this adventure. My self-imposed job is to document this trip, move the bags, and drive. Along with that, it to ensure that they don’t forget their medicine, hearing aids, luggage, and that they don’t get lost in Big Sky County.
I am accompanied by two other gentlemen. The first is Ralph. He is my father-in-law. He is a giant of a man in personality, opinion, charisma, and size. He is 72 years old. It was his idea that this trip was taken this year. He says that he wants to check the progress of the Crazy Horse monument. This is a 13-day trip to see Crazy Horse that will take us through nine states.
The latter is Vaughn. I can say that I do not know much about Vaughn yet. He and Ralph went to High School together. He is a tall man and wears hearing aids. The one thing that was told to me before I left was that if I didn’t leave him behind and that Ralph didn’t kill him, that I should get a medal. I’m not sure what that means. So, we shall see.
Anyways, back to July 22.
Betsey was kind enough to ride along with us to the airport and drive home. She really is the best. She is and will be support from afar during the next two weeks.
After dropping us off curbside, we all said our good-byes and we were on our way. First stop, the Delta Desk. Being that they are Ralph and Vaughn are firmly set in their ways, they needed to get paper boarding passes. Even though I had checked them in 24 hours prior, they had no way of showing their pass on their smartphone. Neither of them has one. I approach the desk and provide my ID. I introduce myself and what is required. The agent asks for their identification. Ralph must take a moment because his ID is intermingled with his glasses, Kleenex, paper towels, and a few other items in his breast pocket. Eventually, we have everything we need and our able to go to Security. I remind him to just keep his ID out, so he can show the TSA agent. He declines my advice and we go thru the exercise again once we arrive at TSA…2 MINUTES LATER.
After several minutes, we make it to the security conveyer belt. Ralph please take your shoes off, your belt off, anything metal and everything out of your pockets. He takes his shoes off. I was thankfully surprised that they were “hole free”. He then takes his belt off and remarks “Hopefully my pants don’t fall off.” Ok, we are moving now though.
“Do you have anything in your pockets?”
“No.”
“Anything at all?”
“No. Just Kleenex, paper towels, my glasses, my ID and this.” He then proceeds to pull out rolled bills about 3 inches thick.
“Sir, those all count as things in your pocket.”
Eventually, we make it thru security.
Ralph and Vaughn want a cup of coffee.
They go get themselves one. “I’ll meet you over there.” I turn around minutes later and see Ralph looking like a lost child in the middle of the walkway.
“Everything okay?”
“I spilled coffee.”
I look down and about a half a cup of coffee all over the floor. He tells me that he has been standing there and no custodial staff has been by. However, he is glad I came over. He gave me the paper towels out of his pocket and had me clean up the coffee. Crisis averted.
“Ralph, when was the last time you were on an airplane?”
“1970.”
We find out gate. As always happens when one flies, it is the gate furthest from security. We make it, sit down and wait for our flight to be called. It is discussed that if Ralph needed to use any of the facilities, it was best to do it now rather than on board. The fear being that he may not fit in the lavatories. Ralph tries to stand up. He eventually needs assistance from me to get to his feet. The seats were just too low. Normally, I would leave this story out. It happens, low seats make it difficult for tall people to stand up sometimes. I get it.
But here is why it is in this blog. When he returns, I tell him our section has been called and it is time to board. He decides to sit back down. I must help him to his feet again.
We board the plane and get settled. I show him how to use the on-board entertainment, where to plug in headphones, and get a seat belt extender for him. He is finally settled and away we go.
72 and you. 