In Which Mr. Murphy Pays a Visit

“One of your flights has been cancelled” read the check-in screen at Bradley, “please see an agent for re-booking.” After only a nerve-wracking half hour, we got seats on a Frontier Airlines plane to Denver, where we’d have about an hour and 45 minutes before taking a US Airways codeshare flight “operated by United Airlines” to Portland, arriving 10 minutes earlier than our original flight.

We had lovely wait (hey, isn’t our flight due to leave … now?) in the holding pen for those “selected by the airline for additional screening.” After a few minutes of being ignored (will our plane leave without us?) our bags were thoroughly inspected, our two bottles of tap water confiscated, and we were on our way.

They say changing carriers is the worst thing for getting your luggage lost. They’re right!

Unsure of our next move (hey, the tent was in the checked luggage, and who knew where we’d be in a day or two), and going with the squeaky wheel concept, we opted for hanging outside the luggage place and checking in every 20 minutes. Finally, John McClaine (read his (fake) nametag, homage to Bruce Willis’s Die Hard character) reached Denver by phone. Short story long, our bags had been spotted after going unclaimed in Denver and rushed onto the next Frontier Airlines flight to Portland, arriving in Portland . . . nearly an hour ago.

Off to provision up at the local Albertson’s. Couldn’t find it. The teenager at the Jack in the Box said all of the Albertson’s in the area had “shut down”. Good of them to keep their website up to date. She directed us to a place called Fred Meyer, which turned out to be pretty close to a Super Wal*Mart, but more manageable and friendlier.

Arriving at the campsite just off Route 6 in Tillamook State Forest, we discovered that the directions for pitching our tent were keeping the nozzle for the air mattress pump company on our coffee table back home. A little McGyver work and we were good for the night.