Trip to Denver, Day 1
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Pretty simple day so far. We were on a Delta Connection flight operated by SkyWest, so we left SLC from the E gates at the extreme west end of terminal 2. No problem there; we all had carry-on bags and made it through security with plenty of time to make our 08:40 departure.
Then I got a flight-notification update via SMS: “Departure now 09:25.”
Seems one of the flight crew had experienced a scheduling goof of some sort, so they’d had to call in someone else and delay the flight. Strange, though, that I had to go to the departure gate to verify this; the flight no longer appeared on the Departures monitors, no Delayed indicator or anything. Just gone.
Our plane was a Canadair Regional Jet, their 50-passenger model. Four-abreast seating and a cabin ceiling low enough that I had to crouch all the way down the aisle to my assigned seat 8A. I also had to endure the flight attendant’s “You’re on the exit row, feel up to it?” lecture, no big deal as I’ve done that many times before. We left the gate at 09:30 and arrived at the DEN gate at 10:40, only 38 minutes after our originally scheduled arrival.
Did the usual airport shuffling—onto the trains from the DEN C concourse to the terminal (I learned that the main terminal’s roof material covers 15 acres and reflects 90% of sunlight), onto the Hertz bus, into the car, into the city via I-70 and I-25 with a bunch of silly and/or insane drivers.
The Mart’s logo is a stylized representation of the escalators inside the main buildingWe stopped first at the gift show, where we had lunch in their little quick-service cafe. Then it was time to wander the first floor of the Mart, whence I left to find a coffee shop for a caffeine-and-Wi-Fi fix. Thank God for the ubiquitous Starbucks locations.
Tomorrow it’s back to the gift show to find out about the point-of-sale information the various suppliers can provide, and I’m sure we’ll try out a brew pub or three while we’re in town through Sunday afternoon. We’re also considering the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster and a quick trip to the Denver mint gift shop so my sister can add to her coin collections.
The weather looks to be pretty cool and stormy the next day or two, pleasing signs that autumn’s approaching rapidly, and then it’s back to SLC to plunge head-first into the point-of-sale fray.
I’m not looking forward to teaching the hospital volunteers how to use new registers, yargh....