Night and day.....

7:48 am - Monday - October 9th - Deer Lodge, MT - 37° F, humidity 77%, wind 6 mph out of the south....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  The view this morning....↴ 

As I regained consciousness around 3:30 am Sunday morning I slowly turned to TLE and said "This is iniquitous"....a line from one of my favorite movies 'A man for all seasons', a movie about Sir Thomas Moore back in the days of Henry the 8th of England.  Getting up at 3:30 am is iniquitous, no matter the reason, but our reason this day was to be ready to take the 4:30 am shuttle from our hotel over the Rogue Valley - Medford Airport for our 6 am flight to Missoula, MT.

Both TLE and I obtained our 'Known Passenger' numbers back in April when we flew to Atlanta, GA to visit my son and his family.  Having a 'Known Passenger' number enables you to pass through security at the TSA Pre-check® station, which means you do not have to take off your shoes, or other clothing.  You just hand over your bags, and walk through a metal detector, and you're done....very fast....saves you 5-10 minutes, or more, depending on how long the normal TSA line is.  I had input our 'Known Passenger' numbers into the Delta Airlines website a few days earlier, but apparently neglected to click the 'SAVE' button for my number, and it did not register.  TLE's did.  Anyway as we handed our ID's to the TSA guy he waived TLE through, but then told me I was not 'TSA Pre-check®' approved, so I had to go through the regular line.....doh!  Fortunately, at 5 am the line is not TOO long, so I was through pretty quickly, but not before removing my shoes, vest, watch, and emptying my pockets.....all the things I sought to avoid....lol!  Anyway, after we reached our gate I sat down and corrected this egregious error, and my 'Known Passenger' is now, officially on the Delta Airlines website for our flight home on Wednesday.

We purposely packed lightly to be sure we could carry on our bags, stow them in the overhead bins, and save $60 by not having to check our bags.  Ironically, as we were sitting waiting to board they announced they needed 10 passengers to check their bags due to limited room in the overhead bins, and that no charge would be made....ahhhh...things are going our way again!  We quickly checked our bags, thereby avoiding the hassle of trying to lift them in very crowed conditions into those overhead bins, and having to remove them at the end of each flight.....

.....we were assigned aisle seats directly cross from each other......our flight took off 10 minutes early, and we arrived in Salt Lake City around 8:40 am Mountain Time, just enough time to deplane and move over to Gate 7 where boarding for our second flight began 20 minutes later....perfect!

Descending into the Salt Lake City airport

Salt Lake City air traffic control tower

....for the second leg of our journey to Missoula we were assigned adjoining seats in row #19....two rows from the back of the plane......

These seats are comfortable!

....both flights were completely uneventful, but I must note how much more user friendly the Delta jets are than Frontier, which I wrote about here and here.  Our experience with Delta was like night and day compared to Frontier!  The seats are wider, making the foot/leg room larger.  The head rests on the seats are ADJUSTABLE....what a novel concept, there are electric outlets  between the seats into which you can plug your phone charger, there is WiFi, plus the seats RECLINE!!!!  Again, NIGHT and DAY.

Our flight landed in Missoula 15 minutes early....how much better can things get?  Within 10 minutes we had used the restroom, retrieved our baggage, and were sitting outside awaiting the arrival of my sister, Hilary, who arrived a few minutes later in her new Range Rover, and we were on our way to Deer Lodge, MT.....

....Fall colors were in evidence as we drove along the scenic Snake River towards Deer Lodge.....

.....my sister, and her husband, Bob, just finished construction on their summer home at Rock Creek Cattle Company, just outside of Deer Lodge.....this is a high end community with its own, highly rated 18 hole golf course.  They originally owned one half of a duplex on the property, but decided a few years ago to build a home on another lot.  It was just finished, and ready for occupancy this past August.  We wanted to be there for the house warming, but TLE had her first cataract surgery scheduled for that week, so we deferred our plans until now.

Not long after unpacking, Bob and Hilary took us for a tour of the 18 hole course....they have two electric golf carts.  We stopped at a couple of three par holes to hit shots, and, thankfully, I did not embarrass myself....I hit 7 irons into each hole, and was just off the green with both shots.  We stopped at a short par 4 to hit drivers, and once again I hit a very good shot to within 150 yards of the hole.  We had to head back to the house after that as Bob's cart was almost out of 'juice' after having played 18 holes earlier in the day.....that is the hassle with electric golf carts.....

....by the time we returned to the house is was after 3:30 pm and time for afternoon cocktails, and time on the deck to watch the sun slip toward the western mountains.....

It's about to hit the mountains

....the high temp for the day was about 78° F....a perfect Montana, Fall afternoon!

Just before the sun hit the mountains Bob and I retired to the Jacuzzi for a pre-dinner dip, whilst the girls put the final touches on our evening meal.  It was just how I saw our day ending.  We ate outside, and then as the temperatures began to dip, headed inside for a fire, and some more wine.

We were in bed by 9:30 pm Montana time, and asleep soon thereafter.....what a great travel day, and time spent with family!

Thanks for stopping by!