George and Joel Have Exciting Ski Trip to Canada

My neighbors and best friends - George and Joel Dawson just went on a ski trip to Canada. Joel narrates the roller coaster of a trip -

The Trip that Shouldn’t have Happened

Fortunately Joel’s stepmother reached 100 and there was a party for her.
Unfortunately we had difficulty getting to the party without mishaps.

Fortunately we live close enough to the airport that a taxi isn’t too expensive.
Unfortunately we had to make three trips to get all of our belongings to the airport, so our trip to the airport was $55.

Fortunately we left early for the airport.
Unfortunately one of our suitcases (the one with our passports and computer) was left sitting on our driveway and we didn’t discover it was missing until we reached the airport.

Fortunately we had a long layover in Atlanta.
Unfortunately after we walked from Concourse E to Concourse B Joel discovered that she left her purse back at Concourse E.

Fortunately there was time for Joel to head back to Concourse E while George talked to the Delta people nearby.
Unfortunately Joel rode the train to the wrong end of the airport before she made it back to Concourse E.

Fortunately people were helpful and Joel retrieved her purse at the gate where we landed.
Unfortunately it took her a long time to get back to Concourse B since the train and the moving sidewalk weren’t running.

Fortunately we had a very nice visit with Sally, Joel’s stepmother, Saturday afternoon.
Unfortunately Saturday we also realized that our plane departure on Sunday was scheduled for 5 PM instead of 6:30 PM. (The party had been moved to 3 PM so we wouldn’t have a long wait before going to the airport that is nearby.)

Fortunately Sally was in good spirits and there were lots of people at the party so we wouldn’t be missed when we slipped out early.
Unfortunately we had to leave 25 minutes after the party began to make it to the airport.

Fortunately both plane legs from Cincinnati to Atlanta and Atlanta to Seattle went without hitches.
Unfortunately since we were using frequent fliers, we had to go this long route to Seattle and couldn’t get to Vancouver.

Fortunately we had a great lunch at the harbor in Vancouver and a lovely drive with spectacular scenery up to Whistler.
Unfortunately when we arrived at our lodging, we were locked out and there wasn’t any reception service.

Fortunately, someone let us into the building.
Unfortunately that didn’t help us to get into our condo and we were getting rather nervous about where we might spend the night and possibly next four days.

Fortunately we had a phone number to call and the owner of the condo answered after the first busy signal. He told us the code and we got into our condo!!!
Unfortunately it was raining outside and so the ski conditions didn’t sound too good.

Fortunately we got our skis right across the street and the gondola wasn’t much farther away.
Unfortunately it was raining in the morning when we headed to the ski lift.

Fortunately the skiing up on top of the mountain was O.K. (not great).
Unfortunately we had sun for two hours in the four days and the snow conditions were either crusty, windy, slushy, snowing, hard to see….

Fortunately we like to be together and the scenery, when we could see, was spectacular.
Unfortunately on the third day Joel lost her great little Canon camera. We thought she probably lost it when she hit a hole and splayed out in the snow under the lift. When she discovered it was missing, the last gondola had gone up for the day.

Fortunately the lost and found lady was very nice and we could tell her exactly where the camera probably was. She was many of the Aussie workers we met at Whistler.
Unfortunately it didn’t matter how nice she was. The camera was not located. And it snowed more than 5 inches overnight.

Fortunately, we still had one day left and we got up on the mountain rather early. We skied to the spot and used our skis to dig for the camera until we were sweating.
Unfortunately no camera was found and the fantastic video of George skiing was lost.

Fortunately the trip back to Seattle was uneventful and we made our 6:20 AM flight with no problem.
Unfortunately, the trip back to Tallahassee had some glitches.

Fortunately the planes left on time – almost.
Unfortunately the plane in Atlanta was stopped at the last minute because of an oil leak and so we had to change to a new plane.

Fortunately a new plane was found in a couple of minutes and the passengers headed from Concourse B to Concourse T.
Unfortunately the new plane was actually not at T, but back at B. It took 1-½ hours to get everybody resituated on our plane to Tallahassee.

Fortunately Hannah was meeting us at the airport so we didn’t need to spend more money on a taxi.
Unfortunately she had a long wait for us to arrive and then it took another 40 minutes for the luggage to get the terminal.

Fortunately we have had many uneventful trips in the past.
Unfortunately maybe we need to take someone with us in the future to make sure to don’t forget anything and get where we’re supposed to be without mishap.

Fortunately we have friends and family who were willing to read through this whole thing to find out about the trip that shouldn’t have happened.
Unfortunately this is the end of the story. Hope you enjoyed it.