holiday travel

One of the many blessings of our new life in Montana is that we are able to see more of family and friends. For Thanksgiving, Mikel was looking forward to seeing family and have the opportunity to go fishing. Because Mikel was going to be out of town, I decided to go home to Riverside and see some family and soak up some sun over the holiday. 

After a crazy first season in Montana it was nice to have some time to relax and visit!

My flight was set to depart the Helena airport about 1:30 in the afternoon so the two hour drive shouldn't have been a problem but we kept hearing about a winter storm that was supposed to dump the night before we left. At the last minute we decided to head to Helena the night before and, when we woke up to this, we were glad we did....

snow outside the hotel in Helena

 It snowed 5-6" that night so it was much less stressful to already be in Helena. Mikel still had to drive back to Dillon but at least he only had to go over the pass once and there was no worry about missing my flight!

The Helena airport is very small but easy to work with: 4 gates and 2 runways!

Helena airport

a good view from the airport

Everything was going well until the plane I was supposed to get on to Salt Lake City had to turn around because of mechanical problems. Initially we were told the flight would be cancelled and we wouldn't get out until tomorrow. With Mikel half way home and headed to Idaho it was going to be a  long night in Helena!

Luckily, we were able to get on a MUCH delayed flight into SLC and caught a later flight from SLC to Orange County. I was one of the few people on my plane who actually made it to their destination that night so I can't complain about a couple hours of delays!