Day 8 - Headed Home
It was no problem getting up at 5:00 a.m. for Sandy and me, but getting the kids up at 5:30 was a little work. We had loaded the van mostly the night before, so all we needed to do was get dressed and leave. When we pulled out of Palm Springs, we had a mostly Interstate drive on I-10, I-210, and a few other highways.
We only had to stop once, where we ate breakfast at Del Taco, another hybrid Mexican-American chain. We all had breakfast burritos, then were back on the road. The temperature was a chilly 62 when we came through the mountain pass about 6:00 a.m. It was almost 80 in Palm Springs on the East side of the mountain.
In fact, the temperature stayed in the sixties in Los Angeles most of the day. It was quite a contrast to what we had experienced all week in the desert.
We were able to drive straight to Grace Community Church without getting lost.
(For more thoughts about church at Grace, see the additional entry below.)
After church, we roamed the campus a bit, then headed back to the airport. I had thought about driving to the beach for a few minutes, as we would be less than 15 minutes away. However, our past experiences in the rental car, shuttle, and baggage process had led us to believe we needed to allow plenty of time. We certainly didn’t want to be stranded in the airport, so we allowed 3 hours from the time we dropped off the car. Turns out it was about 1.5 hours more than we needed to allow. We would have had plenty of time to swing by the ocean or even stay for Sunday school at church.
After lunch at McDonald’s and filling the vehicle with fuel, Budget Rent-a-car was the next stop. It was five minutes from the time that we pulled in the parking lot until we were on a shuttle bus headed back to the airport. It was extremely simple and streamlined. One more thing: The cost of renting a van from Budget for one week ended up 30 dollars less than renting a van from Alamo for two days.
Midwest Airlines is a very small carrier in LA, with destinations only to KC and Milwaukee. That made the check in process at the airport very simple. They only had one flight out that afternoon, only seating 88. Our bags were checked and we were to the gate with over two hours to spare. So Sandy spent the time reading, Adam and dad played NBA, and Alex and Anna played GameBoy. It was very relaxing to just hang out in the airport, compared to the rest of our airport adventures this summer
The plane was delayed in arriving from Kansas City, so it wasn’t ready to go on time. We found out that we wouldn’t all be sitting together on the plane, so the seating assignments would be complicated for us. They had given us two seats together on the front row, two seats together in the back, and one seat in the middle. Adam really wanted to sit in the front row, so he and Anna chose to sit there together. Sandy stuck with Alex at the back (closer to the bathrooms), expecting him to sleep. I got to sit alone in the middle.
It turned out to be a great flight for all of us. Alex slept the first half of it while Sandy read through her book. Anna and Adam took turns playing GameBoy and reading. The flight attendant later told us that they were perfect and she was very entertained by them. I spent half the flight typing on the blog and then reading a spiritual formation. During that time, I listened to Charlotte Church’s album Enchantment. She is amazing.
When we took off, the pilot said we should make it home a little early, but they were watching some storms in Kansas. Turned out, those storms hit Kansas City right at the time we were arriving. We flew to the south (towards Joplin) and wrapped around the east side of the city, coming back to the airport on the north. Looking at lightning from the air is really interesting. Occasionally, we could even see a few people setting off fireworks. It was the scariest landing I’ve had for awhile, as we basically had to land in the midst of a thunderstorm. The pilots did well, I guess, and we made it safe and sound.
My seatmate during the trip was a teenage boy who was part of a group of 13 returning from a mission trip to the LA Dream Center, Matthew Barnett’s urban ministry. It was neat to hear some stories from their trip. They were a very well-behaved group of teenagers from Overland Park.
The only problem we had with Midwest Airlines on the whole trip was the baggage claim speed. Midwest's slogan is "The Best Care in the Air." They need to give some attention to what happens before and after you are on the plane. I would suggest their current slogan could be "You'll stand around when we're on the ground." It was about 45 minutes in LA to get our bags, and we waited the same amount of time there in KC. The flight landed at 7:30, and we finally got out to our van at 8:30.
Driving home, we had quite a light-show from the lightning. We stopped in Liberty for a quick meal at McDonalds, then drove home through the country (210 –> 10 –> 24). We pulled into Moberly about 11:35 and had everybody to bed by midnight.
Fortunately, Monday was a holiday and we took it very easy. But the kids were up at 7:00, pulling suitcases out of the van and dragging them upstairs, just so they could get out their new toys to play with. We were thankful to be back in a cool, rainy location after 8 days of heat.
So goes another installment of Following the Finchers. We may sneak in a trip to Michigan for a few days the first of August. Until then, let me know if you have any questions or areas of discussion from our trips. You can use the comment button or e-mail us here: dfincher@cccb.edu.
We only had to stop once, where we ate breakfast at Del Taco, another hybrid Mexican-American chain. We all had breakfast burritos, then were back on the road. The temperature was a chilly 62 when we came through the mountain pass about 6:00 a.m. It was almost 80 in Palm Springs on the East side of the mountain.
In fact, the temperature stayed in the sixties in Los Angeles most of the day. It was quite a contrast to what we had experienced all week in the desert.
We were able to drive straight to Grace Community Church without getting lost.
(For more thoughts about church at Grace, see the additional entry below.)
After church, we roamed the campus a bit, then headed back to the airport. I had thought about driving to the beach for a few minutes, as we would be less than 15 minutes away. However, our past experiences in the rental car, shuttle, and baggage process had led us to believe we needed to allow plenty of time. We certainly didn’t want to be stranded in the airport, so we allowed 3 hours from the time we dropped off the car. Turns out it was about 1.5 hours more than we needed to allow. We would have had plenty of time to swing by the ocean or even stay for Sunday school at church.
After lunch at McDonald’s and filling the vehicle with fuel, Budget Rent-a-car was the next stop. It was five minutes from the time that we pulled in the parking lot until we were on a shuttle bus headed back to the airport. It was extremely simple and streamlined. One more thing: The cost of renting a van from Budget for one week ended up 30 dollars less than renting a van from Alamo for two days.
Midwest Airlines is a very small carrier in LA, with destinations only to KC and Milwaukee. That made the check in process at the airport very simple. They only had one flight out that afternoon, only seating 88. Our bags were checked and we were to the gate with over two hours to spare. So Sandy spent the time reading, Adam and dad played NBA, and Alex and Anna played GameBoy. It was very relaxing to just hang out in the airport, compared to the rest of our airport adventures this summer
The plane was delayed in arriving from Kansas City, so it wasn’t ready to go on time. We found out that we wouldn’t all be sitting together on the plane, so the seating assignments would be complicated for us. They had given us two seats together on the front row, two seats together in the back, and one seat in the middle. Adam really wanted to sit in the front row, so he and Anna chose to sit there together. Sandy stuck with Alex at the back (closer to the bathrooms), expecting him to sleep. I got to sit alone in the middle.
It turned out to be a great flight for all of us. Alex slept the first half of it while Sandy read through her book. Anna and Adam took turns playing GameBoy and reading. The flight attendant later told us that they were perfect and she was very entertained by them. I spent half the flight typing on the blog and then reading a spiritual formation. During that time, I listened to Charlotte Church’s album Enchantment. She is amazing.
When we took off, the pilot said we should make it home a little early, but they were watching some storms in Kansas. Turned out, those storms hit Kansas City right at the time we were arriving. We flew to the south (towards Joplin) and wrapped around the east side of the city, coming back to the airport on the north. Looking at lightning from the air is really interesting. Occasionally, we could even see a few people setting off fireworks. It was the scariest landing I’ve had for awhile, as we basically had to land in the midst of a thunderstorm. The pilots did well, I guess, and we made it safe and sound.
My seatmate during the trip was a teenage boy who was part of a group of 13 returning from a mission trip to the LA Dream Center, Matthew Barnett’s urban ministry. It was neat to hear some stories from their trip. They were a very well-behaved group of teenagers from Overland Park.
The only problem we had with Midwest Airlines on the whole trip was the baggage claim speed. Midwest's slogan is "The Best Care in the Air." They need to give some attention to what happens before and after you are on the plane. I would suggest their current slogan could be "You'll stand around when we're on the ground." It was about 45 minutes in LA to get our bags, and we waited the same amount of time there in KC. The flight landed at 7:30, and we finally got out to our van at 8:30.
Driving home, we had quite a light-show from the lightning. We stopped in Liberty for a quick meal at McDonalds, then drove home through the country (210 –> 10 –> 24). We pulled into Moberly about 11:35 and had everybody to bed by midnight.
Fortunately, Monday was a holiday and we took it very easy. But the kids were up at 7:00, pulling suitcases out of the van and dragging them upstairs, just so they could get out their new toys to play with. We were thankful to be back in a cool, rainy location after 8 days of heat.
So goes another installment of Following the Finchers. We may sneak in a trip to Michigan for a few days the first of August. Until then, let me know if you have any questions or areas of discussion from our trips. You can use the comment button or e-mail us here: dfincher@cccb.edu.
posted by Central Christian College of the Bible at
12:47 PM
