travel adventures
Jan. 11th, 2016 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madeleoneI hadn't menioned it before but hubby and I are off on a trip. It was sort of a last minute adventure, which I didn't plan or make reservations for until just before Christmas. See, I had a Delta travel voucher where when you buy one round trip continental US ticket, you get a companion fare for free(pluss taxes etc.) BUT, it was going to expire Jan 31, so I had to start exploring ideas quickly. I really liked what we did when we went to Scotland and Ireland last year--we rented a car and stayed in cottages and explored the area we were in. So I started exploring similar choices and found Home Away. We were interested in Arizona, as it is somewhere we've never been before. Anyway I found this listing Near Kingman AZ for a guest house rental on an ostrich ranch. Yeah, I know weird, right? Well, guess where I am right now? Yup, that's right the Joshua Tree Ostrich Ranch and Guesthouse. And getting here turned out to be more difficult than I ever expected due to some flight delays.
We were supposed to fly out yesterday(Sunday) evening, but a few hours before our flight I got the message that our flight was now running on a two hour delay. That meant that we would miss our connecting flight in Minneappolis. We were offered to take the late flight and get a hotel voucher in Minneappolis and fly on to Las Vegas in the morning,(where we planned to rent a car and drive 1.5 hours to our guest house), or wait til today and get a direct flight out of Detroit. While the direct flight sounded nice, the problem with that is we would have to drive twice as far and pay a ten day lot rental on our car. Our son had already offered to drive us to the airport in Flint and pick us up on our way back, but he couldn't drive us all the way to Detroit today because he's working. We opted to fly Sunday, stay in a free hotel and leave this morning. It turns out the airline is very nice to you when you get hassled by delays (because it was mechanical, not weather related). They upgraded our seats today to first class (sweet, I've never flown first class before so that was a treat). We also got free snacks while we waited last night for the delayed flight. They offered a food voucher at the airport for dinner(but we'd already eaten so we sadly declined),then later they said we should take the voucher anyway and use it today to get breakfast in Minneapolis before our flight. When I emailed our landlord at Joshua Tree about the delay and that we wouldn't arrive until today, without me even asking, he offered to give us a credit for the first night--nice guy as it was prepaid and I don't think he was obligated to do that.
So in the next eight days we plan to use this as a home base, visit local and slightly not so local sites. According to our host if we don't mind making a whole day of it we should be able to drive to the Grand Canyon one day. We might do Vegas one day or maybe Laughlin, and there are quite a few point of interest within an hour or two drive. Tonight we are tired from our travels so will probably do something less time consuming tomorrow. Will hopefully post some pics of our adventures before too long. I'll keep you posted. ;)
We were supposed to fly out yesterday(Sunday) evening, but a few hours before our flight I got the message that our flight was now running on a two hour delay. That meant that we would miss our connecting flight in Minneappolis. We were offered to take the late flight and get a hotel voucher in Minneappolis and fly on to Las Vegas in the morning,(where we planned to rent a car and drive 1.5 hours to our guest house), or wait til today and get a direct flight out of Detroit. While the direct flight sounded nice, the problem with that is we would have to drive twice as far and pay a ten day lot rental on our car. Our son had already offered to drive us to the airport in Flint and pick us up on our way back, but he couldn't drive us all the way to Detroit today because he's working. We opted to fly Sunday, stay in a free hotel and leave this morning. It turns out the airline is very nice to you when you get hassled by delays (because it was mechanical, not weather related). They upgraded our seats today to first class (sweet, I've never flown first class before so that was a treat). We also got free snacks while we waited last night for the delayed flight. They offered a food voucher at the airport for dinner(but we'd already eaten so we sadly declined),then later they said we should take the voucher anyway and use it today to get breakfast in Minneapolis before our flight. When I emailed our landlord at Joshua Tree about the delay and that we wouldn't arrive until today, without me even asking, he offered to give us a credit for the first night--nice guy as it was prepaid and I don't think he was obligated to do that.
So in the next eight days we plan to use this as a home base, visit local and slightly not so local sites. According to our host if we don't mind making a whole day of it we should be able to drive to the Grand Canyon one day. We might do Vegas one day or maybe Laughlin, and there are quite a few point of interest within an hour or two drive. Tonight we are tired from our travels so will probably do something less time consuming tomorrow. Will hopefully post some pics of our adventures before too long. I'll keep you posted. ;)
no subject
Date: 2016-01-12 03:41 pm (UTC)As far a Laughlin, the casinos are kind of the point. We're not huge gamblers but enjoy playing a little, so rather than drive back to Vegas, we'll see something new along the way, have lunch and play the slots for an hour or two. :)