Seattle 3 - We made it to Oregon, what about the luggage?

So, after a good, solid 3 hours of sleep (thanks Orbitz for that taking up half my night) we get up and head back to the airport. We pick up Donna (Helen's sister) around 5:00. Donna graciously offered to drive my truck back to their place so we don't spend half our vacation budget on parking at the airport (thanks Donna!).

American has re-routed us to Seattle using 2 different airlines - Frontier air from Seattle to Denver and Alaska air from Denver to Seattle and we arrive at the airport just in time. Hah! The Yoder Travel Curse (tm) is on the ropes. There's no line at Frontier when we get there and 10 minutes later, the line is 30 people long.

Frontier is great, the ticket agent is funny and sympathetic. When we get to security, we get those words every passenger loves to hear - "You've been selected at random for a special screening." Awesome. But, when we get to the scanner, the TSA guy just glances at our ticket and waves us through. Cool, things are finally looking up. When we get to the Frontier airlines gate, hey - it's our friendly ticket agent working the gate too. He apologises for not telling us about the extra security, but shows us how to find it on our ticket for the future and asks how the screening was. When I tell him that they just waved us through, he freaks out. Turns out, if they don't do the screening and we were flagged, they have to hold the plane and delay the flight until the screening is done. He calls down to security and chews out the TSA manager. So, we have to haul butt all the way back to security and get a full pat-down.

I felt like I should have tipped the TSA guy. Let's just say he was extremely thorough.

Back to the plane, just in time to board. Good seats, good flight to Denver. We get to the Denver airport and make our way to the Air Alaska gate, where I decide to blog about our good times with security. Except that I can't find my phone. I make my way back to the Frontier gate and have them check the plane - no phone. Eventually, we figured out that I had left it at home, charging up. (way to go Yoder)

On to Seattle with Air Alaska and we're on our way to pick up luggate at the baggage carasoul. It's noon when we land, and Helen is feeling so good about how things are going that she even bets me that we'll be on the road to Oregon by 1:30. HAH! She obviously isn't very familiar with the Yoder Travel Curse (tm).

Did I mention that we were waiting on our bags? ...and waiting...and waiting... Yeah, they never showed up. I asked that agent at the Alaska counter whether she could at least track the ticket number to see if they got put on the plane in Denver - "Oh, we don't have any way of tracking luggage. We're supposed to get something in October that scans bags."

The good news (?) is that we weren't the only people without bags. Remember highly-inebriated cruise guy from earlier? His bags are gone too. We start chatting with him and ask him if he's going on the cruise by himself. He tells us that he thought it was best that way because, (with a lowered voice - glancing around) "It's a 'Bare Necessity' cruise, you know". WOW! So, I guess he really doesn't need luggage after all then. Good luck with the 20 to 1 male / female ratio there fella. If this guy is the poster for a Bare Necessity cruise, then there's going to be more white meat on that boat than at Thanksgiving dinner.

We get a taxi ride to our car rental place and in one of the few things that actually goes right, the car is there waiting for us - a beautiful Lincoln Town Car - Signature Series with a sunroof. What a sweet ride!

And we're on our way to Manzanita, Oregon.