Our Epic, Part One

The point was to get there and to save money.

Mom was turning 90 on July 8th and someone got the idea to get all the siblings together in Minnesota to celebrate. So of course I needed to be there.

And I wanted to take Jenny, since she hasn't seen her grandparents in a long time, and I've traveled too much without her, and it just felt important.

So I sat down to buy tickets. And was horrified. See, last December I flew to Minnesota on Southwest, since they now fly to MSP, and I had no trouble getting round-trip tickets for less than $300. This time they were at least $250 per person, each way. I tried other airlines, Orbitz, everything. A thousand dollars to take me and Jenny to Minnesota.

No no no.

We still had a few free tickets with Southwest, but none of the flights had free-ticket seats open, so Paul did his famous wheeling and dealing and finally came up with a convoluted deal: We would fly to Chicago on free tickets and then on $79 tickets to Minneapolis.

Wonderful.

Except that we would spend several hours in Oakland and then get to Chicago at midnight and pick up our baggage and recheck it and fly out at 6 the next morning.

But I am a Yoder, married to a Smucker. I'll do a lot to save money.

Then there was the matter of coming home.

Amtrak was as expensive as airline tickets.

Greyhound was not.

We could get from St. Cloud, Minnesota, to Albany, Oregon for $104 each. It would take 36 hours. We are strong women. We would make it an adventure.

Stay tuned.

Quote of the Day:
[Emily's been home since Tuesday]
Emily: OH MY WORD. Esta and I would make the most epic peach smoothies ever.
Amy: What? Epic? That's a bad word.
Me: Huh?
Amy: Emily told me in no uncertain terms that I can not use the words epic, legit, or intense, ever.