Getting there

 3:30 AM is very early to leave - alarm went off about 2:45 and we quickly showered and did last minute packing. The cab arrived right on time - we live our cab service - All City Cab. Bill has used them for years with all his work travel. They are an eclectic bunch of drivers with quite varied backgrounds and actually quite fun to talk to. The owner is usually the dispatcher and along with most of the drivers knows where we live without being given the address. So interesting cab ride even at that early hour which, as my dad used to say isn't " a fittin' time for man or beast". 

Airport was not really busy but with only a couple of Delta people accepting luggage and only one metal scanner/X-ray line per entrance it went slowly anyway. I was delighted to find out when I got my electronic boarding pass that I was accepted FINALLY into pre-check (which Bill has had for some time). No more taking off your shoes and clothes off and much shorter line. But of course, that line was not open at 4AM....

So on to the plane and our weird delay - the "fuel guy" had not done something right on the paperwork after fueling the plane and they had to find him and get him to come sign off on it. After that 15 min delay, they decided we needed de-icing, another 10 min, then after making up some time on the way to Atlanta, air traffic control had us vector around Atlanta for 15 minutes so landed about 25 minutes before our next flight was scheduled to leave... From a different terminal. But luck was with us and quick walking and a train that was right there ready to leave when we got to it, and our gate being the first one in the terminal worked perfectly. As they scanned our boarding passes, a warning bell went off  and it turns out they thought we wouldn't make it so we were booked on the flight the next day (next flight to Liberia, CR) and upgraded to first class on THAT flight. But we happily gave that up to get on our Saturday plane...

Almost everyone on the Minneapolis to Atlanta flight had a connection to somewhere further south and a few were even on our second plane.  Going from -12F to 90F - a gain of 102 degrees!