Laura of Cat Tales With Laura and Sara of All In An Iowa Mom’s Day and Travel With Sara and I were going on a trip –the trip of all trips for us “mid lifers”.  We were headed to Nashville to attend the first ever Bloggers At Midlife Conference which was being held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.  Sara was on a panel and we were excited to hear all the great things that were going to be presented and to meet all of the people we have been  anxious to meet. We had reserved our rooms, booked our flights months ago and had planned to go early so that we could do some sightseeing and exploring in the wonderful city of Nashville.   I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Deacon and Rayna.  We drove up to Minneapolis the night before our 7:20 am flight and stayed in a motel so we could save some time  in the morning.  We hopped the shuttle to the airport and boarded our flight with no problem.

And then Thor stepped in.  Yes, Thor. That non-mythical winter storm that has crippled a portion of the country.  When we landed in Kansas City  we had text alerts that our flight to Nashville had been canceled.  So the wait began to try to get rebooked on a later flight.  When we got to the desk the news was not great.  All flights from Kansas City to Nashville were canceled for the rest of the day. There was talk of some highways being shut down.  All flights on Friday were already filled and most were overbooked at that point with standby lists growing.

There was the possibility of being on stand by for flights on Saturday but since the conference was basically only Saturday with the exception of the Friday night gathering and cocktail party it seemed a bit ridiculous to hang around in Kansas City for 2 nights when there was no guarantee that we could even get on a flight to Nashville to be at the conference for even part of the day.

The tough decision was made to fly back to Minneapolis and just cut our losses and go home. We were in the Kansas City airport around 90 minutes. Goodbye to our lovely hotel.  Goodbye to the lovely meeting new friends.  Goodbye to learning more about blogging. Goodbye to one night of hotel cost that could not be refunded.  Goodbye to all the fun swag I was anticipating getting from the conference sponsors.  I know that is shallow but come on—we all love swag!  Goodbye probably to the ticket cost of the conference.  Sigh.

To say that I am over winter is a true fact.  In fact today I am way over winter.  I try not to whine and complain but my travel history lately has not been too great because of storms.  I am not a fan of winter and I hereby am breaking up with it.

The only plus side of all of this is that the hubby was coming in to go hunting this weekend and lo and behold he got into Minneapolis just about the same time I did so we drove home together and I get 2 unexpected nights with him.  So I can’t complain, can I?