Frontier ruined my Trip … Wait, Did They?

The most common question you endure when you land after a spell of air travel is, “How was the flight”. 99% of the time, “It was fine” pretty much sums it up and it is always met with glowing approvals and anecdotes to past travel horror stories. The flight sticks in people’s mind longer than the sandwich they ordered for lunch in San Francisco or the cute Airbnb in the Poconos.

I truly don’t understand the fascination and concern that’s applied to the logistics of air travel. Next time your in security look around and observe. Nobody can handle it. People lose their minds in worry and the simple truth is that just about everything is completely out of their control.

The way I see it, the flight is simply the vessel to get to the adventure. I try not to get hung up in worrying about lost bags, layovers, etc. Life is just easier when you just go with the flow and ride out delays, pack light with carry on only, and try to enjoy the commute with a movie or good book. You’ll get there right?

This theory was tested lasted weekend.

I flew to Denver. For one day. I was supposed to anyway. Below is a picture of my friends and I on Day 1 of 1. I don’t have a picture of us on Day 2 of 1 but if I did, we wouldn’t have been looking our best.

I need to start at the beginning. This was the weekend for the inaugural event we proudly dubbed, “Microtravel”. The brilliant plan was to find bonkers cheap flights that left early in the morning and returned late that night. It would allow for no luggage and promised a light weight, adventurous day in a new city.

All things considered, that’s exactly what it did. We arrived on time and instantly filled our day with a brewery tour of Coors and Blue Moon, some good food, and old fashioned exploring. We had great weather, good company, and I’m always a sucker for checking out new places.

In fact, it went so well that when we got the notification that the flight was delayed for an hour, we cheered. “One more drink!” We had exclaimed.

We did get that drink, but the cheering slowly diminished as the departure kept getting pushed back. We witnessed an arrest in the terminal, boarded and deplaned, and waited some more. Frontier forgot to book a pilot. Totally understandable, who would have thought that would be an important part of our aeronautical journey. Frontier, silly silly airline. This lead to a cancellation with no flights until Monday, which even if that was an option, was selling for a cool $400 per seat. Oh, there also wasn’t enough seats for all of us. That lead to the only option left, renting a car.

For those without quick access to google maps, which is crazy because this is an online blog, Denver to Minneapolis is about 14 hours. With an ideal start time of 3:30 am following a day of brewery hopping that started at 4:00 am, I can’t think of a better road trip recipe. Oh, and the bulk of the drive was through Nebraska and Iowa. Picturesque.

As mentioned above, we packed light, and by light I mean absolutely nothing as the itinerary stopped at “hour 10 in Denver”. I have never been more exhausted, most likely stinky, and tired of farm fields in recent (let’s be honest, distant) memory. But we did it, we made it. That’s a bond that’s hard to break when you endure that type of experience. Am I gearing up for another road trip with those parameters. No. No. Not even a little. However, what a weekend.

It turns out the travel in “travel” really does leave a lasting impression, and is something worth being added to the story. In 10 years I might not remember the name of the beer I had a Blue Moon Brewery (Mango Wheat btw), but I will certainly remember the 14 hour road trip that was kicked off at the optimal time of 3:30 in the morning.