Surprise, AZ

So surprisingly, the Phoenix area is not much different from the Las Vegas area! That place is F.L.A.T.One of my good friend's dad died and they the funeral was the Friday of the May Day dances and most of our kids were going to be dancing.  Luckily all of Don's travel has given him a lot of points on Southwest and other airlines so we were able to use points to get airline tickets down to Phoenix.  We flew down Thursday night and were supposed to take the 7:45pm flight.  There is a lot of construction going on right now on the freeway into Vegas and we got stuck in it on the way to the airport.  What usually only takes about 15 minutes to get through took us over an hour.  We barely made it out of Glendale when the slowdown started and we were stop and go all the way past the Valley of Fire.  Luckily I got text while we were on our way that said our flight was delayed by almost 2 hours!  We had to drop off Shelby's kids at their cousins and then we had time to go to Kohl's for a minute.  We got to the airport about 7ish and got checked in.  We still had a bit of time to kill so we ate in a Mexican restaurant near the gate where we were boarding.  We all had a yummy taco salad but the dirty buggers charged you for chips and salsa!  Who does that at a Mexican restaurant!  Luckily the food was really good although the hot salsa was really hot!  Don would probably been able to drink it straight out of the bowl but it was way too hot for me and Shelby.  Karrin wasn't bothered by it at all!  The plane left a little earlier than the expected time of 8:55.  We barely made it on where we could all sit together.  We were literally on the very last rows!  The flight was short and we got into Phoenix around 10.  We had to ride the forever shuttle to the rental car place and then rent our car, a lovely Nissan Altima that made me want another one really really bad, and then navigate our way to Surprise which was about 45 minutes from Phoenix.  Shelby was the driver and I was the "navigator"!  We got to Surprise around 11:30 and headed to Walmart for a few makeup items and got to our hotel around 12:30.  It was funny that there were 4 middle age women shopping in the Walmart makeup aisle at midnight!  We finally got settled into our rooms and Shelby and I were asleep by 2.  I could hear Karrin and Deanna giggling next door at 2 right before I fell asleep and they said that they were up until about 3.  We had to get up around 7 to get dressed and have time to eat at the free breakfast before we headed to the funeral.  We got there around 9:30 and went in to see Gerilyn and her family.  Shelby used to live there and knew a whole lot more people but it was nice to just sit in the chapel while we waited for the service to start.  It was an amazing service and Gerilyn's dad was an amazing man. I did not know him but he lived a great life and was a great example to a lot of people.  It was the kind of funeral where you could listen and listen to the stories that were told and never get bored.  After the service we only had a minute to say hi to Gerilyn before we had to head back to the airport.  We made a quick stop at Sonic and a quicker drive through Shelby's old neighborhood and then tried to get to the airport.  We once again we caught in construction and we barely made our flight.  I was getting pretty anxious about it because we still had return the car and get through security and we were running out of time.  It ended up being fine and we made it but I was sure worried!  We probably could have gotten the next flight but we all needed to get to May Day.  The flight back into Vegas was not fun.  I really thought I was going to puke.  I prayed and prayed and swallowed peppermint beadlets by the mouthful.  It was really bad for me.  If that flight would have been any longer I probably would have had to go throw up in the bathroom.  The bumps and dips and my anxiety were almost enough to push me over the edge.  Finally we made it onto the ground and I was soooooo grateful!  We had just enough  time to pick up Shelby's kids and get home in time to change and head over to May Day.  It was a super short trip but I am glad we were able to go and even more grateful that Don has a job that provides these little perks.  The tickets would have cost over $300 each!

Deanna Harding, Karrin Cox, Gerilyn Heiselbetz, me and Shelby Turner

Out the hotel window.

Another shot our across the Phoenix desert.