Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Since becoming an adult and moving from Western Washington to Eastern Washington, I have a short history of traveling over the New Years holiday. Whether it was a sunny getaway with friends, a short visit to visit family or a bit of both, rarely have I rung in the New Year from where I was residing at the time since adulthood began.
One year, it was a trip to St. George's, Utah with a rendezvous in Las Vegas with friends. Sounds like a dream, except none of us were 21 yet. There is not much you can do on the Strip before legally being able to consume alcohol, it turns out. But Zion National Park's incredible scenery more than made up for it.
The next year, we were on a plane again...this time, to sunny Phoenix.
Or, at least, theoretically sunny Phoenix.
We actually spent the first few days in very not sunny and very cold and snowy Flagstaff in order to visit the Grand Canyon. Worth it.
Then, we went to Phoenix itself, where we spent four days in 45 degree and rainy weather while I came down with the flu. That part, perhaps, was not as worth it.
The silver lining came when we found tickets to the Fiesta Bowl between LSU and Central Florida for $10 apiece. My friend's staunch discomfort of heights even allowed us to move into the lower bowl for no additional cost.
Interesting aside to that Fiesta Bowl: LSU was quarterbacked by a relatively unknown transfer from Ohio State. His name was Joe Burrow, who would lead the Tigers to a national championship in 2019. Against the Knights of Central Florida, he threw touchdowns to now-familiar names in Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase.
No airports were involved in adult New Year's part 3, but by this time, I was dating my lovely now-wife, we had turned the ripe old age of 21 and we spent a great holiday in Newberg, Oregon, playing games and hanging out with friends over a glass of whiskey or two.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down any hopes of continuing this traveling tradition in 2020 and 2021. I was able to escape to Coeur d'Alene with friends in 2020 despite continuing lockdowns, but in 2021, Maggie and I opted for a home celebration with family.
This year, the travel plans were back on. This time, Maggie and I were married, and her grandparents had generously sponsored a return to Phoenix for the whole family.
The kicker? Maggie and I booked flights on...Southwest Airlines.
If you've paid attention to any news or social media this week, you're likely aware that a complete business function meltdown involving winter weather, losing crew members and a failure of top-down communication has led to the Dallas-based airline cancelling a vast majority of its flights nationwide. Southwest originally tried to blame its failures solely on poor winter weather, but an immense number of cancellations in not-snowy or icy San Diego and Long Beach, California showed something else was up.
Customers have spent hours or even days stranded in airports around the country and are being told their flight can't be scheduled until after the New Year.
I realized by this Monday that our Wednesday flight from Spokane to Las Vegas to Phoenix was likely going to suffer the same fate, especially after reading that the latter two were amongst the hardest hit by the cancellations. My hunch was proven right after I attempted to look up our flight on Southwest's website and it was no longer even showing up as an unavailable flight.
Some furious and quick research, which my job has fortunately made me rather used to, led me to cancel our booking to ensure a refund before looking at other airlines.
Things looked bleak. Flights out of Spokane were far too expensive. Forecasted snow on Snoqualmie Pass would have made attempting to get to Seattle too risky. Portland was too far a drive, and no flights were available out of Yakima.
Then, I learned a fact that as of press time, may or may not have saved our vacation. Unbeknownst to my naïve mind, there is a small airport in Pasco that miraculously had cheaper flights than Spokane, Seattle or Portland.
I quickly booked a Delta flight to Salt Lake that connects to Phoenix, and we're planning to fly out of Pasco Thursday, Dec. 29. Our flight seats are right at the back of the plane, which will make for an annoying deboard, but allows us the best chance at survival if the pilot really screws up and flies us into the Rocky Mountains.
The Tri-Cities detour even allows us a chance to visit good friends that we haven't seen in quite some time, so all's well that ends well...assuming we make our flight.
If not, I suppose we'll spend our New Years vacation in a similarly desert-like climate...Pasco.
- Drew Lawson is the managing editor of the Record-Times. Email him at drew@cheneyfreepress.com
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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