The Last Leg of the Trip

The conclusion of my family’s trip to Sweden.

I have been on an airplane several times in my life, including a flight to Montana 11 years ago.

During my flights years prior to our trip to Sweden, I do not recall being afraid during any point of the flight. This time was different.

I had moments of nervousness before the flight, nervousness during the flight, and nervousness during the landing. This was during all five flights.

I have no idea what caused this fear.

Another weird fear that I had was being stuck in another country, for whatever reason.

The last fear that I had was people not liking me because I was American. This fear was triggered by the political sideshow that we have become over the last several years.

Thankfully, despite all of my different fears, we went on our trip, enjoyed it, and arrived safe.

We had no problem getting stateside. But we did experience adversity.

We landed safely in Denver even though we thought that we would miss our 6 p.m. flight to Billings.

We had arrived to the gate with plenty of time to make our flight, but then our flight was pushed back a couple of hours, which seemed okay at first. But after another delay, they canceled the flight!

We also heard that several other flights around the airport were canceled including a couple of flights to airports in Montana.

We stood in a line for hours before the airline finally got us set up in a hotel room. Then we began the search for our bags. We were missing a couple of bags that included our clothing.

We searched through so many sitting luggage bags including one that smelled like rotting meat. I still to this day wonder what was in that bag, but I could be better off not knowing.

After giving up on our bag search, we sat outside around midnight for an hour waiting for a shuttle to take us to a hotel.

This hotel was rough. We slept in our clothes because those clothes were all we had. The bathroom wasn’t clean. It was just rough.

A college friend was able to take my family and me to the airport the following morning. Thanks a ton, Amy!

We couldn’t rent a vehicle to drive to Billings and the flight had been scheduled two days out, so we were in a pickle.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law, Jim and Nancy Fauth, needed to take a trip to Billings, so eventually Jim and his son Aaron came down to our rescue. And drove us home.

In Cheyenne Wyo., we experienced Texas Roadhouse for the first time. And that was a treat. I even tried to get them to acknowledge Susan’s birthday, which she celebrated in Sweden.

Shy, of course, my wife decided that she would not get on the saddle while the Texas Roadhouse staff sang for her birthday… Instead, I sat on the saddle while they sang to her. Lessons were learned at that moment and she took a video.

We continued to drive north. This drive is where I realized that I was facing jet lag. I couldn’t stay awake for anything, which made me a terrible co-pilot. I had handled the first round of jet lag so well.

This evil, second bout of jet lag continued for two weeks. I was completely knocked off of my rhythm.

Workouts at 5 a.m.? I only made it a couple of days a week. I found it harder to focus than usual. I couldn’t think straight at times or put words together while trying to hold a conversation. It was wild.

Eventually, I got my bearings right. It took sleep, hydration, and heavy lifting at the gym, but I am doing better now.

The family thoroughly enjoyed the trip. A few days after being back home, Lincoln asked when are we going back to Sweden?

It was cool to see PJ and Lincoln interact with their cousins. It was great to be able to hang out with Sam and Mirjam Fauth, as well as their children Noah, Livia, and Sophia, who are growing up so fast. We hope to see them again soon.

It was great to experience another part of the world with my family. Where are we going next? I think the Fauth family reunion is already in the plans for 2024.