So, funny story...

First day back in South Dakota, and there is a snow storm on the way. What the heck? I thought it was almost April outside. Sheesh.

Any how once we touched down in Houston, TX (shudder), we had only 45 minutes to get through customs and on to our next plane to Minneapolis, MN. We had to wait in line behind about 200 other people just to get our passports checked. We get split up in lines to get our carry on stuff X rayed. After we left customs, we only had 15 minutes to get to our gate... on the other side of the huge Houston (shudder) airport.

I didn't even put my shoes back on. I just ran sock-footed across food courts, over moving sidewalks, and dodging slow moving people. I also didn't put on my belt... so I had to carry my tickets and passport in my mouth, my shoes in my right hand, and hold my pants up with my left. Remember I have a 30 pound back pack on at this point.

We were chasing after Kara, who is a marathon runner and moved like some kind of sick machine, I could hardly keep up! We got to a bus that was going to take us to the side of the airport with our little plane to the mid west, with about 7 minutes to go. Could that bus be any slower? It was agonizing! What torture! Hayley narrowly made the bus, she power walked while Gab, Kara, and I ran. My shirt was soaked and I looked like I had taken a shower (apparently I'm a sweater, and not the kind you wear when it's cold.) I'm pretty sure we terrified the other bus riders. Four big sweaty South Dakota girls huffing and puffing and sweating and fretting all over the place with huge turtle shell backpacks and death grips on passports and tickets and wild rolling eyes. I'm sure I looked like a monster. The bus took off without Dr. J or Caitilin, and we were pretty worried!

The bus stops in front of a gate to get into the airport and run back around to the correct gate for us to board, and we have 3 minutes to spare. We were off again with the running. (I did have shoes on at that point, I tied them while on the bus) We made it to the gate and I felt like I won the lottery. We found our seats. They were pleather. I stuck to them like a bug on a windshield. Hot sweaty sticky itchy. I hate Pleather now. It is inappropriate at all times.

Caitlin and Dr J never showed up!
They closed the gates and pulled away. Kara checked her phone and Dr J hadn't called. The guy next to me said the next flight to MN was at 6 pm, the time we were scheduled to be in SD. Those poor guys!

Its ok, if it makes everyone feel like things were more equal, all of our luggage got held up in Houston too... My phone, house key and car keys were in my suitcase. DOH!