ASD Planetarium: 1999 Dieruff Academy Field Experience
FEBRUARY 10, 1999:   STABLETON AIRPORT, DENVER

Perhaps Richard III said it best when he said, "Now is the winter of our discontent." This became increasingly true as our patience withered and hopes of getting a good night’s sleep dwindled while we waited to take off from the Stapleton Airport in Denver. After our flight from Philadelphia landed in near white-out conditions which left the airport almos paralyzed, we waited briefly to board our final flight to Albuquerque.
As our pilot informed us that we were now waiting to join in the line to be deiced and eventually take off, our faces sank. After two and a half hours in line, we were finally given clearance to depart from the Denver airport. An hour or so later, the flight landed at the Albuquerque airport. Unfortunately things were about to take a turn for the worse.
We soon discovered that our rented vehicles were unavailable for the night, and thus we had no way to get to our motel rooms. This, however, was not the only problem we would encounter after landing at Albuquerque. It turned out that the motel at which we were to stay had no record of our payment, and thus we had to pay again for our rooms, which luckily, had not been booked. After a dozen phone calls and a few trips back and forth between the airport and motel using our cargo truck, we were finally able to get to bed at 4 a.m.


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