Escape from Storm King Mountain

Storm King Mountain is across the Hudson River. You can see "Old Hwy 218" hanging along the edge of the mountain. I barely made it out alive.

On my second trip back from the SWF airport after picking up my luggage (see previous post) I followed the Google directions precisely and tried to enter the Washington gate for West Point. No dice - DOD decal only (Dept of Defense). So they turned me around except I turned one turn too soon and ended up driving north along old HWY 218. This road takes you on a scenic view of the Hudson River along the side of Storm King Mountain. And I do mean the "side". The east side of the road (yep - the side I was driving on) dropped straight down to the water - like a cliff - a real drop off. This is no place to take a person who suffers from motion sickness. I am told that this windy stretch of road is the most beautiful view of the Hudson and is often painted and photographed by artists in the area. To me, it was the most challenging road I have driven without vomiting. If it had been daylight, I would not have been able to drive it. The dropoff on my right side would have made me want to get out of the car and lay down on the ground so I wouldn't fall off. I nearly barfed and I WAS DRIVING. Note to self: stay away from cliff roads - like Old Hwy 218 along the Hudson River, and probably Hwy 101 in California.

This will not ruin my trip

Plane trips should be uneventful and unremarkable. Unfortunately this one has not met that criteria. Well actually, the trip wasn't that bad. I left Omaha one hour late due to an unknown and unexplained reason. I arrived in DTW 4 minutes before the scheduled departure time to find out that they had held the plane for two of us who were coming in from Omaha. I believe the total number of passengers on the plane was 8, including us two latecomers.
When we arrived in SWF (Newburg Stewart-Poughkeepsie, NY) there were 3 passengers whose luggage didn't make the trip from DTW. There was an announcement that ALL the luggage on our flight had been unloaded. When we talked to the agent in the baggage claim area, we were told to wait another 10 minutes. I explained that there had been an announcement that "all of the luggage from our flight had been unloaded" and then we were told to go to the NWA desk. This was not a surprise to me - even though the gates at DTW were in close proximity, I fully expected that my luggage could not possibly have gotten on the plane with me. So off we went to the NWA desk.
There were two agents there at that time checking in passengers for the next flight. One of the agents departed immediately when he heard that we had luggage claims. "I don't do luggage claims." We waited about 15 minutes for the other attendant at the NWA desk to finish checking in the passengers. Then he said he'd be back in a few minutes and then went down to the Delta desk and began checking in their passengers. 15 more minutes.
When we asked him if he was coming back to help us, he said he had to get someone else to take our claim. Another 5 minutes passed and Bill showed up. Bill is the guy who was unloading gate checked bags when we got off the plane 45 minutes earlier. As it turns out, Bill was unable to log into the Luggage system in order to file a claim and give us a reference number so he gave us a card with the 800 number on it for us to call. He explained that there was another flight in from DTW that night arriving at about 11. The independent countractor would probably pick up the bags and then deliver them within the four hour agreed upon time. Great, worked for me - I'd get the bags (one suitcase and a trace show display) in the middle of the night and be able to shower and get dressed for the morning meeting.
Well, at 6:00 there were still no bags. So I began to search the NWA website. First of all, you NEED the reference number that Bill didn't give us to access the online system. You also need it if you call the 800 number. After several attempts, I was able to get around this requirement and get to Customer Service whose hours are 6:30 CST - 11 PM CST. So I showered with the hotel shampoo and put on yesterday's clothes again. When I finally reached the CS dept, their system was unable to contact the new luggage website, so couldn't help me. This went on until about 10 AM EST when I finally reached a rep in "Sioux City IA" at the NWA call center located in the old Penney's building. Hallelujah! I knew I was in good hands - Kathy and her husband frequent the White Horse for Prime Rib on Friday evenings. She told me that my bags had gone to SWF last night but she couldn't see any claim or evidence that a delivery was pending.
6 hours and 15 calls later, I was startng to get info from the CS folks (not from Sioux City) that the bags had been expedited in DTW and would arrive TONIGHT on the 11 PM flight. On two individual calls, I was on hold for 6 and 10 minutes and got hung up on. OK, now I'm mad. So I call one more time and luckily get another gal from Sioux City. She finally put me in touch with the desk at SWF (I had been asking for this all day so I could go and pick up my bags myself). Tim, the supervisor who was gone yesterday, told me that yes my bags were there at the SWF airport and had been since last night. I arranged to pick them up since there had been no delivery claim filed yet with the Independent contractor who would take at least another 4 hours to deliver them to me. So I traveled back over the mountain to the airport and picked up my bags. I talked the kid ("I don't do luggage claims") and told him that I had been put out by NWA's new baggage system and that I had suffered in my business because of their ineptitude in interpreting the data that their system provided. He gave me a $25 discount on a flight, but I'm not done with Northwest yet.
Then on the way back home from the airport, I got lost. See future post for that story.
Things are going to get better - this will not ruin my trip. Now the storm that is in the Rockies - that could ruin my trip.

Aebleskiver - my Danish Tradition

When my parents house burned down in 1951 due to a chimney explosion, the only item saved was my Grandma Marie's Aebleskiver pan. That's because it was in my Grandma Helga's stove after a recent aebleskiver "fest". Making these delicious treats with my Mom, is one of my earliest memories of cooking. It was my job to shake the Aebleskiver in the sugar sack. Whitney and I made Danish Aebleskiver while she was home for the holiday break. She has her own pan now - a Christmas gift bought at Linen's 'n Things. It is marketed by "As Seen on TV" under the name of Pancake Puff pan. Call it whatever you want - it is the sure sign of a tradition in the making.

Ingredients and requirements

Cast Iron Aebleskiver pan
Danish apron
Brown paper sack
crochet hook
Sugar for the recipe and for shaking
flour
Baking powder
Baking soda
buttermilk
eggs
salt
lemon juice

BTW, I didn't know until I grew up that you could make such beautiful doilies, etc with the "Aebleskiver turner" (crochet hook)

Bad Signage #3 - A tribute to Johnny Cochran

This is not only an example of bad grammar, but also bad usage of an apostrophe - like it is missing one, er, two, I mean. I spotted this in West Point, NY at a charity clothing drop off point.

Bad signage #2 - Bad spelling, actually

Perhaps next week they will offer Hungarian Goolash or German Potatoe Salad.

Q: Is this Air Hoar or White Frost??

We had two days of Hoar Frost (or Hoarfrost) last week. This is an example of a specific type of hoarfrost known as "Air Hoar". Wikipedia says it happens when the air is moist and cold and the wind is weak. The trees in front of our house were white and fluffy with frost and the sky was such a clear blue - I had to take a photo.

The next day we had something called White Frost. It only formed on the south side of the trees. Who knew there were so many varieties of frost?

I bet they don't have anything this beautiful in Arizona in the winter. Yeah, yeah - I know - green golf courses in Arizona are quite beautiful when there is snow on the ground in South Dakota.

The best things in life are free...... really

Of all the gifts the family got for Christmas, the one that appeared to be the favorite was this one. An Empty box can provide hours of entertainment for kids. Next year, it is boxes for everyone.