Good News! We're delayed.

Out the door in plenty of time. Only one minor misstep - we got off to buy gas for the rental car at an exit that made a vague promise of "travel services" but there was nothing around. Still, we had plenty of time. The car return - easy; the shuttle, earlier than promised; no line to check in. But the computer casually informed us that the flight to Minneapolis was delayed by about 1/2 hour. No big deal, except that the original connection time was less than an hour, and that is one big, spread out airport. It probably took us 15 minutes to walk from one flight to the other last week. There are other flights to Minot, but we really hoped to get back to Bismarck in time to pick up the bikes so we can ride out fairly early tomorrow. On a later flight, there's no chance we could make itbefore they close, and they don't open until ten tomorrow. More riding in heat, more chance of encountering thunderstorms.

Bruce had a great idea. How about asking them to route us directly to Bismarck? There were actually a few ticket agents chatting with one another when we went back to ask. We told our story, and they went right to the computer to figure it out. There's a flight to Bismarck that gets us in hours before the bike shop closes. No extra two hour drive. We will be there in time for dinner. Hertz has taken the change pretty much in stride (a reasonable drop-off fee). A big thanks to the Delta ticket agents in Hartford! Hurray!