Our morning flight from PHX to BOS on October 12 was delayed.  The pilot said it wasn’t just the ramifications of Hurricane Priscilla approaching Phoenix but also a nor’easter heading into Boston.  

Logan Airport in Boston put a hold on us leaving even after we were good to go in Phoenix.

This may be our first flight ever that had weather issues on both ends.  Our flight was delayed twice as we sat on the plane.

We also had potential air traffic control issues due to the government shutdown.  Yet, there we were ready to make the best of it.

This trip was originally scheduled to visit Randy’s cousin in Vermont and see New England’s fall colors. Ultimately, his cousin’s health didn’t allow for our visit but we had already built the trip so decided to go ahead.

This trip was a modification of our annual baseball trip – when we go see the Seattle Mariners or Arizona Diamondbacks play games in a city or area we want to visit.  We’ve been to Baltimore and Detroit in recent years. This year, instead of seeing games, we were going to Cooperstown to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  That will come up in a future post.

Finally, this trip would pick up Connecticut, the only state that is missing on our state map that isn’t in the south.

There were lots of interesting things on this trip itinerary, including four national parks which probably wouldn’t be open in the shutdown.  I am a believer in “all you can do is all you can do.”

The pilot made up our delay going cross country but then we spent part of what he’d gained in a holding pattern over Boston.  In the end, we got there safely, just a little delayed, and all was well.  

While waiting for our rental car to be delivered to us, Randy saw a Kia Telluride.  He asked a very helpful agent if it was possible to change our reserved car to a Telluride.  She was able to do that for us!  Our daughter is considering getting a Telluride so we would be able to give her feedback from our experience.

It was dark, rainy, and fast moving as we made our way out of Boston.  We wondered if the tunnels were part of the infamous Big Dig from decades ago. We only missed one exit and considered that a win.

On the way to our hotel in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, we listened to the first game in the Mariners – Blue Jays American League Championship Series.

Congratulations to my favorite team, the Seattle Mariners, who won a winner take all fifth game in the American League Division Series (against Detroit) to get to this Championship Series!  That game went 15 innings. They did the seventh inning stretch TWICE!

Their success made me feel validated for listening to games in the middle of the night while we were a month in Europe and Iceland!  

We checked into our hotel a little after 10:00 pm and were able to watch the Mariners finish out game 1 with the win!

Next up: A train ride and game 2!