Trip to Pittsburgh

Yesterday, flying out of Denver, we had a good trip. It started out with an odd occurence. We had seats in Row 22, but when we got to the back of the plane, the rows ended at row 21! It turns out there was a change of aircraft, so they moved us to Row 8.

Now our good financial luck for this trip was on a roll. Our round trip tickets to Pittsburgh were the result of our giving up seats on a plane to Houston back in May, so they were free. Now we were in the section of the plane with more legroom that they had offered us for $78 extra, but we had declined. So now, we got them anyway at no extra cost.

The air was turbulent about half an hour out of Denver, and lasted for about another half hour or so, as we went through the cold front that had gone through the night before. But once we got past that, the view was nice. I saw the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers near St. Louis, MO. I also saw in rapid succession, the cities of Indianapolis, Columbus, Wheeling, and Pittsburgh as we went by. We actually passed the Pittsburgh airport to approach from the east, and I wish I had my camera in hand. Out my window was the most spectacular view of downtown Pittsburgh with the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers forming the head of the Ohio River.

Now we come to the Pittsburgh Airport rental car saga. We had reserved a Jeep Grand Cherokee, but all they had left at Thrifty was minivans. The lovely spouse doesn't like minivans, so after some checking around, we got Dollar Rent A Car to transfer a Murano to Thrifty for us (both are the same company). So, we get the Murano and head out down PA 60 and get about 5 miles, when we both started getting a headache and hurting lungs from a funky smell in the car. I think someone had smoked in it, and tried to cover it up with some kind of scent, but it was horrible. SO...back to the airport. They got a new Pacifica back in, so we took that. We had rented one in Los Angeles last year, and they are very nice. By the time it was said and done, the young man at the rental counter gave us about half off our weekly rental rate, so for our trouble, we ended up with a nice car for the week at a great price.

I do have some road pictures to share from the trip from Pittsburgh to Morgantown, so those will be up soon. Stay tuned!