So I am flying home from my week long trip for work. I started my journey home around 11:00am on Friday the 13th. It is now 2:08am on Saturday the 14th. 15 hours of travel so far. My morning started with a call from the airport telling me that my flight scheduled for 10:48am had been cancelled but not to worry I was rebooked back to Providence on a flight leaving at 1:19pm. Great I now had some time to find the Wichita Harley Davidson shop called Mid Continent Harley Davidson. It’s fairly small as shops go but they had a good custom pin and I picked up one for myself and for my father. I then headed to the airport and got my picture of the day, a Big Dog motorcycle that was on display in the lobby of the airport. As I awaited my plane I set up shop at the workstation and updated the blog, checked my e-mail and was able to play a little Runescape.

I got a message from Linda at the Smoky Hill Bison Co.. I found out that Ida’s calf had died in the birthing process. I then went to check out the website to see if there was an update about the herd and I noticed that I got another message from Linda that let me know that Ida ended up having twins (a very rare occurance for bison). Unfortunately neither of the twins survived. Linda and Verne did not know that Ida was having twins and during the extraction of the first calf and the frantic work of getting Ida into a chute during a torrential thunderstorm the second calf was missed until the next morning. Ida could have given birth to the second calf at any time after the first one. I can only imagine the confusion and panic and fear or possibly losing one of your birthing cows to a birth gone wrong never mind doing it in a thunderstorm. If the thunderstorm was anything like what I drove through during my trip back from Salina then I can only imagine at the misery of that night. I actually used every setting of my windshield wipers on that drive because it would pour, then trickle, then stop, then pour again and the lightening was a fantastic sight to see.

Anyway I was thankful to Linda to give me an update. The Smoky Hill Bison Co. has an absentee owner program where you can buy a buffalo for a one time fee and then pay for it’s care each month. After three years if you have a heifer then I think you can sell it or decide if it will be used for breeding. If it is a bull you can look to maybe sell it as a herd bull for stud or have it for the meat. I need to read through the agreement again. I wonder if that would be a good investment. “So what are you invested in? Well I diversified my portfolio, I have Dell, Disney, some mutual funds and a buffalo. A buffalo? Yep, a buffalo. And next year I may add a couple of emus and an ostrich, and some Microsoft.” But seriously I think I may take a closer look at this absentee owner program. Linda was a very nice person and from the website their farm is working to maintain a very healthy herd of buffalo as well as be environmentally conscious. After the wedding I will look at this closer and see more about some serious consideration.

So after checking the e-mail and while playing Runescape the woman at the counter put out a request for 7 people to give up their seats or the seats would be involuntarily given up. They were offering a $250.00 voucher so I checked it out, looked like they would get me home only a couple of hours later than expected so I volunteered and settled in for some serious gaming time. The next flight was to leave at 5:00pm, but then Chicago had a ground halt and that means no flights in or out. Which meant that we could not fly to Chicago at all, until l approx 7:00pm, well we ended up leaving at 6:30pm or so. And when I arrived in Chicago I was greeted with an 11:55 departure time to Providence. Great. So that means a 3:00 am arrival or so and also means getting home at 4:00am or so. But I ended up with a first class ticket, a $250.00 voucher, I played uninterrupted hours of Runescape, read most of Clive Cussler’s Atlantis Found (The current Dirk Pitt novel that I am on and the last repeat one before I get to the last 4 or 5 new ones.) And first class was not full so I have my own row and can write this entry to my heart’s content. And since I have been awake since 7:00am I am tired and wired and typing like a fiend. If I had had my camera out in time I could have gotten some fantastic shots of Chicago but I wasn’t thinking. I did get some nice pictures of the clouds though. That is the first time I took any pictures from the plane. I’m attaching them here.

Clouds from the plane.

Not so great shot of Chicago.

Well looks like we will be landing soon, signing off. Landed at 3:05am, found car at 3:20am, got home at 4:00am. Woke up 7:00am, off to New Hampshire at 8:30am.