Sunday morning pickup at my house by Joe.  8:30 AM. Nice ride to Syracuse in the Buick.  Nice early arrival to the airport.  Minimal security line. Pre check did not matter, the line was short, although my bag was searched because they saw the CO2 canister in my bike pump.

Then the fun started.

The plane arriving from CHicago was delayed.  We boarded late, but then had to sit on the plane while they checked over some "technical" details about fuel or something.  Eventually departed considerably late, and of course, as we exited our plane in Chicago, the departure screen listed our flight as "closed".  We were too late.

The agent at our gate tried to help, was unsuccessful, directed us to the courtesy or customer service phones, and Joe and I each had the same outcome......no way to Rapid City until the next evening or Tuesday.  Not an option.

Road trip it had to be!  Google maps said it was 899 mile, and only 13 hours!......but we first needed to get our bags.

The agent assured us that our bags were down at baggage claim, terminal 5.  They pulled our bags because we missed our flight, so they will be down there. We just need to go to the customer service counter in baggage claim at the terminal number 5 carousel. Makes perfect sense, and quite logical of course.

The customer service agent at the desk however, informed us that Joe's bag had been scanned and loaded onto a flight to Dallas, and would thereafter be put on the only flight to Rapid City for the rest of the day.  My bag was also scanned in and loaded on a different Dallas flight leaving sometime later, but should also make the flight out of Dallas to Rapid City that evening.

OK, we will pick them up at the airport when we drop our rental car off at the Rapid City airport whenever we finally get there.  The agent also informed us that we have the ability to track our