How not to get to Ashland, OR

Really, United? You pre-emptively cancel flights for weather that never materializes, yet you keep telling people hours later that their flight will leave when the storms of armageddon are raging outside?  Thank you for that!

After 4 hours standing in line (the shortest of the 3 such customer service lines), they generously offered to get us to Ashland with confirmed seats on Saturday. When I mentioned that today was Wednesday, they admitted they could get us there on Friday, but only standby.  Mortimer the Moose and I were able to convince them to overbook us on a flight that left 4 hours later to San Francisco, some 400 miles from where we wanted to end up. 

So, we ended up staying just outside SFO 16 hours after leaving the house in Chicago, still a day's drive from Ashland.  On the plus side, the next day gave us the opportunity for In-N-Out and a lovely drive up past Mt. Shasta.

After 8½ hours of a 6 hour drive, we finally made it to Ashland! Of course, seeing family makes it worth it, but the view from the back porch and the wildlife out the front door are an added bonus!

More to come from our visit...