The Continuing Saga

Well, we got home from the Sacramento Airport at 3:00 a.m. Saturday - sans Peter. I will update this when we finally get Peter home and get the whole tale, but this is what I think I know at this point [for consistancy sake, I have converted all times to PST:

• His flight from Zurich left at 7:00 a.m., local time, on Friday, December 19th. This converts to 10:00 p.m. Thursday night, 12/18. Coincidentally, this was the exact time we were in the Sacramento Airport picking up MLE. We were so excited that in exactly 24 hours we would be picking up Peter.
• From Zurich he arrived in London around midnight [PST remember] for his first layover.
• About 3 hours later his flight left London for Dallas, where he arrived around 1:00 p.m.
• This is where things began to unravel, because he was supposed to be there only a couple of hours, and then continue on to SLC. However, that flight kept getting delayed because of bad weather in SLC. Fortunately we were able to be in contact with him to a small degree and he was able to let us know that he was alright, and that, finally, it looked like his flight would be leaving at around 7:30 p.m. and make it to SLC in time for him to make his connecting flight to Sacramento, which had also been delayed due to bad weather.
• So we're watching these flights to see if it was all working, and, hearing nothing from Peter, assume that he got to SLC just in time to make his connection and be here around 2:00 a.m.
• So we all go to the airport and sure enough, his connecting flight shows up on time, and we wait with the Petersons and Hellers to pick up our children. Imagine our dismay when they finally close the gate and no Peter! Miraculously, just as we (mom, M, James & Sabrina) were standing there trying to figure out how we were going to contact Peter to find out where he is, he calls.
• It turns out that his flight from Dallas had been diverted to Boise due to the weather in SLC. But all they did was put down in Boise, refuel, and take off again for SLC. Not having a cell phone, and not being able to go into the terminal, he couldn't call us to let us know he had missed his connecting flight.
• So it is now 2:00 a.m. on Saturday, and assuming he checked into the Zurich airport 1.5 hours prior to his flight leaving, and that it took about 1/2 hour to get to the airport from the mission home, he has now been on the road for 28 hours.
• He is now in SLC on standby. They will try to get him on the 8:30 a.m. [SLC time] flight, getting him to Sacramento just before 9:30 a.m. here. If that one doesn't have room, the next one is about 11:00 a.m. [SLC time], and the one after that 3:30 p.m. We'll see which one he gets on.
• They considered putting him up in a motel, but they would just get there & have to come back to the airport, so he is just toughing it out there in the SLC airport. Fortunately he has been with a group of returning missionaries, and a couple of them are still in this with him.
• So we came home to get some sleep before trekking to Sacramento again. We'll keep you posted . . . or keep this posted . . . or something.
• And when we do finally get him home we'll post some pics.