There is no direct flight from Idaho Falls to Milwaukee. You have to fly to Salt Lake City and then to either Minneapolis or Detroit and then you can get to Milwaukee. Not super convenient, but still faster than driving. Usually. I booked my flight to depart Idaho Falls at 7:30 am and arrive in Milwaukee at 5:30 pm.
On my way out, we were on the plane ready to depart Idaho Falls aaannd...nothing. Turned out the plane had a bad starter. We waited a few hours for Delta to fly a mechanic up from Salt Lake City and then waited a few more hours for the guy to get it fixed.
After eight hours, we were finally on our way. I made it to Minneapolis too late for the connection to Milwaukee. Delta put me up in a rather nice hotel for the night, but I only got about 4 hours sleep before I had to be up to catch the shuttle back to the airport for my final flight. I finally made it to Milwaukee at 8:30 am, the day after I was scheduled to arrive and just hours before Stable Boy and the Crew, who had caught a later flight.
We had originally only planned for the Crew to stay a few days, but it was $300 cheaper to send them home the day after Valentines Day, so they ended up with a more extended vacation. Kid 3 ended up with bonus days--she woke up on the day of their scheduled departure with one of the worst cases of stomach flu I've seen. There was no way she was getting on a plane, so we changed her reservation so that she would fly home with me later in the week. She liked getting out of more school, but I'm not sure she thought the price was worth it. A week later and she is still not 100%.
On Thursday, Kid 3 and I boarded the plane together to return to Rexburg. We expected to be home by 5 pm. The plane was pushed away from the gate aaaannd...nothing. The engine wouldn't start again. The delay this time was only an hour and a half, but it was long enough that we missed our connection to Salt Lake by about 10 or 15 minutes. Those 10-15 minutes cost us 7 hours; that's how long we had to wait for the next flight out to SLC. We finally made it home shortly before midnight. It was another long day.
I'm sure at some point I will take to the air again, but for now I'm happy to not be at the mercy of faulty engines and overbooked flight schedules.