We swept out our tent platforms, then made a pack line at the Welcome Center at 6:45. We ate a continental breakfast in the Dining Hall at 7:00, then loaded our gear on the busses at 8:00, boarded, and departed. Our bus assignments for the return trip were as follows:

As we drove away I gazed at Tooth Ridge (yes, I saw the arrowhead rock formation on the back side), the various conspicuous points of reference (Baldy, Touch-Me-Not, Black Mountain, Bear Mountain, Window Rock), and the Philmont landscape in general, until the bus turned north on Route 64. It was difficult finally to let go.

Just outside of Cimarron we saw part of Ted Turnerís buffalo herd. We reached the turn-off for I-25 north at 8:45 and were at the CO-NM border at 9:00. We passed the Trinidad weigh station at 9:10 and Pueblo, CO, at 10:30. At 11:05 we turned off I-25 at exit 139 and took Route 24 east into Colorado Springs, reaching Fargoís Pizza at 11:15.

Wow, can these guys eat! The bill from Fargoís came to $814.10 (654.85 for 51 pies and 159.25 for 49 pitchers of soda). The money Walt gave me didnít cover the bill, but I was later reimbursed $114.10 from the MCBSA. The feeding frenzy was actually pretty well controlled. We were seated in an upstairs room that we had all to ourselves. One Scout from each crew served as a waiter, keeping the pizza and soda supplies replenished until the guys had their fill.

At 12:40 PM we were back on the bus and on the road again. We passed by the Best Western Palmer House and the CO National Guard Armory (on the other side of I-25) at 12:57, and arrived at Denver International Airport at 2:15.

We were faced with another minor SNAFU. We had asked the bus drivers to drop us off on Level 6 (per Waltís instructions), but instead they dropped us off on a lower level. Some Skycaps swooped down on us and "generously" offered to haul our bags upstairs to the ticket counter area. After we were all assembled there, these nice folks came to us begging for a tip, saying that $1 per bag was typical. Larry gave them a $100 Travelerís Check, which they balked at taking at first but accepted when they learned it was to be that or nothing. Larry was later reimbursed for this expense (as a transportation fee) by the MCBSA.

We had tickets for United flight #1604, which was scheduled to depart DIA at 4:45 and arrive at Newark at 10:04. At 3:30 we were still in line at the ticket counter, though. The person who claimed to be the group coordinator had only one helper and only one speed ñ slow. To add insult to injury, Vinny Costa and I had e-tickets and thus had no seat assignments. The gate attendants said that the flight had a weight restriction (they probably heard about our trip to Fargoís) due to the heat and therefore would not be filled. Vinny and I squawked and were helped by Rich Goldman and Larry Goldsmith, who offered to give up their seats for us.

After being quite persistent, Vinny and I were finally allowed to board at 5:02 and were told that seats would be found for us. Since only 2 of the 12 seats in the first-class section were occupied Vinny and I sat there. Just before they closed the door to the plane an older couple came on board. They were told that the first-class seats were restricted, so Vinny and I gave them our seats, courtesy of the BSA (nice touch, huh?) and we sat in steerage with the rest of the contingent (there were a couple dozen empty seats there). I ended up in seat 7C.

We took off at 5:09 MDT. An hour later, at 8:09 EDT, dinner was served. It was pretty much the same fare as we had on the flight out, except there were carrots instead of green beans and the salad dressing was Ranch (or was it raunch?). I decided that trail food wasnít so bad after all.

Pete Karl commented that having the seat assignments made alphabetically by contingent instead of seating us by crew seemed to work out pretty well, because the Scouts were talking with different people and exchanging trek tales. Perhaps we were being over-organized by trying to rearrange the seat assignments.

Also, the "group coordinator" at DIA had suggested that the next time we do this we should drop off all of our tickets with the group coordinator at our destination airport on the way to Philmont. Then they would have plenty of time to organize things and the seat assignments could be pre-done for us. In fact, we probably should consider dropping off the tickets with the group coordinator at Newark a couple of days before the outbound flight as well.

We touched down at Newark at 10:15 and were at the gate at 10:21. Hello, NJ humidity!

It was difficult to tell who was more excited at the airport: the parents or the Scouts. After verifying that all members of our crew had a ride home I went with Dan Lingelbach, who drove his son Tim, Adam, and me home.