Meeting Kevin's Fiancée

My brother Kevin is engaged to Michaela.  They live in Hanover, Germany, and made a trip to the United States from July 30-August 10 to see us before they get married.  Kevin is now honorably discharged from military service after serving our country for seven years!

Originally they planned to be here from July 29-August 9, but Delta and a US Customs agent completely terrorized their travel plans.  In New York Kevin went through Customs and had to show special paperwork to them because he's now discharged from the military.  The Customs agent screamed and yelled at him unnecessarily.  The line behind Kevin completely disappeared since no one wanted to deal with that Customs agent after he was so blatantly hostile for no good reason.  Even after Kevin was finished doing business, no one went to that agent for awhile.

They were delayed at New York City by inclement weather, which did not exist, which caused them to miss their flight from Minneapolis to Bozeman.  They were forced to stay in Minneapolis overnight at their own expense (which was heavy on the pocketbook), and then took other flights the next day to finally make it to Bozeman the night of August 10.  Michaela's luggage piece was destroyed.  Delta offered to replace her €100 luggage with an inferior one or to send in the old one to a service center where the company would either repair it or give them a voucher of some sort for the depreciated value of the luggage piece.  At his hotel, Kevin discovered that important things in his luggage were stolen from during the travel from New York to Bozeman.  On the way back home to Germany on August 9, Delta cancelled that flight, and forced Kevin and Michaela to stay in Bozeman another day.  When they got their luggage back, a strap was missing but fortunately it was found after the airport personnel searched for it.

Kevin and Michaela are still working out the damaged luggage situation, and I believe they're working on other things too.  Delta has not compensated Kevin and Michaela for any of this mess at this time.  I really hope he gets his story published at FlightsFromHell.com, since it was one of the worst stories I've heard in awhile.  Obviously he's never going back to that airline again.  The funny thing is that all the Delta employees were very sympathetic to the issues, but were constrained by company policies.

Airlines in the US are pretty terrible anymore it seems.  They used to be much more courteous and accommodating.  Now they look for any way to work you over.

While they were in Montana, Kevin and Michaela spent some time with me.  On August 2, I was already at Bozeman after spending the night at Jean's and Bruce's condo.  So that day, Kevin, Michaela, and I drove to Gardiner to see Jean, who was in Gardiner already, and Zana and her kids.  From there we briefly went into Yellowstone Park to look for some animals.  We saw elk in Mammoth, and then saw yellow-bellied marmots at Sheepeater Cliff.

On August 5, I went to Bozeman to go to church, and then drove to Livingston where I met Kevin and Michaela at the Park County Fairgrounds to watch the demolition derby.  We had a lot of fun there.  Afterwards, we had ice cream at Dairy Queen, visited Grandma at Livingston Health and Rehabilitation Center, and saw Dad and Bonnie for a couple hours at their new house.

A couple cars duke it out at the demolition derby in Livingston.

Kevin and me at Dairy Queen

Kevin and Michaela came to Gardiner for a couple nights on August 6-8.  On August 6 I gave them a quick tour of Yellowstone National Park.  We saw a little of Mammoth, Steamboat Geyser, Lower Falls, Mud Volcano, Yellowstone Lake, and Old Faithful.  By that time we were hungry and ate dinner before driving home in the dark.  Michaela wanted to climb a mountain while she was here, so on August 7 we hiked up Mount Washburn at Dunraven Pass.  That evening we drove to Chico Hot Springs where we enjoyed the naturally hot water.

Kevin and Michaela at Lower Falls, YNP

Michaela and Kevin dance like penguins on the Mount Washburn trail.

August 8, we all drove to Bozeman and did a little shopping before going back to Chico Hot Springs for another dip.  I stayed in Bozeman that night at Jean's and Bruce's condo since Dad, Bonnie, Jean, Kevin, Michaela, and I were having a get-together at IHOP the next morning before Kevin and Michaela were supposed to leave but couldn't.  After that breakfast, I was relaxing at the condo when I got a call from Kevin because he needed a ride.  We ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse before I had to go back to Gardiner to take care of the house.

Me, Jean, Michaela, and Kevin at IHOP in Bozeman

It was great to meet Michaela, and we welcome her into our family!