(Little voice inside my head: Whoa, whoa, what are you doing here big guy? It's like, three days since this happened, let it go!)
(Other little voice inside my head: Oh no you don't, you are not going to censor another story, not this time - why do you think all the pictures were taken - they are evidence, and evidence must be presented!)
*Ahem* As I was writing...I took MJM to DIA this past Friday, and as luck would have it, there was a lot of construction going on along Pena Blvd, the road that gets one from 1-70 to the airport.
Which should not have been a surprise to me, really, as there has never not been construction going on around or in DIA in the 31 years that ground was first broken on the boondoggle project.
(Little voice inside my head: Oh come on, not the DIA boondoggle diatribe again, it's been done to death!)
(Other little voice inside my head: Yeah, gotta agree with that, let's stick to the events of this past Friday)
Okay, so, I'm driving Mike to DIA and the first signs alerting us to the construction that is currently underway are just past the Jackson Gap exit - see below.
The first bright orange construction sign that alerts drivers to a change in the driving pattern
Okay, no big deal, the Denver metro region has had a ton of road construction projects going on for decades, I'm used to it, this is hardly going to make us late. Heck, MJM's flight isn't scheduled to leave for over an hour an a half, and since the airport is only seeing about 20% of it's usual (re: pre 'rona) traffic, we should be fine.
Look at all those bright orange signs alerting everyone to the traffic pattern change - whew!
I was genuinely impressed with all the signage present that gave drivers a big heads up to the changes in the usual traffic pattern - to the point where I was thinking it was a bit of overkill.
(Little voice inside my head: What?! Safety is no accident Dude!)
(Other little voice inside my head: Whatever...overkill.)
Of course, road construction means a reduction in the speed limits, but no big deal - after all, it was still more than an hour and a half before MJM's flight was scheduled to take off.
(Little voice inside my head: Safety first!)
(Other little voice inside my head: Overkill.)
Finally on the road that leads to the West Terminal, where I would park in the short term parking lot and then walk MJM to the ticket counter to check in his luggage and hand him over the DIA disabled traveler assistant, who would ensure he got on his flight.
Approaching the West Terminal a decision has to be made fairly quickly as to which lanes one wants to be in, either take the right lanes that go to the upper level doors for easy access to the airline ticket counters for whomever you are dropping off, or take the left lanes if you need to use the short term parking (with a whopping 10 minutes of free parking) if you have passengers who may have a lot of luggage...or perhaps a disability that requires you to actually escort them into the terminal.
This sign, placed well beyond the point of reasonably easy choice as to which lane to take, states "West Short Term Parking Closed" - but it's difficult to read as some of the letters are not as well lit up as the others, and the harsh low winter sun from an early morning sunrise only makes it more difficult.
Then this sign appeared - well past the tens of other signs alerting one to the change in traffic patterns due to the road construction.
This is the same sign with the follow-up message "Use East Short Term Parking" that quickly followed the "West Short Term Parking Closed" message, and with the same difference in light brightness amongst the letters and harsh low winter sun making it difficult to actually read the message.
I stopped my truck in the median immediately after I read the messages as I realized that driving back around to the East Terminal to park and then shambling walking with MJM from the East Terminal short term parking through the terminal to the ticket counter would take a lot more time than I was comfortable risking - airlines being notorious with closing boarding of flights 20 minutes prior to departure so as to not endanger their on-time departure and arrival standing.
So I quickly decided the best course of action would be to let MJM out at the arrival area with his luggage and have him hang tight until I drove around to the East Terminal short term parking and then ran through from the east side of the terminal to the west side to retrieve him.
Driving around to the east side of the terminal would not be quick under the best conditions - DIA is huge, bigger that the city of Boston (this is not hyperbole on my part - Boston is a city that covers 49 square miles, DIA is 52.4 square miles). However, I figured that with traffic being about 20% of normal, even with construction zone speeds I still had plenty of time.
But I was wrong...very wrong, as the usual return-to-terminal route was closed due to the construction underway somehow incorporating that road. The exit I would have to use would be the Jackson Gap exit, which meant I would have to drive a nearly six mile loop..at construction speeds
The Jackson Gap exit...way down there...where construction was underway at the intersection...
I honestly drove as close to the speed limit as I could - which was not me being overtly safety conscious, it was me being astutely aware than the Denver PD feast on speeders at the airport - there is only one road that leads to the terminal, and it is definitely a speed trap a road that requires careful observation of the posted speed limits.
It took me a about 20 minutes to drive around to the east terminal, and another 15 minutes to find a parking space in the short term parking lot, then another 15 minutes to get from where I parked to where I had left MJM at the west terminal departure area. As quickly as MJM could shamble walk we made it to the ticket counter...where we were promptly told that MJM's flight was about to close to prepare for departure and there was no way he would make the flight (it takes about 20 minutes to get from a ticket counter to even the closest gates at DIA).
Needless to say I was upset.
(Little voice inside my head: You know, it's been said you can tell a lot about a man by what he allows to annoy him.)
(Other little voice inside my head: Shut up.)
After getting MJM rebooked on a flight to SD that was leaving two hours later, I decided I wanted to file a complaint with whoever runs the parking / traffic control show at DIA. So I did a little digging and acquired the phone number of DIA's manager of parking & traffic.
(Little voice inside my head: You're not going to spill how you actually got his name and number are you?)
(Other voice inside my head: Of course not, no need to get sources in trouble.)
I dialed H.H, at *** *** 4080 and to my surprise he actually answered his phone. I then explained what I (and MJM) had just endured, and suggested that some clearer signage advising the closure of the West Terminal short term parking garage should be posted, and a whole lot further from the west terminal, just in case there might be other people coming to the airport with a disabled passenger or maybe a ton of luggage.
The reply H.H. gave me is why I am going through the trouble of writing this post.
(Little voice inside my head: No it's not, you're just being a cranky pants curmudgeon.)
(Other little voice inside my head: WTF?! That's not true - the story must be told!)
See, H.H. told me that the West Terminal short term parking was not closed, though it had been up until yesterday, and if I had just drove into the parking garage I would have seen that.
So I did what any person in my position would have done. I apologized for bothering him with was a egregious error on my part...then went out and drove to the West Terminal parking garage.
There were cars ahead of me as I approached the West Terminal parking garage, so I started to feel quite sheepish, and thought I probably should call H.H. and apologize yet again.
That is, until I saw this. The West Terminal parking garage was definitely closed. H.H,, the director of parking / traffic control at DIA was either not aware of this, or deliberately fed me a line of bull to shoo me away.
(Little voice inside my head: Kerist, what a whiney rant. Happy now?)
(Other voice inside my head: Should be, got the truth out.)
No, BTW, I am not happy - I had to pay $5.00 to park because short term parking is only free for ten minutes. It's not even possible to cross from the east to the west side of the terminal in ten minutes from the closest parking spot in the East Terminal short term parking.
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