Disappointments vs. Excitement

OK, so not everything is going smoothly. Jim and I are experiencing a few moments of frustration while dealing with some of these airlines and ground transportation people. It's hard to believe these guys are turning us down. I really thought that with the excitement and support that Southwest showed us that the rest of these airlines would've wanted to jump on board! Southwest is sponsoring 2 legs of this trip. We were hoping some of these other airlines would support us and we were only requesting they support one leg.

Midwest told us that they are too small to try to support us. Really? I thought they were one of top airlines going out of KC. I've always heard positive things about them. One would've thought that they would want to support a small group on such a big adventure? One would've thought that they would want to send out that message to everyone else that it is important to support those groups who actually WANT to honor our veterans and servicemen/women?!!

United told us they have given out their donations but finally gave us their form to fill out for 2010. We'll see what happens.

We haven't made contact with Continental yet. Hoping to have better luck with them since their CEO is on the BSA Board.

Enterprise Corporate office won't even talk to us. We were told to go to our local offices. Can you believe that? The gentleman that started that company is a war veteran from the USS Enterprise...he's a hero...he and others like him deserve to have someone honor him and commemorate his contributions to our country and his corporate office doesn't believe this is a big enough venture to even generate a conversation with the corporate office? WHAT?!! When was the last time you heard of a scout group traveling across the US to honor our veterans? When was the last time you heard of a scout group participating in the Flag Day celebrations at Ft. McHenry with their own Flag Retirement Ceremony??!! - Never, cuz they haven't done it before!!! Maybe I'm a little too close to the subject. But thankfully the folks in charge at Enterprise were there to remind me that what we are doing is no big deal.

And then you go from that frustration to a very friendly conversation with a sweet lady at BRT Charter in the Cleveland area. She seemed very excited about our venture and is taking our information directly to the owner to see what he can do to assist our little group. Now these guys charter large buses...capacity of 47 is the smallest bus I saw on their site. I'm not sure if they'll be able to help us out because we are such a small group but she sure had a positive attitude about our adventure!

Ft. Rilea is very excited about the idea of having us stay in their barracks. They're also gearing up to accept more reservations for barrack stays as veterans/soldiers in that area may want to stay close by the ceremony site.

It's always good to talk to folks who are also excited about this endeavor of ours!!