The Grand Mother and Grumpy journeyed via a Delta Airlines Boeing 757. Grumpy's proudest moment at Boeing occurred two years before he retired, having lead the development and final design of the first All-Electronic Propulsion Control System (EPCS) used on a production airplane. But, other than flight test airplanes, he had never before flown on a scheduled commercial airplane with "his" system (Delta was the premier airline buying their first 50 757's with this system).
We changed planes at JFK in New York City, catching a small Canadair twin jet from there down to Reagan International in Washington DC. That's when the "fun" began: our baggage was not on this last flight. After determing that the next flight (in two hours) would "bring our baggage", we went several miles outside the DC area, stopping at a "Jimmy Mac's Roadhouse" style restaurant for a very fine meal with Ward & Peggie, Joe and the Grand Mother & Grumpy.
Upon returning to Reagan by a roundabout way (Joe, on his GPS calling out the turns -- sometimes "a little too late") we found one of the two pieces of our baggage. It did not include our clothes and other valuable stuff that Grand Mother and Grumpy desperately needed for our comforts. We reported our lost baggage to Delta, with the hope that the other bag would be delivered sometime during the night after the midnight flight in from JFK.
A call the next morning revealed that our lost piece of luggage was at Reagan; Ward and Grumpy took off in his Jeep Rubicon for the airport. 
Unfortunately, this piece of luggage was actually two parts which Grumpy had taped together for ease of carrying into SeaTac. The Delta personnel at checkin had insisted that they be considered one piece with one luggage tag and that they be put in a big plastic bag, which I did. At Reagan, the big bag (with our clothes) was not in the plastic bag and the smaller green bag with Grumpy and Grand Mother's other important things, was not to be seen.
Unfortunately, this piece of luggage was actually two parts which Grumpy had taped together for ease of carrying into SeaTac. The Delta personnel at checkin had insisted that they be considered one piece with one luggage tag and that they be put in a big plastic bag, which I did. At Reagan, the big bag (with our clothes) was not in the plastic bag and the smaller green bag with Grumpy and Grand Mother's other important things, was not to be seen.Time will tell whether this smaller green bag is ever found and if it ever gets back into Grumpy's hands. More later.
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