I don't think I can describe this as precisely as he does, here's what my boss Stephen wrote about our trip home. 

"wake at 4am, go to airport, board 6am flight from Rapid City to Minneapolis

endure over 1 hour of deicing, return to gate because plane is too heavy to take off on the snowy runway, wait while agents determine what to do, really hope they bring out a scale and weigh everyone to see who gets to go and who gets to stay

wait further while agents seek 20 volunteers to deplane and try again tomorrow

learn no flights are going out of Rapid City for rest of the day (really, an airport in South Dakota that isn't prepared for a couple of inches of snow?), deplane, get rebooked on first flight out tomorrow

decided not to settle for that, use Google directions to determine distances to nearby airports, while doing this learn that the airport code for Sioux City is SUX, determine no airports I know of are close enough to drive to

rent car to head back to hotel and wait until tomorrow

before leaving try one more time to find a nearby airport, pull up Rapid City on Google Maps and search map for "Airport Delta"

learn Delta flies into Gillette Wyoming and it's only 2.5 hours away, at the same time learn there is such a place as Gillette Wyoming and that it actually has an airport

drive 2.5 hours in a snowstorm to Gillette, see 4 cars spun out on the side of the road and - a bonus - a wolf in the median eating some dead animal, learn that in addition to hotel chains with 6, 7, and 8 in their names there is also a hotel - "National 9" - with 9 in it's name, wonders why no hotel chains aimed just a little higher and put 1 in their name

eat at an Arbys with only 30 minutes to make the flight, learn from workers at Arbys that the airport is "a long way away", get scared because one can only imagine what "a long way away" is to people that live in the middle of nowhere, determine that "a long way away" in the middle of nowhere is approximately 9 miles

arrive at GCC airport (where the counter agent is the ticket taker and the luggage handler and the plane guider and the deicer and probably air traffic control in their spare time)

board a prop plane with a handful of other folks (I forget how loud those things are - even the flight attendents wear ear plugs), depart for Salt Lake City

land in Salt Lake City

try to switch seats with Amy so I don't have the bulkhead row on the SLC to ATL flight, apparently she's not appreciative of the work I've done so far today, she declines

board a plane from Salt Lake City to Atlanta in 1A, listen to idiots in 2A and B discuss what that big body of water next to "Salt Lake City" might be, am worried when said idiots determine that the body of water it isn't actually lake, but the salt flats where land speed records are set, desire to see said idiots test out their theory

and, finally arrive in Atlanta 18 hours after waking up but 14 hours earlier than I would have if I didn't learn about a little town called Gillette Wyoming."