2022, Automotive, Mysteries, Nature, Travel

Double the Fun

41 Comments

Renee’s question a few days ago about things piling up made me think about YA and I heading off on our trip two weeks ago.

We got to the airport a little early; we were expecting the traffic to be much worse as it had started to snow.  Check-in and security went pretty quickly.  TSA has some new equipment so you don’t to take your laptop out any longer, but thanks to the shoe bomber (anybody remember that – I do as I was out of the country when it happened and security had seriously ramped up on my way home), I think we’ll always have to take our shoes off.

We loaded on time then sat for a bit on the tarmac waiting for our turn.  Then the captain said we had to get de-iced and so we waited some more for that.  Then we waited our turn again.  Then the captain said we had sat around too long and needed gas.  As we turned back to the gate we heard the news that the airport was closing down.  Since we were now just one of many planes returning to their gates, the airport was short on snowplows, so we sat some more.  By the time we actually got to the gate, it had been 3 hours since our initial departure.  I had a sinking feeling but it was a direct flight and when they de-planed us, they said we could leave our stuff on the plane.  I wasn’t too worried and now we had time for a decent lunch.

After another hour, the gate agent made an announcement that the airport was re-opening and they were going to board us soon and quickly so we could get ahead of the line.  Another hour goes by (no rush boarding) and then the announcement is about how long the pilots are allowed to be on schedule; they have to either new pilots or perhaps get a new flight plane that shaves off some time.  Another hour goes by and then suddenly an entirely new flight crew shows up at the gate and gets on the plane, followed by a quick departure of the original flight crew.  Just the crews, no pilots.

Finally they put us back on the plane, but surprise surprise… by the time we pushed back from the gate, they said we had to be de-iced again.  It seems as if just about everything but mechanical problems had happened and the cynic in me was expected an announcement about that as well.  But we did eventually get de-iced (I’ve never been de-iced on the same plane twice in one day) and 7+ hours after our scheduled departure, we were wheels in the air.  My inner cynic hadn’t quieted down yet so I was kind of expecting a turbulent fight, but it was very calm and uneventful, with no further surprise announcements from the cockpit.   Instead of a 4:30 p.m. arrival in Honolulu, we were off the plane at 11:45 p.m.

Window or aisle?  Pretzels or cookies?

41 thoughts on “Double the Fun”

  1. I prefer the aisle these days, but I remember my very first flight at age 18 – nice man next to window insisted on trading seats with me when he learned it was my first flight. Just from Des Moines to Mpls, but still, I loved seeing everything from the air.

    Peanuts – back in the day they gave out peanuts.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I always take way too much reading material on the plane; for some reason, my estimation of what I can get read while I’m on a plane is always seriously overestimated. But I did finish Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon during the day. It started out strong and about a quarter of the way it started going straight down hill and never redeemed itself.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I’ve actually read Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon twice, the second time because I didn’t remember much from my first reading, but it’s not a book I would have suggested as your sole option for a long air flight or waiting for one. I understand your disenchantment, I think. I started a book, Radiance From Halcyon, that was another book about a Theosophical group and it started out OK, with an overview of the movement, involving many of the usual suspects but then it got deep in the weeds about their cosmology and I quickly lost interest. I wanted to know more about the personalities and what they did and less about what they believed. I’ve had that same experience reading about the Transcendentalists.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  3. Window. I can’t abide the taste of hard pretzels. I have no idea what the distinctive taste is from, but I will always pass on the pretzels and oot for the cookies.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Aisle because I like to get in and out without disturbing others. I try to stand up several times per flight. I bring my own snacks and sandwiches and take their beverages. Weirdly, airplane coffee is usually quite good.

    Wow, VS, what a Perfect Storm of inconveniences. I hope the rest of the trip was everything you wanted it to be.

    My first flight ever was the most disrupted by turbulence ever. The weather conditions must have been unusual to produce the sudden drops in elevation and bumps of that flight. Usually turbulence is a lot of shaking and unevenness. I also remember running through some airport somewhere with a bag of grapefruit banging on my leg, trying to catch a connecting flight.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  5. Window. I’m not a frequent flyer. I can count the times I’ve flown somewhere on one hand. I’m fascinated by looking down on the earth far below and imagining where we are. I guess that’s boring for most people but I’m fascinated. I just hope someone has sanitized the window because I have my nose pressed against it and who knows who pressed their nose against it before me.

    When I was 14, my parents conspired with my aunt and uncle to send me out to New York for my uncle’s graduation from Rensselaer. My parents put me on a flight from MSP and my aunt and uncle picked me up in Troy, NY. It was May so the weather was mild. There was blue sky and enormous puffy clouds. I was enthralled. The other passengers let me have the window seat, and my fascination with looking out the window to the earth below began. The sunlight painted the tops of those clouds with every pink, peachy, orange, lavender, and scarlet color imaginable. It was amazing. I don’t remember the return trip being as exciting but I really did enjoy the flight out there. I think that might be the only flight I have ever really enjoyed.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  6. Renee, your story is exactly why I do not care to fly anymore. Sheesh, what a nightmare. And thanks for bringing that up two days before Sandra and I fly to Tucson. 🙂 Watching the storm carefully, fully expecting a radical directional shift in the front, so we get socked in at the airport or canceled altogether.

    Aisle unless it’s a daylight flight and I’ve never flown over the area before (or a flight less than 3 hours or so. Otherwise aisle so I can stretch my legs and stand if I need to.

    Cookies, always cookies.

    Chris in Owatonna

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      1. Sort of. Green Valley, AZ (our destination) has freeze warnings for the next few days. It’ll be colder there the next few nights than it will be in southern MN. 😦

        . . . but it’s a DRY cold!

        Chris in Owatonna

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply

  8. Pretzel or cookies? What a pathetic choice! I spent the better part of 1965 catering for the Tuesday and Thursday SAS flights from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, so my idea of what constitutes a meal on an airplane has been forever skewed. It’s been several years since I have flown, don’t they serve what passes for “regular” meals on longer flights? Small wonder passengers get cranky.

    Window seat, please, though for me this is a moot point. I don’t ever intend to fly again. But I have always loved looking out and seeing what was going on below or around me.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. During pandemic, you got squat if you could even get on an airplane. These days, for a long nine hour flight, yes, we got fed but YA, who set up the ticketing, requested vegetarian meals for us. I didn’t know she had done this or I would have said not to. The vegetarian meals are horrible on every airline. And these days there’s always a vegetarian option on the regular meals, chicken or pasta? Chicken or pasta? After the horrible meal on the way to Hawaii she went into the airline website and undid the vegetarian request for our trip home.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  10. As companion traveler of one who MUST have the window, I typically end up in the middle seat. Most recently trans-Pacific round trip, 29 hours in a middle seat. I’d love to sit in the far back, where there’s no middle seat, but “Must-have-the-window” also must be in the middle of the plane.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I had a back of the plane, middle seat on a flight to Singapore on Singapore Air.. about the same number of hours. You couldn’t stand up straight in the seat without hitting your head on the overhead bins. This was probably the flight on which I had to engage my mental Pollyanna, and remind myself of the conditions, it took for them to get from Massachusetts to Hawaii in the early days. Hawaii by James Michener comes in very handy when you’re looking for comparisons to uncomfortable travel.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Daughter as a 14 year old was shifted by flight attendants to First Class on a trip from MPLS to Montreal. She was so cosseted! The very kind woman sitting next to her gave her a sip of her champagne, which I thought was a lovely gesture.

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  12. I don’t generally travel by air, so I don’t have much of an opinion. Decades ago I used to travel for an annual conference, I recall that they passed out Biscoff cookies. They were very tasty. There was also hot food then. “Beef or chicken?” I hear that has gone away.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  13. Yesterday I mentioned grand daughter had to stay in Brookings for test this morning. Yesterday all tests were ordered to be done on line. Today the roads are bad. But the prof cannot figure out how to get the map questions online.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  15. OT- our snow finally hit at 11:00 this morning. This is the slowest moving storm! I was at work until noon, then helped Husband straighten up the garage sufficiently from the renovation disruptions so he could get his pickup inside. It necessitated a trip to the landfill and Menards for new storage bins.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  17. Happy Birthday to your wife, Dave. I am so glad you included “The Little Prince” – It is certainly a book for adults. I have read almost everything by Jules Verne but I must say, I never considered that I was reading French Literature. I have read other books on your list, more books than authors, but I agree with your choices.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.