Flying the Friendly Skies

The day started out beautifully. Clear blue February sunshine. I was packed and ready to go. Just had my haircut, manicure, stopped and picked up my earring that had been missing the back, got to the airport in plenty of time, said au revoir to Otto and Arizona Here I Come to myself. Cleared security, no problem, body scan, no problem, walked to the gate area to check the flight number and could not find it on the screen. I went to a second screen only to find no Chicago flight leaving at 12:30 with that number. I found a TSA agent and asked her what I was doing wrong. She checked my computer printed boarding pass and said "This is Delta, you are flying American, and are in the wrong terminal". Of course I was! She couldn't believe I had cleared security and kindly directed me as to what to do. I raced back to the parking deck, bags in hand (had I checked my bag it would have been flagged), caught a shuttle (that took forever) and arrived at the other terminal within about 15 minutes. After clearing security again, having to explain to the TSA why my boarding pass was already marked, they clucked in disbelief and hurried me on my way. Now, I have to ask, do any airlines use any of the gates between 1 and 500 because I always seem to have gate 500 which is the furthest gate from the front door. It was now heading on noon but was assured by all I would make it just fine. I am still a whole hallway and one moving sidewalk away when lo and behold, I hear "Carol Dobos, final boarding call for passenger Carol Dobos". Yikes....that's me!!!!!! Run Reindeer Run!!!!!!!!!!! (Good thing I hadn't made that pit stop I wanted).Again, I hear my name....and am still about 3 gates away. I spy the 3 ticket agents at the desk and I yell "I am here, I am here...I'm Carol Dobos" Thank goodness the airport is almost empty at this end, but at this point, I didn't care anymore. Of course the plane (An American Eagle..translated, little jet with about 16 rows, 3 seats across) is full so I have to drop my suitcase at the door and was the last one on. Now, I am not sure if they were trying to sell my seat to stand-by or were in a hurry but the scheduled departure time was 12:30, so while they putz around, we sit for another 20 minutes. I send a quick text to Otto to let him know I made it after that giant faus paux by about 20 of us and off we scoot. It is still beautiful and sunny and we were soon at the southern tip of frozen Lake Michigan and high enough to get some great photos and see the entire Chicago downtown. After a perfect landing, I collected my things and am at the next gate with a McDonald's snack wrap and a much needed Diet Coke. A few quick texts and it is time to board. Again, I am being paged. Oh great I think, what did I do now??? Turns out only a set change, still by the window, ugh. I much prefer the aisle, mid plane. Oh well, short 3 or so hours, I have a new book and my laptop and a movie. Big plane, lots of people , too much luggage, had to check my bag. No big.

Soon we are off and over the brown landscape of whatever state we above. I settle in to my book and order a bottle of white wine, and switch on "Somewhere In Time" with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour. The in-flight movie is "Waiting For Superman" and I have only heard that it was made to make the public schools look worse than ever, so I decide not to watch. As we are cruising at probably 33,000 or so, the pilot, a real chatty fellow, comes on to tell us there is a slight mechanical problem and we will be making an emergency landing in Denver in about 20 minutes. Well, everyone is trying to read those words differently!!!! He told us we would be descending to under 10,000 feet and no one was allowed to be in the aisle or using the bano, as he had to burn off a little fuel as we were too heavy to land. An hour later of looking at the same red dirt, we were still circling and passengers were a bit worried. Finally we land in Denver! And the captain and crew welcome us!!!! Like we want to be here???? Ok, now, they let us get up to use the bano and we learn that the 1st class bano is not working so they all rush back to use the coach two and there are 200 people on this sucker. The ground crew is on the plane as they explain to us that the oxygen is not working in the cockpit and by law the plane can't go over 10,000 feet without oxygen, so they had to do the drop and come in to the nearest airport and get it fixed (could you fix the toilet in 1st class too?) It would not be long we are assured. No one can get off but we see the pilot on the tarmac walking around (probably trying to catch up on oxygen), and ground crew on the plane. Everyone is joking and sharing stories and we wait. Then we are told we have to get fueled...duh! And, they have to do the paperwork (paperwork????, can you just fax it to them from Phoenix when we land????), and wait, there's more!!!! By now the cabin crew is over there time limit, so they have to call in a new crew! Thank goodness, we all have cell phones and can call the people watching us on Flyte.com as we circled Denver for an hour and then made an emergency landing!!!!! Amanda said according to the AA website, we had a sick passenger. Our flight attendant said that is there post whenever there is an emergency landing. Now mind you there were probably some sick passengers when this was all over! Eventually, all is ready and off we go again. About 15 minutes into our last leg, we hit the turbulence. Our pilot, a science major, feels the need to educated the passengers about how in the winter, the slightly warmer air from the ground will rise and collide with the colder air masses and cause greater turbulence this time of year. I doubt people who were clutching the arm rests and fearing the plane would fall apart, cared. The attendants did not serve anything and we never saw them again until it was almost time to land. It finally smoothed out and eventually the clouds broke and the magical NIGHT lights of Phoenix came into view. A flight that had started 6 hours earlier had finally landed, safe and sound and some of the passengers cheered, all were still smiling and thanking the captain and crew but I will admit, I was a little green and very glad to de-plane. A very weak smile was all I could muster. It is what it is and it was a very long day.

Amanda met me at baggage at the bottom of the escalator and Emily and Bryce were waiting in the car. Very good to see them but sorry to report that the lovely steak and mushroom dinner Amanda and Bryce prepared could not be enjoyed by me. I did manage a few cookies a little later, and a glass of wine.