Wednesday, July 19, 2006

How I visited my 41st state

So, yesterday, I got up at the crack of dawn in order to get to the airport to catch my plane. It was a nice flight -- I could see the Cascades rising above the clouds, and we flew right over Mount Jefferson.

Then we got to Vegas, and I had to wait a couple of hours before my flight left. (And I don't like the Vegas airport.) We all got on the plane, and we couldn't take off because of a problem with the hydraulic system. So, we took off an hour late. And we flew along, and they started to report bad weather in the Northeast. Then they said that there were too many planes around Baltimore, and we didn't have enough fuel to get in a holding pattern, so we had to stop and refuel in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Yes, now I have been in North Carolina. And I wasn't even in the airport -- I just sat on the plane. They said the shops and restraunts in the terminal were closed, so there wasn't much of a point in getting off. And I couldn't call anyone unless we were on the ground. Fortunately, once we did take off, after another delay while we waited for a fuel truck and then for the tank to fill (I'm so glad I brought a good book to read), it was just a short flight to Baltimore.

I saw Washington D. C. from the air, and at night, it's a remarkable sight. (We were actually a bit southeast of it -- I think -- but I could see the Potomac River, and I think I saw the blinking red light on top of the Washington Memorial.) But my flight, which was originally supposed to land at 7:30 and then the scheduel changed to 8:30, actually landed in Baltimore around 11:15. I spent about eight hours on that stupid plane!

At the end of the flight, they said, "Thank you for flying American West. We hope you will travel with us again soon." The response among the passengers was a soft chuckle, like, yeah, right, sure we'll fly with you again. And then they sent us to the wrong baggage claim area. But I got my suitcases, and we left the airport at midnight and got back to the apartment close to one in the morning.

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