Yes, I've been gone... How could you tell?  I've barely been able to post lately because of work and then I leave town with the intention of staying offline.  I was mostly successful.

Of course the travel days are blog fodder of the highest caliber. I need to travel more just to have something to blog.

We met a young woman (maybe early 30's) who has flown so little, she thought when they said "turn off your electronics" they meant cell phone and laptop - she was a bit embarrassed when they stopped by her seat and told her that included her ipod too. 

In the seats behind us, my husband overheard a woman tell the person next to her "Planes have an easier time flying through white clouds than through gray ones". 

But even more fun was when our plane pulled in to the gate.  We look outside and see a couple of police cars - lights on - down on the tarmac.  That's a new one. No actual police in evidence... that's because they were all in the jetway - about 8 of them.  Turns out they were there to arrest someone on the plane.  Definitely a new one.  

Had no idea.  There was no uproar during the flight.  I even missed them walking the perp out of the plane because naturally I had made a mad dash to the restroom as soon as I got into the terminal. I did manage to catch some of it when they stopped in the gate area across from the restrooms to cuff him and (one assumes) read him his rights.  He was either very drunk or very high... but quiet. He could barely walk a straight line.  So three cops led him away, the others got on bicycles and pedaled down the terminal.  Heh.  (who knew cops rode bikes in airports)

Nothing nearly so entertaining happened on the way home.  We had a completely disabled/very sick person on the first leg of the flight.  This meant we were delayed for about an hour while they got this person on the plane and then tended to (looked like a "her" but I couldn't be 100% sure). 

In the seat in front of us was a woman who was late 60's early 70's.  It was a full flight and this being Southwest Airlines she had taken an aisle seat, then proceeded to put the tray table down for the seat next to hers and put stuff on it!  That didn't last long, but after being delayed it just added extra time while people waited for her to move her stuff so they could sit.  (naturally she stuck to her aisle seat like glue and they had to crawl over her).

Twice during the flight she got up and went to the restroom at the front of the plane.  The first time worked well for her - she actually found it.  The second time she made it to the bulkhead closets where the flight attendants keep their stuff.  The closet is about 1 foot wide. (even though she was a tiny woman, she could not have fit in there)  She looked at the door for about 20 seconds, examined the latch that kept it closed very carefully, looked around the back and saw the exit door.  Then she opened the closet, saw it was not the restroom, closed it again.  Looked again toward the front of the plane and realized it was a bit farther on.

As we were leaving the plane I found she spoke no English at all.  My tip for the day... if you are going to travel in a country where you don't speak the language, at least be able to say - "my suitcase is the one with... (Insert description here)".  The poor guy who was trying to help her thought she was pointing to the cane someone had stuck up in the bin.

The last leg of the flight had entertainment provided by an elderly man who appeared to have early Parkinsons or something of that sort. He sat in the very first row where he could continually badger the flight attendants about when we would arrive.  (I don't know what exactly he was going to do if he didn't get the answer he wanted... jump out the door to get there faster?).

There was some turbulence near the end of the flight. The flight attendants and the captain announced - about 5 times each - that all electronics had to be put away, seats needed to be upright, tray tables up.  The two people in front of us decided the annoying instructions did not pertain to them.  The flight attendant had to ask them (very nicely and apologetically) three more times, could they please shut the computers off and stow them.  Also could they please put their tray tables up and could she please put her seat upright instead of reclined.  Personally I would have smacked them and said "listen up idiots" but that's why I'm not a flight attendant.

Luckily the turbulence turned out to be less than expected.  That's a good thing.  However, if these two had gotten hurt, you can bet they'd sue the airline into bankruptcy. 

I'll only touch briefly on the guy behind us traveling with two near teens... as we were landing, he was trying to point out various landmarks. When he saw it had been raining his amazement knew no bounds.  He was simply astounded that it had rained and there was water on the streets.  Even though he lives in Providence, this quirk of the weather to dump water on the ground was pronounced an incredible thing.

Ah the joys of flying. 

Oh... where did we go?  Texas.  Austin/San Antonio.  More on this tomorrow. 

Posted by: Teresa in Travel at 11:05 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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