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The Traveler’s Experience
February 06, 2007
(Written on Friday, February 2, 2007 in the Memphis, TN airport while waiting for a plane)
Air travel, rail travel, car travel – I’ve done it all. With each experience, I gain new insights into how to travel well. My definition of well being this – not getting upset over random delays, getting to my destination safely, and enjoying the people and scenery-watching along the way.
Recently, air security has been nothing other than a small annoyance. Taking off my shoes is understandable. Putting my things into a Ziploc bag, no matter how silly, it’s hard to do. Respecting the security screeners while passing through line is simple to do, especially knowing the price one can pay for a small lack of respect to these people.
Christa and I have been able to make it through our various travels with nary a scratch. Air travel has been smooth – no late flights, no cancelled flights, no scary flights. Our first trip together ended with our luggage arriving a day late, but intact (this despite the fact that we had a three-hour layover in MSP). Driving has been a little more exciting. Namely, a night accidentally spent in downtown St. Louis, which was wonderful in itself, which was caused by my lack of foresight in making sure we had booked a hotel from our trip home from Holland. Rail travel (only based on one experience so far) was frustrating at the onset, due to seating problems (see this post). But, after that problem was taken care of, the trip was smooth and delay-free.
I, however, haven’t been so lucky as of late. My airline trip from Holland to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2005 turned into a 12 hour day, instead of the 6 it should have been. We arrived at Gerald R Ford to find that the plane had yet to arrive. The Northwest agent suggested I allow her to book me on a United Airlines flight out of Grand Rapids to Chicago, and then on an American Airlines flight to Oklahoma City (my first flight on both airlines!). I obliged, and proceeded to wait for the United flight. Characteristic of the day, the United flight left GRR late, and I subsequently missed my first planned AA flight. I was booked onto the next available AA flight, and was the third to last person booked. Time came to board, and I and two other men boarded the plane. However, just before closing the airplane door, the ticket agent came on board and asked the last three passengers (which included myself) to de-board because the plane was now over-weight. We were then re-booked on the next AA flight. Luckily, this flight had room and weight space, and I was allowed to fly back to OKC. Rather unfortunately for one of my fellow passengers, who had also missed his original flight, he was not put on the flight I was on. And finally, to end the day, my arrival in OKC only included one of my two checked bags. The missing bag was actually a box containing my mountain bike’s front wheel (don’t ask why) and a couple other random items.
The only other bad experience involved my first commercial flight ever. My dad and I were flying to Boston to see the 1994 World Cup quarterfinal game between Italy and Spain. Our plane from Grand Rapids returned to the gate due to a mechanical malfunction. We ended up in Detroit about an hour late, only to find that fog and storms in Boston had delayed, and then canceled, one of the flights before us. Out of an extraordinary act of intelligence from Northwest, a larger-then-normal plane was procured, and two full flights were combined into one. We landed in Boston late, and proceeded to drive around the already-confusing city in darkness and light fog, finally finding our destination an hour or so later.
One act of airline luck did occur on a flight from New York City to Cincinnati. It was at end of a long day. We left Budapest at 5:00 am local time, and landed in New York City in mid-afternoon, Eastern Time. After bussing from JFK to LaGuardia, our group leader noticed that there was a flight from NYC to Cincinnati before our flight. Furthermore, he saw that thunderstorms were forecast to come into NYC between those two flights. Thanks to his foresight, and the emptiness of the plane, all 35 of us fit on the plane and flew into Cincinnati early.
Today has been a lesson in little frustrations. Our plane left on time and actually landed 20 minutes early! BUT, the ground crew wasn’t prepared, and we sat just away from the gate for 10 minutes waiting for the crew to direct us in and secure the plane. Upon de-boarding, I found that the Grand Rapids flight is delayed nearly an hour. The most annoying part about this delay is that it’s not weather related. The plane is coming from a few hours drive away, in an area that had sunshine all day long. Once the plane arrives, we have to wait while they clean the plane and re-load. It’s annoying. Weather delays, I can understand, but other delays are tougher to stomach. Especially when I want to get in to town on time so that I have enough time to sleep for the next day’s drive!
February 6, 2007 UPDATE:
The pilots kicked the plane in gear, and, after taking off from Memphis one hour late, we only landed 45 minutes late. We landed in a beautiful snow storm (pre-blizzard). Unfortunately, GRR is not built for the new CRJ planes that Northwest Airlink is using… so, when we de-boarded, we had to walk in the snow and wind to the terminal. Not fun in such weather.
My drive on Saturday was, for the most part, the most problem-free long-distance drive I’ve ever taken part in. I made it back home to Oklahoma City in 13 hours, 40 minutes. That was with the blizzard conditions in Michigan, which required me to go 45 mph on I-196 and part of I-94. Had the weather been better, I believe I could have shaved another 20 minutes off the trip.
Overall, another trip, another experience gained. Next up – hopefully a trip to Austin/Round Rock to watch Rider soccer in the Texas State Championship. After that, possibly our first long-distance train trip ever!
Posted by paul at February 6, 2007 09:47 PM
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