the pod bay door

.: Instead of being on the ground in Edmonton, I am in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Explanation: The flight this morning from Baltimore to Minneapolis was delayed almost two hours, apparently because a nail was discovered in one of the tires in the landing gear. We were placed on a different jet, a Boeing 757, which remained parked at the gate for 90 minutes after all the passengers had boarded. The late departure resulted in me missing my connecting flight to Edmonton, leaving me here for another 10 hours. I cannot articulate here how angry I was as this developed. This is the third time in the last four round trips I have taken where I have missed a connecting flight.

I am at my cousin Janet’s house in Prior Lake, a suburb of Mpls. I called her from the airport to tell her what had happened, and that I was essentially stranded at the airport. Janet drove to the Mpls airport and took me back to her house, where she and her husband Steve are celebrating Father’s Day with their two sons, two daughters-in-law, three grandchildren, and Steve’s father and stepmother. We just finished eating burgers and salad, and it is nice to relax and visit with everyone here. Considering the alternative, which was to hang out at the airport for ten hours, this is a much better way to spend the afternoon, which is with family, as Janet said. I owe my cousin Big Time for this – thanks, Janet, for saving the day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 18th, 2006 at 13:49 and is filed under Family, On The Road. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.