Alice Goes to the Airport

Okay... maybe not Alice.. but still.  I think I fell through the looking glass yesterday.

As most of you are aware, a large winter storm worked it's way across the mid-west earlier this week and left in it's wake lots of snow and ice.  This is the background to our story.

This story doesn't include the fact that the airline had cancelled every one of their Cincinnati to Newark flights the day before... or that they cancelled all the flights but one on Wednesday.  See.. I was scheduled on the one flight they didn't cancel, so unlike the rest of my fellow passengers my story starts around 2pm on Wednesday afternoon.

I made it to the airport without too much drama... so we'll leave that part out.

We'll also leave out the part about going through security, changing out of my interview clothes and the salad from h*ll I had for dinner.

Let's start this story around 4pm....

I'm sitting in the waiting area at the gate, reading a book but listening to the people around me who are praying that this flight actually takes off and gets them vaguely close to where they were supposed to end up.  The nice lady at the desk announces that due to a FAA airspace delay, our flight wouldn't be taking off till 6:15pm.

Now... that's not a horrible delay for me, I'd only been there for an hour or so.  Feel sorry for the guy next to me who was supposed to take off at 8am that morning.  I do, however, look into who is going to pick me up (dad can't, Mom doesn't want to... ) and look into the alternative of flying into Allentown if this flight is cancelled.

6 o'clock rolls around and we start boarding.  Again, I get lucky and the seat next to me is empty.  See... after the delay, quite a few people decided they didn't trust this flight to take off and had the airline rebook them on other flights to other destinations.

6:20pm... we push back from the gate and head over to a de-icing pad.  Again, I say, this airport is huge... it must have taken at least 15 minutes to get there.  A brief stop and we start moving again, leading me to wonder if we were driving to Newark.

6:40pm... we hit a second de-icing pad and the pilot explains the other one was unavailable because of mechanical issues.  So they de-ice the plane and we start moving again.

7:10pm... we take off.  Now... I stop paying attention after the first minute or so... but something wasn't right.

7:15pm... the pilot tells us that the nose landing gear won't retract, so according to the checklist we have to go to the nearest airport, which is Cincinnati.

8pm... we're on the ground and back at a gate.  The counter people are saying they will either try to fix this plane or will get a new one for us to board at the original gate.  I'm hungry at this point, but we have no idea how much time we'll have till we board.

9pm... they gave up on fixing the original plane and we board a new one.  This time, we de-ice on the first try, take off with no problem and put away the landing gear.  

11:45pm... land in Newark.  Alice is home.