Airline Tales

Younger daughter texted me when she and her hubby landed at Seatac Airport today. Almost two hours later, she texted that they had finally reached their hotel – after 30 minutes waiting for a gate, another 30 minutes waiting for their luggage, and a 25-minute trip to their hotel. It started me thinking about all the plane trips I've taken.

For a little country girl, I've done a lot of flying over the years. Some flights have been more memorable than others. Some have been pretty routine – and I've learned to appreciate those.

My first flight was Kansas City to Spokane, via Denver and Boise. I remember being so excited. And I still get excited when I get to fly – I love it! Takeoff is always a little tense for me, but I enjoy my time in a jet. I've been on all sizes of plane, from a 50-passenger to a 747. Love it! Though I will admit to the 747 being my favorite!

Let's see what I can remember – I've flown from Wichita to Spokane via Seattle-Tacoma multiple times, Dayton to Greensboro NC via Washington DC, Greensboro to Dayton via Charlotte, Indianapolis to Denver via St. Louis and back, Dayton to Orange County via O'Hare and back, Kansas City to San Francisco via Denver, Kansas City to Medford OR via Denver, Kansas City to Vegas and back, and multiple trips Kansas City to San Francisco and back.

That first flight was so exciting to me. I remember a two-hour layover in Denver where I went to the observation deck and took multiple photos of landing planes. That was fun. Flying from Wichita through Sea-Tac was cool, until 1974 when they built an international concourse a mile or two away from the regular concourse in order to handle the air traffic for the 1974 World's Fair in Spokane – I almost missed a flight by not knowing I needed to transfer to that satellite international concourse for a Northwest Orient flight!! There was also one memorable return flight when a suitcase was sent to Detroit instead of Wichita – it had 5 lbs. of frozen shrimp in it, along with my best clothes! Luckily, it was returned before the shrimp thawed!

I had a flight drought from 1975 until 1989. Then I had several flights in rapid succession. The trip from Indianapolis to Denver was pretty uneventful. Dayton to Greensboro, NC, however was different. On the trip out, I luckily noticed that luggage was marked to go from Dayton to what is now Reagan National Airport in DC........I commented on it, and that was when it was discovered that our tickets were incorrect. The airlines verified what we were supposed to have, so the kids' dad got off during our layover in DC and got the tickets corrected and luggage corrected while I stayed on the plane and held our seats. It got more entertaining when I realized I could see the U.S. Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument from the plane window. When we took off, I could look down and see the Pentagon.

When we returned from Greensboro to Dayton, we changed planes in Charlotte, NC. That would have been uneventful except for the fact that Vice-President Dan Quayle was in Charlotte that day. We got stacked up during late-afternoon “rush hour” while Air Force 2 took off. By the time he got out of our way, we were #13 of at least 23 planes backed up for takeoff!

My all-time worst flight was Orange County, California to Dayton . I enjoyed the flight out – changing planes at O'Hare wasn't bad........and it was fun to land at John Wayne Airport, walk down the steps and across the tarmack....then pick up luggage at an outdoor luggage carousel. However, we then had a return trip. The flight was a turn-around – from O'Hare to John Wayne and back. There were thunderstorms all through the Midwest. Our flight was two hours late coming to Orange County; we made up a little time on the return flight, with quite a few times of enforced seat belts due to turbulance. Our perk was flying over the Grand Canyon. We were quite late at O'Hare, we were told we had 20 minutes to go two terminals over and catch the final flight of the night to Dayton. What a sprint! We got there, and the plane didn't leave for another hour, waiting on all the connecting flights.

I think we left Chicago and went straight up and then straight down to Dayton. The flight attendants only served about half the passengers with the drink cart. When we landed, it felt like we dropped straight down out of the sky and onto the pavement, then were grabbed by a tailhook! I was trying to pull my head out of the back of my seat when the gentleman next to me commented that the pilot must have been in the Navy! I agreed.

There was a torrential downpour in Dayton, and we landed just behind a plane from Philadelphia. The passengers from both planes waited for what seemed like a very long time for the luggage carousels to start. When they finally started, we all cheered – then quieted when the only thing that appeared was a single ladies' bed slipper. Someone finally commented, “that's not good”! It seemed forever that the luggage finally started coming in.

No one ever claimed that one lone slipper! - I guess it can always be worse!