As I may have mentioned before in previous posts, we traveled from Houston to Rochester, NY ON Christmas day. The airports weren't jam-packed with people but they weren't exactly quiet either. Thanks to Delta and their itinerary change, we had to bounce twice to get there instead of the usual once. We bounced through Atlanta then Cincinnati before hitting Rochester 2 hours later than what we had originally planned. We knew about this change well ahead of time but we were still very annoyed by it. We had some compensation though when we flew from Houston to Atlanta with no incident, took off from Atlanta with no problems and were treated to an incredible view of a Christmas sunset that lasted for a really long time. It went from brilliant yellow to bright orange to blood red over about 30-45 minutes time. I just now am asking myself why one of us didn't grab the camera and try to get a photo of it. We were just too tired I guess.
Our landing in Cincinnati was a bit out of the ordinary for us. The female pilot brought us in rather quickly with many turns and steep drops. Even the flight attendant who was hanging out just behind me made the comment, "wow, this is some crazy flying tonight!" Our only disappointments for the day were that Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream was closed in Atlanta and many of the food court restaurants were closed or nearly out of food when we had our short layover in Cinci. Besides that, we landed on time, received our luggage without having to wait forever and headed out into the snow!
Our return to Houston was much more exciting. First, we started the day out by taking off nearly an hour late from Rochester. It seems they had to fill the plane with extra fuel and in doing so caused the plane to be overweight. They needed 10--that's TEN--people to give up their seats so that they would be within the weight restrictions of the FAA. I had never come up against that one before! Ten people over weight?? Seriously?? That must be 1500-2000 pounds! I guess between the number of kids (obviously not weighing what an adult weighs) and 7-8 passengers who gave up their seats we were back in compliance and we took off for Atlanta after getting de-iced.
Atlanta was incredibly foggy. Thank goodness for flying by instruments because that was the only way we were landing there. Visibility was poor and the runway had just barely popped into view about 2-3 seconds before we landed! It was still foggy when we took off but it didn't seem to slow us down any. Between Atlanta and Houston we hit some bad turbulence. Fortunately C and the kids were all fast asleep and they didn't even stir. I was fine as it was more of a rough dirt road kind of a bounce instead of those quick falls and climbs that get your guts all churned up. The flight attendants had to sit in their jump seats for about 20-30 minutes but then things seemed to calm down. As we were landing, however, we were getting hit by some pretty strong cross winds and the pilot was having one heck of a time keeping the plane level. I was thinking to myself "I will be so impressed if he lands this thing." Just as the image came to mind of that famous 1989 plane crash footage from Iowa where the landing plane goes cartwheeling down the runway in a ball of flames (I couldn't find footage on the internet but I've seen it numerous times on t.v. programs)... Now where was I?
Oh, yes, as that image came to mind roughly 150 feet above the runway at Hobby Airport, the pilot revved up the engines, brought up the landing gear and we took off again without touching down. I looked back at C and said, "I guess we got waved off!" It took a good 5 minutes before the Captain came on and said that we were doing a come around or something like that. The winds were hitting us at 20 knots and they weren't comfortable landing so, in the interest of safety blah, blah, blah... I was perfectly happy with with their decision. So, as we did our 15 minute tour of the city we did a little rockin' and rollin'. Again, it wasn't consistent or extreme enough to get my guts churning so I didn't think much about it. M started crying complaining that she really wanted to get off the plane. I was trying to calm her down and encouraged her to look out the window to see that we were indeed coming in for another attempt at landing. About 200 feet above the runway, she threw up. I couldn't get a barf bag fast enough. She was a mess, the seat was a mess, I was gagging. It wasn't pretty.
But, we managed to get cleaned up, get home and, needless to say, momma was DONE. The kids went off to AB's to play while C and I showered and got some food. Then we both just crashed on the couch.
We are always so happy to see our far away family and friends but it is so very nice to come back home. And that is my story about our travels.
4 comments:
My favorite! A barf story!!!!
I would have passed out from fear. Barfing aside. Seriously. I hate commercial airline flights. Have I ever told you I really do hate flying? You summed up all the reasons why in that post.
GOOD GRIEF!
Oh, the joys of motherhood.(not) I have to confess that a sick kid when I'm flying is a big fear of mine. I also hate the thought of a sick kid in my classroom too. My theory? Feel sick, GET OUT! Interesting thought, the blood never gets to me. :}
Yikes. I would have majorly needed a barf bag. I am so glad that Beto never cared about turbulence and never has gotten sick. I hope Nina is the same.
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