This morning I left snowy Minneapolis with the hope of reaching New York City via a brief layover in Indianapolis. The plan looked solid on paper.
And the plan looked even better once we arrived in sunny Indianapolis... And then the gentle slide into timelessness began. We had reservations for a 6:00 p.m. flight to New York, but as we walked through the terminal I noticed a 3:30 flight. We hung out at that gate until an agent showed up and we got on the "standby list". But at 3:00 the flight was postponed to 5:00. At 4:40 they kicked back departure to 6:00, and finally it got out at 7:45, but alas - there was only one seat available, and there are two of us traveling.
All this time sitting around in Indianapolis led to some great conversations. The coed from Fairfield University in Connecticut who was reading
King Coal for her history class. She had flown in the night before to attend her best friend's 21st birthday party. I don't know how you could read about coal the day after a 21st birthday party celebration. She was tougher than I'll ever be.
Among the many highlights of our stay was a mom who was swinging her child while standing in the main isle as they waited for their flight to Tampa. The mom had zipped up her daughter in her sweatshirt and then stood up. The sweatshirt held the daughter and the mom began to sway forwards and backwards as the child shrieked with joy. Here they are seated. I didn't have the courage to ask them to repeat the scene....No balls, no blue ribbons.
Here is what they looked like when the daughter wanted to know who was talking to her mother and interrupting the great time they were having.
There was another man, who my son described as "The Virus". He found two young women to sit between and then he started trying to make eye contact. The women wisely laid low, Mr. Virus immediately struck up a conversation with the blonde, who soon took refuge in her cell phone. Mr. Virus was not to be brushed off quickly and the young women finally had to get up and move away. Mr. Virus, undetered, immediately moved on to another area where he could smooze with someone else. He was the first person who sent me diving for my iPod and headphones.
Then there was the baby-faced 17-year old guy who was trying to charm two mid-20's girls from London. The girls not having it. He wasn't toxic like the "germ", but the young man had the annoying habit of talking in a loud voice. Thank goodness for the iPod. The young man in question is barely visable in a white shirt on the extreme left of the photo. Nothing wrong with trying to charm the fairer sex, but don't do it in an loud voice--please!
Finally, when it seemed like there was no hope of getting oout of Indiana, the gods at Air Traffic Control (ATC to us seasoned travelers) smiled on us. We hustled on to a tiny jet and zipped out of town. Here we are off-loading in NYC at 11:55 p.m. on the tarmac and then walking through the bowels of the airport to get back up to the customer level.
We reached our destination, but it was definitely the road less traveled. More later.