Wednesday Evening, SFO...
We are off... It feels weird... There was little or no emotional build up... I came home after work, checked my email, ate dinner... Stuffed a few things in the suit case, then relaxed for a few minutes... Now, I am sitting at gate A11 waiting to board or flight... With a bit of luck I will sleep, then wake in Ft Lauderdale Florida, only to sit again, at a different gate, waiting for a second flight...
Security was quick, people seem resigned to stripping down, piling stuff in grey plastic bins, and holding their hands over their heads while being "scanned"... I was chosen for a nitrates wipe down... I am special... It was a good that I didn't clean the pigeon loft today... Their droppings are "hot", high in nitrates, and could have resulted in a positive test. Really... Bird guano, mined on islands off Peru and Chile was used to make explosives in the late 1800's. those islands were one of the prizes taken during the war of the Pacific.
Back to SFO... We continue to sit near our gate, waiting for the call to board. We fly in less than 30 minutes... They are calling passengers ( by name) likely trying to address seating requests... People are starting to mill... I note there is a plane sitting at the jet way... Always a good sign. People are starting to crowd the gate... Crowd the jet way... The jet way is freezing cold... It is a cold night, a good night to make a run for the tropics.
Now aboard, full flight... Settling in... Searching for those last few spots in the overhead bins... We are flying Jet Blue... So there is foot room... There is space in the overhead bins...
Now a four hour nap later, about an hour out, over the Gulf of Mexico... There are stars, but no light... I put John Hiatt on the IPad nearly four hours ago, and he has kept me company... There are still a couple of albums to go... His catalog may make it all the way to Ft Lauderdale... The plane is dark... Lights at each end of the cabin and the occasional video screen... The passengers are starting to wake, The cabin crew is working their way down the aisle with water, orange juice and coke... I finally feel like this is a trip, but not yet a tropical vacation, and San Juan, about 8 hours away is an abstract concept.
A bit later... They announce we are 140 miles out... We start our decent... The sounds change as the plane pitches over... Now there are lights below... The Captain "illuminates" the seat belt sign... People are stirring... Again there are no lights below as we cross the great swamp which is the center of south Florida...
Now, sitting in the Ft Lauderdale airport, waiting for our next flight... We have a four hour layover... Food choices are limited... We ate at the Food Network Cafe... All the graphics and style of the TV show coming soon to an airport near you… I had a Cuban breakfast sandwich, it was good… But now are sitting... At 7:30 local time, the airport still seems to be in overnight mode... Shops and bars closed, cleaning crews at work. The airport is being renovated, so the floors are bare concrete, store fronts are boarded up, temporary lights hang from 2x4's... But no construction workers are present...
We are off... It feels weird... There was little or no emotional build up... I came home after work, checked my email, ate dinner... Stuffed a few things in the suit case, then relaxed for a few minutes... Now, I am sitting at gate A11 waiting to board or flight... With a bit of luck I will sleep, then wake in Ft Lauderdale Florida, only to sit again, at a different gate, waiting for a second flight...
Security was quick, people seem resigned to stripping down, piling stuff in grey plastic bins, and holding their hands over their heads while being "scanned"... I was chosen for a nitrates wipe down... I am special... It was a good that I didn't clean the pigeon loft today... Their droppings are "hot", high in nitrates, and could have resulted in a positive test. Really... Bird guano, mined on islands off Peru and Chile was used to make explosives in the late 1800's. those islands were one of the prizes taken during the war of the Pacific.
Back to SFO... We continue to sit near our gate, waiting for the call to board. We fly in less than 30 minutes... They are calling passengers ( by name) likely trying to address seating requests... People are starting to mill... I note there is a plane sitting at the jet way... Always a good sign. People are starting to crowd the gate... Crowd the jet way... The jet way is freezing cold... It is a cold night, a good night to make a run for the tropics.
Now aboard, full flight... Settling in... Searching for those last few spots in the overhead bins... We are flying Jet Blue... So there is foot room... There is space in the overhead bins...
Now a four hour nap later, about an hour out, over the Gulf of Mexico... There are stars, but no light... I put John Hiatt on the IPad nearly four hours ago, and he has kept me company... There are still a couple of albums to go... His catalog may make it all the way to Ft Lauderdale... The plane is dark... Lights at each end of the cabin and the occasional video screen... The passengers are starting to wake, The cabin crew is working their way down the aisle with water, orange juice and coke... I finally feel like this is a trip, but not yet a tropical vacation, and San Juan, about 8 hours away is an abstract concept.
A bit later... They announce we are 140 miles out... We start our decent... The sounds change as the plane pitches over... Now there are lights below... The Captain "illuminates" the seat belt sign... People are stirring... Again there are no lights below as we cross the great swamp which is the center of south Florida...
Now, sitting in the Ft Lauderdale airport, waiting for our next flight... We have a four hour layover... Food choices are limited... We ate at the Food Network Cafe... All the graphics and style of the TV show coming soon to an airport near you… I had a Cuban breakfast sandwich, it was good… But now are sitting... At 7:30 local time, the airport still seems to be in overnight mode... Shops and bars closed, cleaning crews at work. The airport is being renovated, so the floors are bare concrete, store fronts are boarded up, temporary lights hang from 2x4's... But no construction workers are present...
I find a quite corner and lay on the floor and nap… an hour
or so later I wake and finish the blog post … the bar nearby is open… the
airport is open for business…
One final note... This is my 300th blog post... I started
back in November 2008, as something of an experiment after attending a
conference, for work, where much of the discussion was about new media, social
networks and generational communication... A bit over 4 years later I am
still waiting for permission to use that knowledge for work... So instead, I
blog about my life and my travels, and occasionally complain about life and
sometimes work... Much of the time now it is a travel blog...
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