We're Sorry for the Delay

I stared out the window of the Airbus 320 as we started the descent to Laguardia airport. I felt my ears pop and I saw the wings slowly adjust to the landing configuration. Out the window was nothing but water. As we descended, more water. I thought back to the movie Sully and the water landing on the Hudson River; "The runway will come out shortly." I thought to myself. We continued descending, more water. We were hundreds of feet off the surface, still water. I heard the landing gear deploy, water. As I held my breath, we came to the altitude that I figured we would hit the water and we touched solid surface. And the runway appeared under the wings, a long strip surrounded by the East River. I breathed a sigh of relief as the plane slowed and I came into the airport that I hadn't planned as part of this trip.

It all started the day before when I was planning to return home to Columbus from a work trip in Atlanta. I was preparing to leave the company's corporate office when I received an email from Delta. My flight for that afternoon had been cancelled. I had been rescheduled for the following morning. I Ubered back to the hotel I had been staying at, got another room, and made my way to the new room. I was exhausted from the week and laid out on the bed staring at the ceiling. I forced myself down to the hotel restaurant to grab a bite. I returned to the room and after pre-ordering my Uber for the morning and setting an early alarm, I made sure I was in the bed at a decent time. 

The next morning I woke up, got ready, quickly repacked, and dropped my room card into a box at the front end. I made my way out to the humid Atlanta morning air. My Uber picked me up on time and I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. I quickly found the line for TSA and jumped in. As the line snaked around the large room, I saw what can only be described as a security gauntlet seemingly appear towards the front of the line. The area was flanked on either side by TSA agents with dogs. Travellers walked this gauntlet two at a time as these agents and dogs circled them like a swarm of hungry sharks. As I followed this snake through to the gauntlet, agents would occasionally grab a traveller and pull them aside. When I arrived to the beginning of the gauntlet, I started in step with the person behind me. Nothing happened; we got to the other side, and I rejoined the line. As I approached the metal detectors, I began to slip my shoes off. a TSA agent stopped me and said "You don't have to do that, just set your bag here and any large metal objects." I was shocked, even the TSA equivalent in Scotland wasn't as relaxed as this, and the Scottish TSA is pretty relaxed. I walked through the metal detector and collected my bag on the other side. I made my way to the flight gate.

We boarded the flight and then another delay hit us, planes on the runway were getting delayed by storms and had to move off the tarmac. We sat for about 10-15 minutes waiting for the queue of aircraft that had built up to take off. We got in the air and headed for Laguardia. That's where this story picks up from the beginning.

    

After the landing at Laguardia, I had just minutes to rush to the next gate for my flight to Columbus because of the delays. I speed-walked across the airport and made it to the gate only to arrive as they were calling my boarding party. I got to the aircraft, glad to only have a carry-on and found my seat. I landed in Columbus a mere few minutes after finishing the book I had brought with me for the flights. My ear didn't equalise properly, however, and bugged me. After grabbing lunch with my dad, we made our way home.

My ear wouldn't be fully equalised for several weeks, at least until I took a trip underwater during my first SCUBA diving lesson. We will have to get to that, though, in another post.

Thanks,

TDB