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I’m just back in Fort Lauderdale after being snowed in during the big northern blizzard. I was returning from a working trip to Asia, flying from Singapore. After almost 20 hours in an airplane, with just another 2 hours or so to get home, you really don’t want to hear that your flight has been cancelled. But that’s what some guy on the loudspeaker said at Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport as I was clearing customs. They were shutting down the entire airport Tuesday night. So I suddenly had to do the hotel room scramble, and also arrange for another flight and handle all the usual hassles. And I took a taxi through the snow and ice and freezing rain to a nearby Sheraton and waited out the storm like everyone else. It was cold, around 20 degrees or so, and I had no warm clothes with me of course. A couple martinis at the hotel bar helped ease the pain but I just wanted to get to the Florida sunshine. Me – and everyone else in Washington, it seemed.
The next morning, the news wasn’t encouraging. I could hear sleet hitting the window. Both D.C. airports still were closed and wouldn’t re-open until who knew when. But like many others, I jumped in the airport shuttle anyway, with the van sliding and skidding along frozen streets. A $44 lunch for lousy airport food didn’t make me feel much better. By now it was 1 p.m. and the runways still were closed. I’d been put on a half-empty flight to West Palm Beach – everything to Fort Lauderdale was full. (Apparently no one wants to fly to West Palm if they can go to Fort Lauderdale.) But the folks at Dulles didn't know yet if any plane was taking off for anywhere. It was a mess.
Until just before 2 p.m. Wednesday. That was when the announcement was made: my flight was confirmed. I and my fellow passengers would fly south after all. The news brought a loud, long cheer. “I feel like I just won the lottery!” one guy said. Pilots don’t often receive an ovation when they walk to the gate but our pilots did. Everyone was giddy. Passengers wearing long heavy coats were laughing and joking and, believe me, we all just felt lucky to step on that plane. A flight to Tampa had been cancelled at the same time our flight was confirmed. We got into the air, very late, but by then who cared? And when our jet finally had landed and the door had opened and we all had stepped off into the sudden warmth of South Florida, I heard one woman say enthusiastically, “This is too good to be true!” I am pretty sure we all were feeling much the same way.
The next morning, the news wasn’t encouraging. I could hear sleet hitting the window. Both D.C. airports still were closed and wouldn’t re-open until who knew when. But like many others, I jumped in the airport shuttle anyway, with the van sliding and skidding along frozen streets. A $44 lunch for lousy airport food didn’t make me feel much better. By now it was 1 p.m. and the runways still were closed. I’d been put on a half-empty flight to West Palm Beach – everything to Fort Lauderdale was full. (Apparently no one wants to fly to West Palm if they can go to Fort Lauderdale.) But the folks at Dulles didn't know yet if any plane was taking off for anywhere. It was a mess.
Until just before 2 p.m. Wednesday. That was when the announcement was made: my flight was confirmed. I and my fellow passengers would fly south after all. The news brought a loud, long cheer. “I feel like I just won the lottery!” one guy said. Pilots don’t often receive an ovation when they walk to the gate but our pilots did. Everyone was giddy. Passengers wearing long heavy coats were laughing and joking and, believe me, we all just felt lucky to step on that plane. A flight to Tampa had been cancelled at the same time our flight was confirmed. We got into the air, very late, but by then who cared? And when our jet finally had landed and the door had opened and we all had stepped off into the sudden warmth of South Florida, I heard one woman say enthusiastically, “This is too good to be true!” I am pretty sure we all were feeling much the same way.
posted by LauderBLOGGER at 2:38 PM
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