Modules and the promise of the evo-devo research program » « Pretty pictures!

Our trip so far

We were supposed to arrive in NYC at 2, this afternoon.

The plane was diverted because La Guardia was socked in with storms. We spent the afternoon sitting on a runway in Allentown, Pennsylvania. An hour passed. Another, and another, and another. We got vague promises over the intercom, always saying our departure was sometime in the near future. We stopped believing the captain in the early evening.

We had just killed the fat one, the one whose glasses we used to start the bonfire in first class, the one we called “Piggy,” when the captain came on again and told us to fasten our seat belts and be sure our carry-ons were stowed. Woo-heee, were we ever abashed.

We put our shirts and pants back on and finally landed in the Big City around about 8.

Modules and the promise of the evo-devo research program » « Pretty pictures!

Comments

  1. says

    I just watched Day After Tomorrow (for the Nth time), so your opening about storms on La Guardia sounded much more ominous in my imagination than it really was.

  5. Jeb says

    Meh, suck it up. On my 21st birthday, I spent 14 hours at the Pearson International Airport. I don’t like Toronto/Mississauga.

  7. Dianne says

    At least you weren’t stuck waiting until they found some lemon scented napkins. You’d still be sitting there when the civilization crashed and Allentown turned into the site of the Total Perspective Vortex.

  8. theodosius_35:125-129 says

    I was once delayed 12 hours on the ground in Chicago’s Midway airport (12 hours in O’Hare is one thing, but Midway? What a crappy place that is/was).

    Here’s the thing though – I can’t really complain, because I had the moronity to book the flight on an independent airline called “Kiwi Airlines” (not New Zealand’s Kiwi International). Yes, that is correct, I booked a flight on an small, cheap airline named after a small flightless bird (or a small fuzzy fruit). I pretty much got what I should have there.

  9. Bing says

    BAhh! I once flew out of Minneapolis on the 1pm to Toronto through Detroit (gawd I hate Northwest!) at the beginning of March.

    Circled over Pennsylvania for hours, diverted to Pittsburgh, held at the end of a taxiway for 2 hours because there were no gates available, then back to Detroit after another hour holding because the pilot would be over his allowed flying time by 5 minutes and had to get FAA approval to depart Pittsburgh.

    On the ground in Detroit at 11:30, but all the hotels were booked solid. The only food open in the airport was Taco Bell, and judging by the lines everyone was starving. Imagine hundreds of people, bellies full of Taco Hell sleeping on the floors of the departure lounges.

    We had managed to score boarding passes the night before for the 8am to Pearson. I sold mine to a business guy who needed to get to a meeting in Toronto for $300 and took the 10am. I was home by 3.

    I could have made the trip by car as fast

  11. Coragyps says

    Piggy was as nearsighted as I am. His glasses would have diverged light rays, not focused them.

    Spoiled the book for me at age 15.

  14. Graculus says

    Meh, suck it up. On my 21st birthday, I spent 14 hours at the Pearson International Airport. I don’t like Toronto/Mississauga.

    1) I refuse to call it Pearson. It was and still is, in all our (ancient) hearts, “Malton”. I’ll compromise and call it YYZ, or Toronto International.

    2) Mississauga (aka “Legoland”) sucks. Toronto sucks hard, but at least has some ammenities.

    3) I was once stuck overnight at Prestwick. On Hogmanay. Nothing was open, and nary a hotel room to be found. Fortunately there were few enough travellers that we didn’t have to sleep on the floor (woo-hoo, benches!).

    4) Air travel sucks, even when nothing goes south.