Friday, January 14, 2005
I vanished Thursday
Sorry to vanish. I had planned to fly to Providence for a short meeting today (one a.m. Friday being the ass end of Thursday in my book) with blogging as feasible around the edges, but a trip of a few hours turned into nineteen hours. I have therefore just gotten home after an extensive tour of southern New England, and am going to crash in the hope that tomorrow is a better day.
OK. I'll tell you what happened.
Our flight took off early this morning as scheduled for the 25 minute hop from Newark to Providence. Fifteen minutes into the flight, the captain allowed as how visibility at Providence was now such that it was below the minimum for landing, so we would circle until fuel got critically low, at which point we would divert to our alternative landing field. Which is Albany.
Now, you and I know that Albany isn't even in New England. It is in an entirely different region of the country, at least as we have historically measured such things. You can imagine how unhappy we were.
Candidly, I think they sent us to Albany to distract us from asking why the plane was even allowed to take off from Newark if Providence was socked in. They knew that we would be so distracted by the dismal circumstances of our day that we wouldn't remember to wonder how it was that Providence became unlandable between our departure from Newark and our arrival over the Ocean State's airspace.
In any case, after landing in Albany we remained confined to the long metal tube for another hour, after which Continental gave up on flying us back to Providence and ordered up a bus. Not wanting actually to go to Providence airport and quite entirely sick of our fellow passengers to boot, we ordered up a rental car and hit the road for eastern Massachusetts. Almost 170 miles later, we arrived for our 10 a.m. meeting at 3 p.m., took the five hours we had planned, and drove home from eastern Massachusetts this evening.
And the worst part was that I had idiotically left my Blackberry on our kitchen counter, so I could not keep you all up to date with email posts...
OK. I'll tell you what happened.
Our flight took off early this morning as scheduled for the 25 minute hop from Newark to Providence. Fifteen minutes into the flight, the captain allowed as how visibility at Providence was now such that it was below the minimum for landing, so we would circle until fuel got critically low, at which point we would divert to our alternative landing field. Which is Albany.
Now, you and I know that Albany isn't even in New England. It is in an entirely different region of the country, at least as we have historically measured such things. You can imagine how unhappy we were.
Candidly, I think they sent us to Albany to distract us from asking why the plane was even allowed to take off from Newark if Providence was socked in. They knew that we would be so distracted by the dismal circumstances of our day that we wouldn't remember to wonder how it was that Providence became unlandable between our departure from Newark and our arrival over the Ocean State's airspace.
In any case, after landing in Albany we remained confined to the long metal tube for another hour, after which Continental gave up on flying us back to Providence and ordered up a bus. Not wanting actually to go to Providence airport and quite entirely sick of our fellow passengers to boot, we ordered up a rental car and hit the road for eastern Massachusetts. Almost 170 miles later, we arrived for our 10 a.m. meeting at 3 p.m., took the five hours we had planned, and drove home from eastern Massachusetts this evening.
And the worst part was that I had idiotically left my Blackberry on our kitchen counter, so I could not keep you all up to date with email posts...
3 Comments:
By 
Fire, at
Fri Jan 14, 02:49:00 AM:
Yes, the trip sucked! But you are alive and in one piece. And that's always better than shark food over the Atlantic :) Welcome back
By Charlottesvillain, at
Fri Jan 14, 08:41:00 AM:
Wow, stuck on a long excrutiating trip without your dingleberry. Dante could not devise a more equisite hell for you, Jack!
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Jan 14, 09:19:00 AM:
Even the memory of it gives me the shakes.
