A L-O-N-G Day!

I'm writing this from the Radisson Hotel in Pittsburgh -- many, many hours after I left the Spokane Airport! I had a 6:20 flight, so was up at 4 to get showered, finish packing and get to the airport by 5:15. At first the day started out really well. There was only a short line at the counter where I dropped off my bag, and when I went through Security, I discovered the new machine was up and running. This is the one that takes a "picture." No more making the machine alarm go off because of my knees; waiting for a female TSA staffer; getting the full pat-down, etc. I always allow an extra fifteen minutes for me to go through Security. Most of the time it's not too bad, but every once in a while I'll get a new trainee or a staffer that;s having a bad day...


Flight loaded nicely, we were pushed back on time, then we sat there. And sat there. Finally the pilot came on and said that his "yaw control" light was on and they couldn't get it to go off. They had determined that the control was working fine, but couldn't take off until they could get the light off. Finally the "maintenance crew" in Chicago told them to shut everything down and reboot the airplane's computer system (sound familiar?). They did, the light went off and we were able to leave.


With our nice late start, we got into Denver just in time to watch my flight to Pittsburgh pulling away from the terminal! And of course, the Service Desk that is only five gates away is unmanned with a sign saying go to the one at the OTHER end of the terminal! But, when I got there the woman was very nice and got me a seat on Skywest (United Express) that left three hours later. (Would you believe almost 5 inches more leg room and a much newer, nicer plane then the regular United flight?) Needless to say that I didn't arrive at the hotel until 8 PM, just in time to get in on the last few minutes of my 5 PM meeting.


With the three hour time change, I'm going to have to get up almost as early tomorrow morning as our meetings start again at 8 AM.