great delay

SO, we have all had our share of delays while traveling. For me, July 4th, 2010 takes the cake. It was... AWEsome. It went like this: Board plane in Atlanta at 3:30 pm EST (1:30 pm MST). Fly two and half hours to Denver. Instead of landing in Denver we hold somewhere over Oklahoma and begin circling. Bad weather in Denver. DIA had 'temporarily' shut down all air traffic. More circling. The captain updates us that we will continue in a 'holding' pattern until bad weather clears up. Really it's just more circling. There is a very unsettling feeling when you are on an airplane going nowhere. The light from the sun through the windows slowly spinning around the cabin, over and over. Update from the Capt: we are running very low on fuel. ( I wonder if all this circling has anything to do with it ) We divert to Colorado Springs, for fuel, after a bit more circling. Land around 6:00 pm MST.

On the ground I see about 25 other airplanes, sitting and waiting. Update from Capt: All those planes need fuel. Sitting. Waiting. Drank a soda. Drank a beer... or two. A few hours pass with the occasional update. Peanuts and soda. Text some family. Text some friends. DIA opens back up to incoming flights, but we do not have the fuel to get there, so we sit and wait. Look out the window at some distant backyard fireworks. Stretch my legs, then sit back down. Tension in the plane. Get pulled into a gate and let off people who lived in CO Springs, without their baggage. We can all get off the plane, but if we do, we cannot get back on to fly to Denver. NO food. Peanuts running low. drinks low. Finally get fueled up. Pull out of the gate and back onto the runway, only to stop and wait. DIA, again, halts all incoming flights. More sitting. The man in front of me has a giant cello case. Through conversation with a nice older woman on the plane, we convince the man in front of me to play for everyone. He is hesitant at first, but after a few minutes, agrees to play. He proceeds to serenade everyone in the back of the plane with a piece by one Johan Sebastian Bach. It was sublime. I get goose bumps just recalling it. Morale had done a complete 180. Passengers were applauding. It was just great. Quickly followed by an announcement that they are canceling our flight and we all have to get off. We go back to a gate after some more time and get off.

Now what. After watching the airline representative get completely overwhelmed and freak out a few times, I lay down and enjoy a new found peace and enjoy the endurance it is requiring. At this point, midnight, it is only adding to the story and victory once we finish this journey. Some time later a few buses arrive and we depart to Denver in the middle of the night. Try to sleep. Arrive DIA. Burger King is still open, THANK GOD. First thing to eat in awhile. Grab the shuttle to the Parking lot. Find my car. Find a hotel. Sleep. Final duration was roughly 1:30 pm MST to 3:00 am MST. 13 1/2 hours. For that amount of time I could have flown almost anywhere in the world.

Honestly though, I would do it again to listen to that cello. I can still here Bach echoing with that deep thunderous sound that could be played so delicately. Turns out, that man has won a grammy for his play. Normally it would take a very expensive ticket to listen to him play. But for a broke 26 year old, I just payed in time. We all did. The thing is, how many other hundreds or thousands of people were affected by the weather with their flights? I don't know, alot. But how many of them view it as a good day. Or even, ok. I do. Great even. Who am I to say that I should not have been there. How do I know I didn't want to be there that day. Forget day to day. It's moment to moment. We can plan a day. But we cannot plan moment to moment. Great 4th of July. ( and early 5th)