Good morning, all. It's 3:50 local time, and I can hear a distant feral rooster crowing, but I went to bed at 7, so being mixed up in the first few days is kind of to be expected. I'm at my friends' house on Oahu, after a long day of travel yesterday. This may not be a very interesting blog, but I write these things down so I can remember, so feel free to skip if it doesn't interest you.
Yesterday I got up at 5:15 - so grateful that Daylight Savings Time ended yesterday - and woke up my girls, who were understandably reluctant to get up so early on a Sunday morning, and got ready to go. We drove to the airport and said goodbye and I was off. Got to watch the sun rise before we had to board the plane - that was lovely, both because it was "earlier" and because we've had rain for the past couple of days. The plane was so small that my carryon had to be gate-checked, but that wasn't a big deal. I think people taller than about 5'8" had to stoop while walking down the aisle of the aircraft. It took us half an hour or less of flight time to get to Chicago, and it was beautifully sunny when we landed, and some of the autumn color was still on the trees, which was lovely to see from the air.
The causeway from our aircraft was the longest I think I've ever walked. It must have been almost 1/4 mile - it went on, and on. Finally we arrived at the gate area and it wasn't a far walk to my connecting gate. Funny - they didn't have power outlets on the aircraft, and they told us to "fully charge" our mobile devices so that we could take advantage of the airlines free in-flight entertainment on their app, but there were no outlets in sight anywhere near our gate area. I like Gerald R Ford International airport SO much in comparison to many other airports I've been to - small, friendly, equipped with water-bottle fillers and power outlets in abundance, and free wi-fi. I think every airport should have free wi-fi, as a matter of convenience, since flying these days seems fraught with inconvenience. It seems the least they could do.
I found a seat at the gate and charged my phone with one of the power banks I had brought along for the occasion. And we waited. And waited. The flight crew accumulated, and so many people were standing, ready to board, as they announced that the engines were being checked and they were unable to board anyone until that was done. I worried a bit that we might have to change planes (it's happened to me before) and that we would be extremely delayed, which is not something one wants to imagine while already anticipating a 9-hour flight. But the delay was only 45 minutes, and they had us on the plane pretty quickly, I thought.
I have no idea how many people were aboard, but I'm guessing in excess of 400. I was boarding zone 5 (last to board, it seems, no matter what seats I have). It doesn't make any sense to me that they don't board the back of the plane first. That would be more logical than pushing with one's luggage past rows and rows of people already in their seats. But they never ask me. I was in row 40, seat H, and had to stand and wait while the multitude of people in front of me got settled. But I didn't mind. In fact, I noticed, looking out over the people all sitting facing me, that we were on a plane to Honolulu and NO ONE was smiling. That made me laugh. I know people were probably cross about the delay, but really?
When I finally got to my seat, I found it firmly occupied by a lady a few years older than I, who looked at me blankly when I showed her my boarding pass. She finally pulled hers out (she was sitting with her friend) and she was assigned to row 37. Whoops. I felt a little bad separating them, but I had chosen my seat with care, and the airlines had screwed up putting them together (my seat companion, a retired teacher from Nebraska, told me the whole story). She came back to visit from time to time during the flight, and her friend told me, "We're spending the next two weeks together - don't worry about it." So I didn't.
My seat was a good one, behind the wing, a left-sided aisle seat on the right side of the plane, just behind the exit row and right near the middle bank of lavatories, and not a far stroll from the galley at the back. I made use of being able to get up and walk around whenever I wanted to (there was very little turbulence). My seat companion was pleasant and conversational but not an incessant talker (though she had a great deal to say about the airline snafus initially), and was determined to finish her book so she could leave it somewhere and thus lighten her load, so she spent much of the flight doing that. I ate my bagel (from GRR), and managed to catch a 30-minute nap - I brought earplugs, which was most welcome at certain points when an infant about 10 rows back did a remarkable impression of a dentist's drill. Thankfully that was not frequent. I also ordered a small meal - a French-style beef bowl that had a delicious marinade. I was glad I bought it, even though it was overpriced. I did some sudoku fusion (my new favorite) and leafed through the airline magazine, which surprisingly enough had an insert on Nebraska.
I don't quite remember when it happened - about 4 hours into the flight, I suppose - but at one point there was ann overhead annoucement asking for "any medical personnel" to report to seat 22F. I was watching Fellowship of the Ring (nice 3-hour movie to pass some time) and I pulled out my headphones, dumped my iPod on my seat, and scurried forward.
Apparently I pushed past someone else who was also a doctor, but with a bunch pf people standing around in the aisles, what else can you do? Nobody's wearing nametags. I'm also fairly small and could easily lean down to talk to the woman, who was in her 40s in one of the middle seats. She seemed to have passed out, but was already recovering by the time I spoke to her. The flight attendants were hovering nearby with the list of things in the medical kit. I asked for a stethoscope (I don't routinely bring mine, but after yesterday's incident, I might start) and a blood pressure cuff. The lady was speaking, and looking kind of confused, but she told me her name, and where she was, etc. She had a decent pulse but the stethoscope was a piece of junk - couldn't hear much over the plane noise, and I couldn't hear to get her blod pressure at all. A big tall guy standing near identified himself also as a family doctor, so I asked him if he could get a BP and he couldn't either, which made me feel better. We came to a consensus that she had proably had a syncopal episode (the official terminology for "fainting") and recommended to her to stay hydrated, and get up and walk around (with her husband nearby at first) and to get checked out at a med center when we arrived on island.
And later the flight attendant brought me the paperwork to fill out. :) In the margins I recommended that they carry better stethoscopes.
Other than that, the flight was a good one, with little cloud cover while we were over the mainland, which pleased my seat companion who tried to guess where we were. It was a bit disappointing that they didn't announce from time to time where we were. It's all so beautiful from the air. I finished my movie and spent the last 90 minutes doing puzzles and writing in my journal so I could remember what happened.
My dear friends picked me up from the airport shortly after I arrived and took me home, and fed me, and we talked until I was yawning. It was a good end to a long day.
Today I travel to Kauai. My conference starts Wednesday, so I have a couple of days to explore. See you all later.
Blessings
w
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