Nerve Endings Firing Away

The worst part of a vacation is coming back to regular life. But honestly, this time I didn’t have much problem, thanks to how inept George Bush International Airport at Houston is turning out to be and of course, not to mention how thinly-spread Continental Airlines is. On our way to Boston, we were delayed for over 2 hours because the crew was aboard another plane that hadn’t yet landed due to inclement weather. I barely had time to feel sorry for the crew who was doing double-duty because heck, I was on my vacation. The way back started off rough when we got caught in the early part of the New England rains. I had never seen an Interstate flooded but now I have. Thankfully, the floods were just beginning and our Pontiac Vega managed to barrel right through the waters. The rains could almost shame Cherrapunji in its intensity and continuous downpour.

We were fully expecting our flight to be delayed considering that a storm of much less magnitude had delayed us in Houston. But to our pleasant surprise, we left right on the dot. For once, I was almost was beginning to believe that our airline luck was past us. But then, I assumed too much. The city that once boasted of the energy company, Enron and is still considered home for many oil and gas companies where power shouldn’t be a problem found itself in a strange and embarrassing situation. The air traffic control tower lost power throwing all flights inbound and outbound in disarray. The tower was promptly put on auxiliary power which also promptly failed after giving us false hope. Our plane kept circling the airspace around Houston going well past our expected arrival time. Then, out of the blue the captain messaged us that we were landing in New Orleans in fifteen minutes to refuel. A collective groan went up the air but considering the airline wasn’t to blame, tempers remained cool.

We remained stranded on the Orleans tarmac with other Continental jets scattered around.  Just sitting around in a airplane with other grumpy passengers getting bored out of our minds is not a way to end your vacation. You can come up with weird ways to while away your time like teasing a water bubble in a plastic cup until it teeters on the edge. Yeah! It was that boring and at least I had Ash for company. The guy on the next seat had already completed a dozen crossword and Suduko puzzles and was contemplating doing them all over again. But whatever you do, don’t ever say hi to your friend, Jack on an airplane even if it is on the ground. Running out of toilet paper and water can make people edgy. I wonder how the folks in the plane at Kandhar retain their sanity and our status wasn’t even half as bad. The plane was refueled and the stewardesses were doing their best at maintaining their professionalism and we were told that the power was back up.

But then another set of thunderstorms hit Houston and we were grounded for yet another hour. Just as I was about to pop a nerve due to both hunger and frustration, we were finally signaled to go. We had spent a total of nine and half hours in the plane. Damn! We could have flown to Europe in that time. But I was glad that I was heading home to College Station. Europe could wait and I wasn’t flying out of Houston any time soon.

More on our Maine trip later that was in a way, a bittersweet experience.