The Foot Locker Celebrity Slam Dunk contest was a staple of ABC's college basketball halftime shows when I was a younger lad.
I've made the drive to DTW plenty of times and often was sitting at the gate with an hour to waste taking Dramamine and sizing up other passengers for any shadiness. This time I had made 1/3 of the drive, cruising along I-94 when we saw a few brakelights ahead. Those few became many brakelights as we went 65-to-0 in matter of seconds. Maybe there was just an accident ahead, we thought. Seven minutes later we passed a sign estimating the time to reach the airport...79 minutes! That's probably some malfunctioning sign, I thought. It was 1:45 and our flight left at 3:30. The backup won't be so bad, we have plenty of time, I thought.
After 30 minutes and a few miles of inch-by-inch movement we learn the 3-lane I-94 has its left and middle lanes merging into the right lane. That's quite a merger, but surely it'll open up after the merger, I thought. After a few miles of one-lane traffic at an average speed of 2 MPH, we learned the now single-lane road did not "open up," in fact we seemed to have slowed down. Traveling this slowly allowed me to view every piece of litter and debris on I-94's shoulder. It offered enough car parts to build one, and I'm suddenly thankful that the Beltway is swept on a regular basis giving us room to actually pull off to the side.
I called Southwest and found out that if we didn't make the flight, we could try standby for the 7:30p flight or book one of the open seats for the first flight Monday morning. Just great. Around 2:50 the single lane that hadn't opened up, finally became three lanes and we were off. In addition to being in traffic for over an hour, there was little payoff for our wait. I saw no big accident nor tons of construction equipment. It wasn't until the final half-mile that we saw all of 3 work trucks and 7 workers driving in the coned off lanes at 10 MPH. Was it some elaborate joke on drivers that we were the butt of? I should have driven in the coned-off lanes.
You expect to see a legit reason why you were in traffic...I didn't.With the flight still scheduled to leave at 3:30, I pulled up to the terminal at 3:12, stopping at the American Airlines set of doors instead of waiting to drive to the Southwest doors 30 yards away. Had I live-blogged this, here's how it would read:
3:12 - Whoa! Am I that dumb to type out what's happening while I run to my plane's gate? Looks that way!
3:13 - I'm running to the small Southwest boarding pass area, with its all of 2 representatives, unlike BWI's hub. As a newly-minted flip-flop wearer, I immediately learn why shoes are the preferred footwear for any and all sports. Flip-flops are not meant for running, they're meant for the beaches of St. Lucia.
I ran from here to the Southwest area at the end of the lights.3:14 - I arrive at the boarding pass area as I tell those waiting in line, "sorry, my flight leaves in 15 minutes, sorry." I don't wait to see head's nodding in approval as we move in front of the ropes and wait for two sets of people work out their issues.
3:15 - Come on people...why did you choose this time to have to change your flights! Is that a callous forming because of my footwear? Yep, it sure is.
3:16 - Finally! "We're here for our 3 o'clock flight to Baltimore," I said. "Sir, there are no 3 o'clock flights..." the customer service rep tells me. The rep asks for an ID, types away, and lets me know the bag probably won't make the flight. I decide to take my chances. Now it's off to Gate A8.
I'd rather be a barefoot Flash than wear yellow boots.3:18 - Boarding passes in hand, I run to security as I nearly bowl over a woman holding her 3-year-old. I get to security and ask those in front if I may cut in line to catch our flight that's leaving in 10 minutes...all the while moving ahead of them anyway. Always the good passenger, I've placed my metal objects in my backpack for faster pickup after the x-rays.
3:21 - I pickup my things and I decide I'm better off not putting my flip-flops back on; I would run through DTW barefoot; germs, shards of glass, and common sense be damned. It's nothing a few passes with a loofah couldn't clean, right?
3:22 - I reach Concourse A. I continue yelling, "late for flight!" to part the red sea of bystanders in my way.
Running with your bags on wheels is for wimps...I carried our luggage!3:23 - I make like a barefooted Flash and catch the Southwest gatekeepers, yelling, "I'm here, I'm here, hold the plane!" Fortunately a standby who had just accepted one of our seats had no issue letting me board.
3:24 - I find a seat toward the back of the plane, turn up the air vent, and take some deep breaths.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar