In a moment of weakness I volunteered to drive the shuttle van from our band building over to the airport for the group leaving on the early flight. Call time was 6:15am. So of course I should have expected the 5:00am phone call from someone who was at the band hall and wanted to make sure he hadn’t missed his ride. After the early morning run I thought I’d get a few more minutes of sleep, but instead got a phone call from another Soldier needing a ride FROM the airport back to the band hall to pick up baggage. No biggie; we packed up a few minutes earlier than we had planned, made the extra trip, printed the Sunday bulletin for Rory, and then she dropped me off at the airport. That’s when it really started sinking in that I’d be away from her for 2 weeks straight.
ALMOST everyone arrived at the airport on time (the straggler did make it eventually) and the ticket counter line didn’t take TOO long to get through. The TSA line was amazing, but we were able to clear on the other side of the airport and the cross back over to our gate. Everything seemed to be going well so far.
The first leg of the flight stopped in Albuquerque. There was some exciting weather going on (no rain, just clouds) and apparently some wind; the touch-down was probably the roughest I’ve ever been a part of, but we did make it to the jetway. All but 40 people got off the plane while the rest of us stayed in our seats, and they replenished the sodas and snacks. After those who needed to board were also in their seats, the captain came onto the intercom to say there was a mechanical issue that needed to be addressed before we could leave. A guy in a small pickup drove up and was apparently poking around outside. He never got his ladder down, and I didn’t see him take any tools or anything at all. A few minutes later the captain came on the intercom again to say that when the food truck had pulled up, apparently they had bumped the plane hard enough (I didn’t notice anything) to leave a small dent. The captain was sure this would be a paperwork issue and we’d be on our way soon. However, it was only a few minutes later that he returned to the intercom to let us know we needed to deplane and we’d be put onto another one. Fortunately we only needed to go a few gates down the hallway, to where a huge group of people were already lined up and ready to board their plane. Instead they started calling our names and we walked to the front of the line and onto the plane, all without having to show ID or boarding passes or anything. It was really quite strange.
Our next leg was to Dallas, and now we were quite a bit late; too late to make our connecting flight. However, we were told that the new crew we got in Albuquerque was also scheduled to service our final leg into San Antonio, so they wouldn’t be leaving without us! The layover in Dallas didn’t last too long before we were allowed to board and were ready to get underway. The captain gave the following weather report: “They’re having a cold front down in San Antonio right now, as it’s only 97 degrees.” Another interesting comment was overheard from a rather frazzled and obviously-tired stewardess who was taking drink orders from our people a few rows ahead: “That is disgusting! I’ll make it anyway; I don’t care.”
Apparently the other half of the band was also delayed significantly during their layover in Las Vegas. Finally everyone arrived, checked in, and should have gone straight to bed. Instead I tagged along with the Commander, First Sergeant and SFC Tuggy in going to Denny’s for a late dinner. The service was really quite slow, but it was nice to have some “real food” to eat.
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