Last Friday, an early (angst that “something could go wrong”) departure from the digs and a seamless transition to the airport, through check in, easy security, got me to BWI with over two hours to spare. The first thing that greeted me was on the message board that Delta Flight 2801 scheduled to depart at 2:20 was “now 2:55”. Great.
So, it being lunch time I thought I could kill some time by getting some sustenance. Looking around the concourse for options where I could sit rather than stand and order a Number Three, I found a Ram’s Head Tavern satellite. Well, what the heck. So I went in, seated myself and tried to find out who won the soccer match (Netherlands!!!) and the tennis (Nadal and Berdych!!!). I was approached pretty quickly by a server with menu in hand, and said she’d be back in a moment. I looked at the beers and chose a “Copperhead Ale”, she returned and said good choice (gee, good for me!), and went off to fetch it. She returned with the always too large airport glass of suds, a nice color but a little short on taste. While she was getting that, I looked at the menu, pretty standard stuff, salads, burgers, lots of appetizer things. Prices were not as astronomical as I feared in a captive airport setting. I settled on a grilled chicken sandwich with the bacon and cheese option exercised. About two sips in, my food arrivedin the plastic basket, wax paper liner, fries and a very sizeable chicken breast with the bacon and melted cheese on one half of a Kaiser roll, the other containing a very tired looking tomato slice and wilted lettuce. Discarded that, and with the top over the chicken it was a pretty hefty handful. Ate a couple of bites and it soon became apparent that the “sandwich” was a pretty tough go. So I disassembled it, and took out the plastic fork and knife, which the chicken breast fended off like water on the ducks back. So back to hands, just the meat. It was juicy, the bacon added some salt and the cheese was cheesy. Pretty soon, I exposed the tenderloin portion, and there was a rather large red spot. Well, maybe bright pink. Not ugly, but not very appetizing. That terminated my consumption of protein.
When she came to clear, I pointed out the little blemish, she apologized, assured me I wouldn’t die, and took it away. Upon finishing the beer, she brought me the check and said she removed the chicken from the bill. I had probably had about ¾ of it, so I thought that was a nice touch. The proper thing to do.....
Then, back to gate area to while away the minutes, doing things like people watching, always rewarding at airports, and maybe starting a blog!
What ensued after getting to the gate didn’t instill much confidence in Delta Airlines. The plane (still scheduled 35 minutes late) was to arrive at gate C12. Before we took off, we were re-scheduled out of gate C11 (this is a gate change announcement…), oh, I mean gate 14. Finally aboard and airborne we headed for MSP (Minneapolis Saint Paul) airport. Landing uneventful, but due to the late arrival I was somewhat apprehensive about making the connection (they had no idea about gates on the aircraft), so the friendly gate agent at gate F5 told me that my plane left from gate A3. Thanks to gouge from MFO I knew there was shuttle service available for us seniors so found the “Blue Chairs” and soon hopped aboard an extended golf cart. I have never seen a longer airport in my life! It must be about the size of the city of Minneapolis. It took a full 20 minutes at speeds that made me close my eyes to get there.
Finally at my gate for the puddle jumper to LaCrosse, I settled into a chair next to what turned out to be an interesting guy. He had just come from Amsterdam – well if you count “just” as in from 10:00 the previous evening. Also in the lounge was a woman with a small child (potential screaming kid) and anoter lady with a little tea cup dog that fascinated most of the lounge. Barely bigger than a rat. Somehow these creatures always bring out the silliness in people. They feel they have to go over and talk baby talk to it: “oooooo, you suuucchhhhh a custey liddle baaaaaby” and so forth. It would have made a nice appetizer for a real dog. The owner had a little purse like affair that would be the home for the pooch during the flight. I could just hear the yip, yip, yip, yip.
Anyway we finally boarded. Guess what? Screaming Kid and mom next to me on my right, doggie across aisle on my left. Why me? To my amazement, both were well behaved for the 20 minute flight to LaCrosse.
MFO met me at the airport and we retired to the downtown Courtyard which was on the Mississippi river with a nice view.
We were soon joined by FOJTY and wife, with the other FOJ on the road still. A long day, but nice to see family..where eventually we would
DFD
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