Here's how it actually went: 9:30 AM Northwest emails me to inform me the 11:30 AM flight is delayed until 12:30 PM. So I went to the airport at 11:00AM. Then at 12:00 PM they said the plane was delayed until 1:30 PM. Did I mention the plane was there? If not, allow me to tell you, the plane was there when I got there at 11AM. But because of air traffic in Minneapolis we would be delayed until Minneapolis released us to fly. Well we finally got out of there around 2:15 PM. In the meantime I've missed my 2:30 PM. But that's okay they've re-booked me on the 3:40 PM. Which ends up to be delayed until 5:00 PM. Thank goodness it's only an hour and 10 minute flight to St Louis.
About 45 minutes into the Minneapolis to St Louis flight the flight attendant is asking for medical help. She's got oxygen tanks and she continues to ask from time to time for medical help. Evidently there is no one willing to save Mr. Stroke. Well thank goodness I'm in the front row. 1B to be exact. Isle seat. Front and center. I can't see the commotion behind me (thank goodness....being a last responder I think this is very good). Well by now you would think we would be getting close to St Louis. But no...we don't go to St Louis. We go to......wait for it....Cedar Rapids I-o-stink'en-wa. At, what I am going to guess, was around 5 billion miles per hour, we decend at a rate of 3000 miles a second, and blam we were on the ground in Iowa.
Well this could be okay. Let's get Mr. Stroke off the plane while he's still breathing and let's get our butts to St. Louis. The cops and ambulance folks come on board. Big day for Cedar Rapids. Barney actually got to put on his lights and run full steam ahead down the tarmac. They are finally ready to remove Mr. Stroke and asked the gentleman in the seat next to me (yes I said next to me) to move so they could move Mr. Stroke up there. 1C. OMG. I'm not liking this. I don't need to see half dead people. In the meantime Barney brought some kind of chair thing on board and they're going to eventually put Mr. Stoke into that chair and carry him off. So here they come with Mr. Stroke. They don't put him into the seat next to me. They instead put him in the chair they're going to carry him off in. You would think this would relieve me. But it does not. It does not, because Mr. Stroke is now sitting there facing me. His right knee is touching my right knee. This is not good. I try not to jerk away. He's all pasty white and dead looking.
Well finally they hauled him out of there. Now can we get to St Louis? Not until our total time on the ground amounts to one hour. Now we leave. We get to St Louis at 8:00 PM. By the time I get my luggage (can you believe it was there? I can't) and get on the Avis bus it's 8:30 PM. Now I find out they've given up my car reservation because I'm four hours late. But don't worry. When I got to the Preferred kiosk they found my reservation for a sub-compact. The guy started laughing. He said they don't even have such a car. I asked what it was, a sub-compact? Was it a bike, I asked? He said "no it's a Rick-Shaw". Funny guy. He ended up upgrading me to a miniature vehicle they call a Ford Focus. It's pitch dark now and I'm driving 80 miles an hour in a roller skate. I finally got to Columbia at 10:15 PM. Wow...what a day. I can't hardly wait to see what Saturday holds for me when I try to get back home. At least when I get there I'll have a vehicle I can see out off.
So anyway I'm in Columbia working at the University of Missour Columbia. I was here back in April 2007. You can find out more info by looking at my archives for that month.
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