EWR-5/25

Did our patented dash into EWR Thursday. Inbound from Niagara with a load of Japanese tourists,we did the upstate NY tour via the SHAFF arrival,flew by Stewart,and TEB,overflying the Bergen Co. haunts of my teen years, nice bit o' nostalgia there. My FO settled us nicely onto 22L,with a Singapore A340-500 hot on our heels. We taxied into the West parking area,nose to cowl with a CO 777 undergoing maintenance,shut down ,and disgorged our happy pax to their waiting busses. Our mission at that point was to take on a bit of fuel then ferry empty to Cleveland, but a spate of Level 5&6 thunderstorms assaulting northern Ohio put paid to that. After two consecutive hours of groundstops for westbound departures, and a steadily dwindling duty day(we started at sunrise that AM in DFW),it was decided to put us to sleep in EWR , and accomplish the ferry flight the following AM. And so we did, and it was nice to spend a night in the old sod, and to fly over some of the stomping grounds of my youth. The West parking area rocks,its where the real airplanes hang out, our MG 727s,Ace Cargo,and KHA 727s, Kalitta 747s,ATI DC-8-73F's, even JT's 707 when he is in town.Thats it for now,cheers,and Godspeed,TonyB