After a somewhat disasterous railfan trip to Nebraska, I decided to jump ship early in Galesburg, Illinois and go home. I took Amtrak from Galesburg to Chicago, and was supposed to continue on home to Jersey from there by train. I decided an 18 hour wait between trains, plus another 29 hours on the train was too much. A little voice in my head suddenly reminded me I hadn't flown in a while, but only spotted...so the choice was obvious.
For a last minute, decent $330 fare, I booked myself on AA1704 at 0610 CDT from ORD to EWR. Figured it would be, but neglected to check to see, an MD-82. Arriving at Terminal 1 around 2330, I had a good wait ahead of me. Still better than 18 hours. I kept myself entertained with some borderline insanely expensive Starbucks iced tea, and a copy of TRAINS magazine.
I'd heard some negative things about the Chicago Police at O'Hare, but was pleasantly surprised to find them untrue. I dozed off downstairs from check-in, and was politely awoken by CPD Officer Moore. Just checking to see if I was alright, and where I was going, we ended up having a two-hour long philosophical discussion on ways to better keep kids out of gangs. In addition to a few amusing tales of course.
When 0355 rolled around, I went upstairs to check-in. I was most happy that they were logged-on and open at exactly 0400. It was a breeze, with no issues and a polite older female clerk. The real fun I was expecting was the TSA.
And what a happy let down that was. Despite their stereotypical impersonal demenor, it was quick and painless. Granted, it may have had to do with the early hour of the morning, but nevertheless. Carrying multiple pieces of radio equipment I use for the railroad and ham radio, I expected questions. Nothing...
Other than being reminded to take off my shoes when I began to walk through the magnatometer without thinking, or being completely awake, it was a quiet event. I collected my stuff and proceeded to the H concourse.
On my way down to my gate H11B, I picked up a quick breakfast, and enjoyed the peace of the still mostly hybernating terminal. I was plesantly surprised to find N594AA as my ship for this flight. I'd flown on her before from EWR to RSW.
Boarding was organized, the crew was friendly, and I have no real complaints. I am though 6'1" and used to be a linebacker in high school...so you can figure my only one. Hence why I wasn't thrilled about it being an MD-82.
That issue, however, was solved by a number of open seats on the plane. Through the attendants moving some passengers, several of us, myself included, ended up with pleanty of room on the two seat side.
I would say 99% of the way, the skies were good to us. As we came into New Jersey from over PA, things got a tad rough. The storm that had been over NJ all weekend made for a few bumps, but nothing big. Landing was smooth, as was taxi. We had to wait for a flight that was in our gate, but it didn't matter. We still managed to land 4 minutes early.
With Dad having surgery this month, I've elected to fly down to help him out when I go. Forgot how much I really loved it. So next round...EWR to MEM. Probably via DFW. Probably on AAL.
P.S. - Excuse my horrible spelling and punctuation. Still recovering on sleep... :wink:
