Air Travel Resumes....

Today marked the first day of 2009 for me to get on a plane. I've driven to a couple of more local sites so far this year but today I got to resume my air travel experiences.

Ahhh... the fun began going through security. I absolutely loath the whole TSA screening program but that's for another blog.

My flight to DFW from LIT was on a CRJ-700 and I was in the exit row (13). The plane was full and the noise level rose. The guy a couple of rows behind me was doing some major hacking. A very unproductive, loud, and aggressive cough. Hack. Hack. Deep, solid hacks. I could see the germs spreading and I wished I had a mask.

Also somewhere back there were a few kids. They were rambunkious to start but calmed down before long and for that I was thankful. The guy beside me took the armrest - that's normal. He gestured for me to use the front end of the armrest and he would use the backside. Gee - thanks. I'll lean forward so I can use the front half of the armrest. That'll work so well. Before long he was asleep and I knocked out the first two suduku puzzles in the American Way magazine. That's a good way for me to take my mind off the annoying people around me.

As the plane landed and taxied for 15 minutes (that's DFW for you - land on the east side and taxi 10 miles to the west side - happens every single time!) I could see all the NEWBIE travelers getting their bags out from under the seat in front of them and poising themselves to leap into the aisle just as soon as the plane stopped and the ding-dong tones indicating the fasten-seatbelt light went out. This just drives me crazy. Perfectly fine for the first few rows but not everyone. Don't they understand they will be standing cramped and hunched over just waiting and waiting for the line to move. The lady in front of me (row 12) did the same and then proceeded to back into my aisle space as she let the guy next to her out also. Clearly she doesn't know the rules.

To avoid the idiots I usually sit up front. This time I forgot when booking and picked the exit row. No more. TIme to go change next weeks flight to ALE.

The DFW to AUS (Austin, TX) flight was better from a comfort perspective. This was a MD-80 with 16 first class seats. I upgraded to one of those and had all the room I needed. We had some annoying issue with the intercom system requiring the captain to ding-dong the system about 500 times while we sat literally next in line for take-off. That took about 20 minutes but I had pulled out Stephen King's latest collection of short stories, Just After Sunset, so I was ok with the delay.

Took me about 8 hours to get to Austin considering getting to LIT an hour early, having a 3 hour connecting at DFW, and then a delay getting out of DFW. Time to iron some clothes for tomorrow....