My holiday plans were simple: Go back to Pennsylvania to visit the family for Christmas and New Year. Since I live in Arizona, such a plan involves air travel. And, to put it mildly, the 2008-2009 holiday travel season has been hellacious.
My flight from Tucson to Chicago reached Chicago airspace as a major snowstorm was raging. We circled for so long that the plane ran low on fuel and had to be diverted to Omaha. And ours wasn’t the only flight that was so affected…
Other than watching the ground crew refuel, there wasn’t much to do…
So, I decided to get up and go for a walk. But, alas, I was barred from going outside for a stretch on the jet stairs. Safety reasons, said Gary the flight attendant…
Oh, well.
After the refueling was done, we headed up to Chicago. Where it was still snowing…
Which led to a mandatory de-icing session before my Philadelphia flight could take off…
My arrival in Philadelphia was five hours later than scheduled. But the family was waiting to greet me. Much fun and more photography followed.