Departure

In The Grass Is Always Greener Over The Septic Tank Irma Bombeck has a great line about the selling of the suburbs in the fifties making the coronation of Queen Elizabeth look like an impulse. It was about as spontaneous as my trip to Minnesota.

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how well I have planned my vacation, I have Something come up that tosses a spanner into the works! In this case it was the weather. Who knew it would be likely to be snowing in Minnesota in the late fall/early winter!?

Originally, I had planned to drive; as those of you who read my blog regularly know, I LOVE to drive and without much provocation, I will hop in behind the wheel and head-out. But I have been watching the weather with particular interest for the past fee weeks to see if I could spot conditions forming that may cause me problems. The patterns in Minnesota were looking a bit iffy, so last week I decided that perhaps this was not the best idea.

I booked a flight to Minnesota for this afternoon. As the afternoon approached, I decided that this was a good idea. I had just dropped Saga at the Kennel and was headed to the airport when dad and I chatted. "You might think of getting a hotel in the cities tonight, Don." My dad told me that the weather system that was getting bad and the prediction was that it would be problematic getting all the way to Kensington tonight. So it was time to make the call.

It was not a great sign that three times while I was on the phone with the travel agent booking my hotel room (not five miles from the airport) someone tried ringing my cell phone. On the third attempt I had the opportunity to get a look at the phone. Why was Delta calling me?

AH! That was it. The flight to Minnesota was delayed. Not cancelled, just delayed!

Once we left (late so that we wouldn't have to be circling the airport for hours waiting for a cleared landing slot) the flight was not bad. We landed in Minnesota at MSP only a couple hours late. We were supposed to get in about nine. It was after eleven when we were wheels down.

Does anyone remember the 1970 movie Airport? The film (based on the 1968 novel by Arthur Hailey)was set in a Chicago airport and talks about the dire consequences to a flight that has suffered a bomb attack when the airport is partially shut-down due to a snow storm. Though the novel and the film are set in Chicago, few may remember that the film was actually shot at the Minneapolis airport. (Anyone who had been to that airport as recently as the late seventies is likely to have recognized the distinctive architecture of the main terminal building. That architecture has now largely been obscured by multi-story parking garages and an elevated walkway that connects the newer terminals that all but obliterate the views of the terminal from the approach.)

The reason I mention it, is that I think of that movie every time I land in Minneapolis in the snow at winter time. I have expect to see lines of snowplows being driven by Mel Bakerfield's Crews desperately trying to keep the airport open. This time was no different. The weather was participially bad. I could see that the choice to stay in Minnesota was a good one.

On landing, I headed directly to the car rental agency, programmed my GPS for the hotel and headed off. The roads were horrible, but the hotel was close. So by midnight I was standing in the queue at the check-in desk. But that is a story for another time.

Wherever you are tonight (uh... this morning) I hope you are warm, safe, and dry!

Don Bergquist - December 04, 2010 - Mendota Heights, Minnestoa, USA