No Cell Phone For You

Okay, time for the much (or not so much) anticipated story of coming home from Texas. We arrived at the airport earlier than expected. We're the type to get there atleast 2 hours before take off but given that we had already checked out of the hotel, were stretching for things to do, wanted to make sure we didn't have any problems finding the airport, or returning the car, we headed back around 3 hours total before take off. When we arrived there were no issues with the car return. When we arrived at check in there were only about 4 people ahead of us but I got to say Northwest doesn't have the check-in procedure down yet. As with most all airlines they have the self check-in kiosks. However, you must wait for someone to assist you with checking in your bags. Usually it isn't an issue as there is a person per 2 kiosks and things run relatively smoothly. As for Northwest this wasn't the case....at least in Detroit or Dallas. They had about 1 person per 5 of 6 kiosks. Add on to that no turnstile ribbons (Detroit) it can cause some chaos and take a lot longer than expected. No biggie given that we were there earlier than needed, but I would have to say it's something that they need to improve on.

We chilled near our gate reading our books. About 1 hour before take-off we decided to check our departure status. Our plane was not present so we figured we may be running behind. Sure enough the large screen said we'd be leaving at 6:26pm. However, it was out of a different gate. Thankfully that was the next gate over so we could basically sit in the same spot. Looking at the gates, they both had our flight number/arrival city, but had different times....even different than the big screen. We figured we'd wait it out and see what happens. Well, sure enough the plane was very late arriving and it was at the other gate, that'd we'd leave out of. Listening to some passengers of the previous flight I hear 2 families complaining about a flight attendent. One said they were yelled at for having there phone off upon arriving in the plane, even though they were still loading. The other stated that he requested blankets for all members of his family and was refused. I didn't think much of it. Little did I know I'd have a run in with the same attendent.

We boarded the plane relatively quickly after the previous passengers departed. We were geared, all ready to go. The captain came over the loudspeaker and said, "We're number 1 for take-off." We moved toward the runway only to turn to the left instead of going straight. The captain came over the loudspeaker once again and said, "It looks like some nasty weather about 8-10 miles away with 60 mph winds. We're going to turn off the engines and wait it out." At this point everyone was whipping out their cell phones to call their families to notify them. Everyone, including me. That's when she arrived. Carol, the flight attendant, came and hovered over mine and my mom's seat and stared at me. She finally said in a rude tone, "Your cell phone?!" I gave her a sheepish/questioning face and said, "Yeah..." She said, "It's supposed to be OFF." Once again sheepish/questioning, I said, "Now? But we're sitting still with the engines off." And she replied, "YEAH....." Kind of like "duh, turn it off." She walked away and came back within a minute to say, "I asked the captain and he said it's okay to use your cell phone." No apology or anything. Whatever. What's it with me and flight attendents? And mom can back me up on this one. I wasn't rude and there were others with their cellphones blatently out. Then as a kind geture they offered cups of bottled water, only to find out you had to share with the seat next to you. Yeah, weird.

So the storm came in with quite a vengeance and after 2 hours sitting on the runway, shakin' a bit, we took off. While the storm was going on there was a plane that took off. They made it up but went over the radio saying that it was a rough ride. Given that we were a 2 by 2 seater with only about 20 rows (super small plane) I'm glad we waited to take off. When mom saw our plane she about freaked saying she wasn't getting on the tiny thing. And that was before were knew about the storm. The take off wasn't too bad but we had quite a rough ride home. A lot of turbulence. The kind where you feel like you're falling in the air. I was surprised that I didn't find bruises on my arm from where mom continued to grab me. She white-knucked almost all the way home as I continued to give her reassuring thoughts, "We're going to be fine." We ended up getting into Detroit after midnight, and getting to our car and out of Detroit after 1am. So we didn't get home until after 3am. We were exhausted.