Monday, January 18, 2010

New York City - Day 14 - Return to Chicago

Monday, December 14, 2009 Absolutely beautiful sunny day!

We had a nice long luxurious breakfast at the Leo House and spoke with Sister Katherine Reis for sometime. She informed us that in 1960 Mother Theresa visited NYC and stayed at the Leo House!

We then finished packing and thought it wise to catch a cab to the airport at 11:33am. Our flight leaves at 3:05pm, scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 4:55pm CST.

The flight was delayed over an hour because of the weather in Chicago departing. I was constantly texting Ms S to get updates on the weather.

4:20pm. We left the gate and are cued up waiting in a long line of other planes. All a sudden a woman got up and started to go to the aisle! A stewardess ran down the aisle to put her back, but discovered she was “sick” and led her to the rear of the plane. They cleared a few seats somehow so she could lie down. Later, it was apparent she was probably drunk or on drunks and having a bad reaction. As the pilot said, “She seemed to be pretty much out of it.”

We stayed cued up, and then to our relief we started to move. Ah, but we made two, not one left turns. This meant, to me that we were returning to the gate, and sure enough the terminal building came into view. And we were close. We taxied all the way back to our departure gate and sat there while we waited for the paramedics to arrive.

4:35pm. The paramedics arrived and removed the ailing woman from the plane by supporting her as she “walked” the entire length of the plane to the front.

4:48pm. All of this time the plane was running and had used up too much fuel to be allowed to take off and fly to Chicago, so a refueling truck had been ordered and arrived.

5:08pm. We were still at the gate.

5:28pm EST. We finally left the ground and are air born! Hooray, we are on our way to “Sweet Home Chicago!”

6:45pm CST. We just bounced on the tera firma of O’Hare. Our pilot must be a former Navy pilot used to landing hard on carrier decks! Shortly after our return, two or three other American Airlines planes landed hard and either crashed or had trouble. The government is investigating. Hope the investigators are not Navy pilots.

Ms S had done a bit of shopping for us, so we had some fresh food available upon arrival.




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