Thursday, June 26, 2008
Happy Thursday to all. It was a long day of travel beginning at 2:30 am in Fond du lac. I hit the highway by 3am, got to Midway airport (Chicago) by 6am. Flight left at 9am. So that was the first 6 hours. The traffic in Chicago was just starting to back up to my exit, so the timing was perfect. It was a 3.5 hour flight to Las Vegas, which surprised me a bit, since I didn’t know I was flying to Vegas. It appears that a direct flight does not mean non-stop. I did not have to change planes, and after about an hour, I left Vegas, and 90 minutes later landed in San Francisco/Oakland airport. After the car rental challenge, and an hour plus drive, I arrived in Manteca, my previous home town.
Ok, all that was not very interesting, so from a different perspective, here is my new story. If you haven’t flown Southwest, you might not know that their flight attendants have some leeway when it comes to behavior.
On the first flight, as we approached Vegas, they decided to have a toilet paper race with two teams. The right side passengers and the left. Beginning at the front of the plan, each side was given a roll of toilet paper which they had to pass the row behind them, without breaking it, and continue till it got to the back of the plane. It was pretty funny, but not being competitive and lacking in leadership skills, my side won. TP is one of my specialties. Oh, the prize was free soft drinks. It didn’t stop with the race, we then had to place the long line of tp on the aisle floor and then the attendants, one in front and one in the rear of the plane, place the paper in the toilet and flushed. I have never seen 200 feet of tp move so fast. In 2 seconds, both lines were gone. Funny!
The second flight one of the flight attendants announced that this was a new plane and that it had a new way to take drink orders. He said that you had to ring your call button and speak into the speaker to place your order. Again, hilarious as numerous naïve passengers began to do this. The attendants were busting up and had to tell people that the system wasn’t working and they had to revert to the old method. An older gentleman in front of me was so confused that the attendants gave him free wine.
In another situation while they were boarding, they had two customers at the very last wanting to board. They asked for a volunteer to give up their aisle or window seat. The lady a few rows in front of me said no way, but the guy next her agreed and they gave him free drinks. You should have seen her face when this 500 pound plus guy began to walk down the aisle. Priceless. Yep, he took the two seats next to her and then some.
So there is humor all around us, some days we have to look a little harder. But yesterday I didn’t, even though it was a long travel day. I arrived safely at my destination. Enjoy.