TN Trip No. 4,080

Well I left my house at 0330 on Monday. So I could swing by the office and hit the airport (MHT), (45 minutes away) and get checked in and ready to board my plane to Dulles at 0540. I was on the plane at 0600! Then the pilot in reality forgets his log book but doesnt tell us until 0620. We finally de-plane at 0630 and I am unable to catch the 0720 to Chicago Ohare. I managed to finagle my way onto a 0830 to Ohare and get into Knoxville a few hours late. The experience at the counter was a bit scary cause this cancellation pissed a whole lot of people off -Big time! The gate agent almost threatened to call in the State Police cause some guy was irate. I was standing next to him too and I expected him to start swinging at the gate agent. I said to the guy, look man, if you are going to hit anyone, go hit the pilot.

Anyway the most oddest thing happened, I was in Ohare, and for those that dont know, this is the nations busiest airport and I heard at one time it was the worlds busiest. I dont know about now, but I do know that a plane lands every 3 seconds at this airport. So the place is massive. I was walking to my connecting gate then I hear my name being called. It was my colleague Andy from Boulder, CO and he was on his flight from Denver to Detroit. connecting. What are the odds?! He was covering for me, as you may remember I was slated to go to Detroit this week. So wierd! We got a bite to eat and then he went on his way and I went on my way.

Rocked tha house in TN ate dinner in a place called "Hooters" which had some mediocre food but at least they had Guinness which was $4.50 per pint. Bastards! This brought my bill up to more than $30. But anyway, I did some more work the next day and then straight up hauled ass back to Knoxville to catch my flight back on Tuesday. Flight from Knoxville to Charlotte was OK. Loads of people. Some drunk-ass, middle-aged, professional women making jokes laughing. A big huge overweight dude sitting behind me snoring his ass off. a hella-fied bumpy ass ride and some muthafucka who couldnt wait -he lit up a smoke right on the flightline -man these southerners smoke like a muthafucka! Its like a different world they allow smoking in restaurants etc down in the south and I could have sworn in the Charlotte airport I smelt smoke wafting from a resturant. Charlotte was busy as hell and it may be because of people travelling for Thanksgiving. I got back to Manchester at 2240 and drove home.