Delta Airlines

Date: September 18, 2011
Time: 10:00 AM Mountain Standard Time (Arizona) and 5:45 PM Eastern Standard Time (Michigan)
Location: Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and Detroit Wayne County Airport

My trip started off as typical as any other. I walked on the airbus staring out onto the lucky ones that got to sit in the first class sections followed by all the Zone 1s, Zone 2s, and those with children. There I stood in the never ending line of travelers walking inch by inch until I reached my final destination--seat 21 A. Did somebody say window seat? Why yes. Certainly they did. That person was me. After I got cozy with my fluffy fleece pillow and book, I was greeted by a sweet old lady--who had the gift of gab. Bless her little heart. She carried on with a conversation of how tricky it was for her to find the row numbers after she had stumbled upon her assigned seat. She then concluded with telling me of how she thought she need glasses because of this fiasco and how her last plane trip was back in the 1970s when her late husband was alive. To comfort her aged mind, I chimed in about how I thought I had to count the seats one-by-one until I remembered the tiny numbers were up on the airplane ceiling. That little tid bit comforted her real good until I told her, "This is my second time flying..." which then took us on a completely different subject until our friend who sat in 21 C arrived. Boy oh boy did she have a field day with that fella. Poor guy didn't even see it coming.

Once we were soaring above the clouds, we were all off in our own little worlds. I was listening to my iTunes while reading Write Great Fiction: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. Hey! Don't judge me. In order for one to be good at ones craft, one must study ones craft. That last sentence was totally lame, but it's the truth. All right, so, the sweet little old lady with the gift of gab was doing cross word puzzles and the fella that was bum rushed by the sweet old lady, was on his laptop doing--I don't know what. I know he had in ear buds for sure. All was calm and quiet until I desperately needed to visit the washroom of the sky. I was dying to experience what others made such a big fuss over considering how that was my second plane trip ever. I give the experience an A+. I found the lavatory cozy. It was like sitting in my car. After I returned to my seat, there she went again doing what she did best. Talk. I totally can't blame her though. Her husband past away 30 some odd years ago. She's lonely.

Finally after about three or four hours of flying the friendly skies, we land at the McNamara Terminal at the Detroit Wayne County airport. I couldn't tell you how excited I was to peel myself out of that chair. You could only imagine. To give you a little back story, I traveled back home to Michigan back in June for the first time. I've never flown anytime before that. I remember the pilot announcing the carousel the luggage would be on. I remember walking into the building and the first thing I saw was National Coney Island. And I remember hitting that first left to baggage claim. It took me five minutes tops. This experience was completely different than the first. The pilot didn't announce didly squat and the terminal had to be the size of 10 [American] Football fields. I figured I was lost when I realized I was walking and wasn't getting anywhere. It took me a good 15 minutes to find the "You Are Here" map and to realize I wasn't in the same terminal as before. I was somewhere upstairs and I had to get downstairs for baggage claims. It was there where I met up with my uncle Johnny and little big brother Lexis. My uncle found the carousel with my luggage because I was completely lost. I told him, "I'm lost." Like I said, that was my second experience flying. My uncle had a field day with my going astray.

Finally what made the flight worth while was seeing my mom and giving her a hug on the curb, being in cooler weather that was exactly 30 degrees lower than what it was in Arizona, and watching all the cars with Michigan license plates drive by.

I was home.

To be continued...