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| The mission: Get to Pittsburgh |
The Set Up:
Back in fall my adviser suggested I submit a piece of my work to a national English honor society, called Sigma Tau Delta. If my piece was accepted I would attend the national convention in Pittsburgh and present my paper on a panel. So I submit a creative non-fiction piece, get accepted at the end of January and book a flight for Pittsburgh from Wednesday March 23 to fly out of Green Bay for Pittsburgh.
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| The Sigma Tau Delta logo, otherwise known as STD |
Inclement weather in the form of a notorious March Wisconsin blizzard moves its way into Green Bay. Expected snowfall 10-16 inches. I was finishing getting the latest issue of school paper together to be sent to the printer for publication the next day. We were already two days behind coming off spring break. I checked my email to find an email from one of the girls going on the trip (did I mention that there were like 9 girl students, 2 female professors, one male professor, and myself going on this trip?) saying that the 7 a.m. flight from Green bay to Detroit that most of the group was scheduled on was already canceled. However there was a 6:15 a.m. flight to the Twin Cities that would then direct to Pittsburgh.
I hate traveling by plane, which is weird because I love airports (a post for another time perhaps), so I booked that flight and set my alarm for 4:20 a.m. determined to get to Pittsburgh as soon as possible. y the time i left the newspaper office, it was already snowing pretty hard.
Wednesday March 23, 2011 4:20 a.m.
The plan was this:
Wake up, make sure the flight wasn't canceled.
Shower, make sure the flight wasn't canceled.
Drive to airport, get on plane, get to Pittsburgh.
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| This photo was taken on a nice day |
I woke up and found my flight was still scheduled, showered, got my bags downstairs, and went outside to clean off and warm up my car. By now at least 8 inches had already fallen, and it was still coming down hard. The dead end street I lived on had not yet been plowed. I got in my car and drove to the airport. The nice thing was no one was on the roads, and the stupid main street in De Pere that has like twenty different lights, were all blinking yellow, I would have gotten to the airport in ten minutes, if I hadn't realized, as I was about to turn into the airport, that I had forgotten my luggage inside my house. I pull a U-turn, get back to my house, the flashing yellow lights are now back on their regular green, yellow, red schedule. Get to my house, get my luggage, but my street still hasn't been plowed. The street it is connected to has been though, and now I need to get the Stratastrophe over a big mound of snow. I think I would have made if there hadn't been a car coming and I had to slow down. Instead, I get stuck. Luckily I have a shovel in the back of my car (thank you Walt) and begin to frantically shovel out my car. After much shouting, swearing and grunting, I got out and got back to the airport. However, when I got to the long term parking, only portions had been plowed out, and it was hard to tell what was only covered with a little snow, and what was actually a foot of snow covering a spot. I guessed wrong, and again got the Strat stuck halfway into a parking spot. Cue excessive and frantic shoveling. Got it out, got it parked in a decent spot. Rushed to get my boarding pass, figure by now, its about 5:30-5:40 a.m. still snowing very hard, still very dark, still very windy.
Green Bay airport (also known as Austin Straubel International) has a very efficient security system to get through especially when you are there early in the morning. y the time I got to the gate, my plane had already boarded.
Another thing I should note, this was my first solo trip, as I didn't see anyone else that was supposed to be on this trip on the flight. I am a very hectic traveler meaning I always worry about missing flights and arriving at my destination. But I digress...
On the plane I was seated on the window by the wing, but a young couple, one whom the female loudly announced I'm pregnant (in nasally self important tone), asked if I would switch with the aisle seat in the row in front of them so they could sit next to each other. I was more than happy to oblige since I like the leg room, although I find I often get knocked by the flight attendants walking through the aisle making sleep next to impossible. I sat next to a nice gentleman who was trying to get to San Fransisco and didn't seem to confident either of us would be reaching our destination that day.
No sooner had a switched seats then the pilot came on to tell us the only plowed runway had a strong crosswind that he didn't feel comfortable taking off in, so they were waiting for another runway to be cleared that worked better with the wind. He'd check back in 15-20 minutes.
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| This is what happens when you try and take off with bad crosswinds |
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| Thankfully, my plane did not delve into madness |
"Well folks we've just been informed that Twin cities has closed down, we're gonna head back to the gate and let you deplane."
Alright, while I really wanted to belt this out in one post, it looks like parts would be the smarter decision here, so we'll end part one on a cliffhanger, check back later for the rest of the story.
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