Flying Home on USAir

Dropping off the rental car with Enterprise was easy. I had taken digital photos when we left of all scratches, but they didn't really look at it at all. They took the contract, took the keys, and sent us over to the shuttle area. There was already a shuttle there, so it was quick and simple to ride in to the airport. It was now about 9pm and the agricultural station was open. We had to send all of our checked bags through the agricultural xray system, they want to make sure there is no cross-contamination between the mainland and the islands. Once our bags were examined, we then rolled them over to the actual check-in desk to check in.

Our bags were lighter now, since we had drunk all the wine, and I'd donated my four heavy cruise / Hawaii books to the Pride of America library. I'd also given away six of my personally written Weddings & Courtships books to Cruise Critic members. It was quick and easy to check in, and then we began to walk the LONG long walk to get to the gate.

The shops were mostly closed, so we weren't able to find any real gifts for people. However, there was a post office box near the gate, so I was able to sit by a power outlet, download my mail via my Verizon connector and write out postcards. Eventually it was 11:30pm and they were ready to start boarding. Hurrah, we actually got the first class seats we were supposed to get! They were big, comfy, and "towards the front" meaning that once the first class people had gotten on board, there was no aisle traffic and we were given drinks and quiet right away. I had my Bailey's and tried to go right to sleep. I was exhausted.

Unfortunately, no such luck. There was a large woman behind me who was fairly loud, and who asked for X or Y or Z every two minutes. She had numerous questions, and even tried to rearrange other passengers so that a couple could sit together. She pushed and pulled at my seat. I felt badly about feeling unsettled about her behavior - I run a low carb site and know it can be really hard to be large on an airplane - but I just wanted to sleep, and she was just continually doing something. We had barely gotten any sleep last night, gotten up early this morning, and had been driving around all day.

Also, oddly, I wanted to keep my windows open so I could watch us take off and enjoy the night lights of Honolulu, but the stewardess asked repeatedly for everyone to close their shades. On most flights, they tell you to keep them open for safety reasons! So I finally closed the shades and just re-opened them after we took off :) Just for a while, to watch the lights.

Finally we were up and they let us turn on our MP3 players. I put on my noise cancelling headphones, my sleepytime mix on my iPod, and soon I was asleep! I can't comment on the first class food, there was none :) But it was a very comfortable, relaxing flight. Soon we were on the ground in Phoenix, and the sun was just coming up.

It turns out they had given us two boarding passes for me for the final leg of our journey - not one for me and one for Bob - so we got that fixed at the customer service desk. Then we used our free pass we'd gotten from my USAir credit card to get into the USAir club. I'd never been in one so I was curious what it would be like. Really, it was an "upscale" waiting room a floor above the main floor. There were no blaring announcements, they did have a wall of departure information monitors so you could keep track of that. They had free juices and sodas, and freshly made pastries and cookies. They were quite good! Free wireless, and two TVs running. I would have rather had real quiet, without the TV noise (especially since they were on different channels) but you can't have everything. It was a nice quiet spot.

About two hours later it was time for our next flight. They moved the gate, so we moved our way along to the gate. People were just getting off the plane as we got to the new gate, even though it was boarding time. This part was from Phoenix to Indianapolis. On this plane the embarkation system meant all the coach passengers walked in past first class, and with the late start, they didn't start serving drinks until the plane was up in the air. Still, soon we were in the air, I had a Baileys and I was heading back to sleep. I did wake up for dinner, which was a delicious alfredo lasagna with shrimp. Bob had a calzone with red sauce. Luckily even though we left about 40 minutes late, we got in on time because of super strong tail winds. Also, luckily, the gate for our third leg was right across the hallway from us.

Our final leg to Boston was on a plane without any first class, so we were flying aisle 7 in coach. This plane was not a squishy plane - only two seats on each side of the aisle, so it wasn't a big deal. So far so good. We found seats to wait. And wait. It turns out one of the flight attendants was AWOL! They had to call in a replacement. The USAir people were being very unhelpful. People would come out and ask about the status, and were either told everything was on time (right up until past the on time departure time) or later that nobody knew anything :) Finally about an hour later we were getting on board.

The seats, at least, were biggish and comfortable. We headed out. I tried to sleep on the plane. The pilots were apparently trying to make up the lost time. My ears were still stuffed up, and I'd had trouble clearing them during the last two flights. This final flight would prove my doom. When we got near Boston they went into dive-bomb tactics. Several passengers around us commented on "the pilot must be late for a date" and "this is the fastest descent I've ever done!" I on the other hand was just in sheer pain. The right side of my head felt like it was going to explode. I tried drinking a ton of Gatorade, swallowing, yawning, you name it. But it did end up rupturing, I think. I'd ruptured both eardrums during a SCUBA dive about 12 years back. That time it went quick, this time was slow torment :) Finally we were on the ground. But then we had to wait 10 minutes by the gate, because someone else was using our gate.

OK, finally we were in the airport! We walked down to baggage claim. And waited. And waited. Then they said all bags were missing! The entire plane was aghast. How could they possibly forget to load a plane up with bags? We all trucked over to the baggage claim area to start filling out claims. Then about 15 minutes later, they said they had found the bags. They were soaking wet, but at least they were here :) So we gathered them up.

It was another 20 minutes before the economy lot shuttle decided to come around and get us, but finally we were on our way home. It was too late for any pizza place to be open - it was now after 10pm - so we stopped in at a 24 hour store, got a frozen pizza, and headed on home to the parakeets and cats!

Trip complete!

Follow up note - a few days later I finally went into the doctor because my ears were still feeling strange. It turns out both eardrums were ruptured, and both ears were infected, because of that killer descent. I'd still like to know why the USAir guys felt it necessary to dive us into the ground like that!

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