Eighth Day - Thursday, November 8th
The return trip, starting out over half-an-hour late, was to prove eventful all the way. Or at least, it felt that way. Not only were we flying half-way across the Pacific in a broken airplane but this time we had only one hour in Phoenix and we had already lost 40 minutes of that and I knew how far we had to walk between gates. At least I thought I knew. I decided to take another Aleve. U.S. Airways did do one thing right. An hour or so after takeoff, the cabin attendants came around with drinks and I ordered a Scotch, expecting Dewar's or maybe J & B. To my surprise, I got Glen Livet. I took another Aleve. To the pilot's credit, he did make up about 20 of those lost minutes during the flight.
When we landed in Phoenix, I got a couple of pleasant surprises. First, my knee was so much better that I could walk faster and longer than Judy. She was asking to slow down but there was too little time to make our connection anyway. All right, we slowed just a bit. The next surprise was that our connection flight was on the B gate closer to the A wing instead of the far one. Not only that but our gate was the third one on the wing from the common area. We got there in plenty of time to make the connection. We actually had a few minutes to rest from that brisk hike before boarding the small plane, another Canada Air Jet 900, for the final leg of the trip.
I had no idea how big an airport Phoenix was other than the amount of walking we had to do there. On this visit, we both noticed that everyone always seemed to be in a real hurry and walking at full speed if not actually running. Apparently they consistently book connecting flights with an absolute minimum of time between. Later research revealed that it is the fourth or fifth busiest airport in the country, making it one of the busiest in the world.
Drama was still not over, however. After closing the door and preparing for takeoff but before leaving the gate, the stewardess announced that some passengers would have to move to the rear. The plane was probably no more than half full and most of us had been assigned seats near the front. We were unbalanced and could not take off until at least eight people moved from the front to the rear. This took a few minutes longer than I would have expected.
We finally left the gate and got in line for take off. This must have been a pretty long line as we were there a very long time, moving just a bit from time-to-time. I timed the departures at 45 seconds between. That seems pretty busy, all right. It was finally our turn. As we headed down the runway, against the grain of all those planes waiting behind us, I was able to count eighteen before we got too high for me to see the runway anymore. No wonder we were queued up for so long.
I thought I saw Albuquerque again but never could identify Sandia, the river or even a significant city so can't really be sure. Well, the time was about right and there was a mountain ridge. We landed in Oklahoma City a little over an hour and a half after leaving Phoenix without further incident. We retrieved all our luggage, caught the shuttle bus to long term parking, got in the Explorer and headed off to retrieve the dog. Judy phoned Jackie at the Vet Clinic and found out that Suzanne had already picked him up and they were at our house waiting for us.
That pretty much winds up the trip, possibly the trip of a lifetime? I never really had much interest in going to Hawai‘i but, after being there for a week, I think I could be fairly easily convinced to go back again. There is just too much to absorb in a week. If not for the long flights, I would definitely return. If nothing else, I might get to tour the Missouri and visit the Oklahoma Memorial next time. It was dedicated a month after we left. It looks like the Missouri may be berthed where the Oklahoma was sunk.