Actually a nice trip to New Orleans...
...but a bad flight back to Chicago. The hot, humid summer day was tossing up severe thunderstorms all along the Mississippi, so I spent the flight strapped down while we bumped along through choppy air amid flashes of lightening. Never nervous about flying, I found it to be a different story when the sudden drops and lurches were elicting screams from my fellow passengers. I kept exchanging nervous smiles with the woman next to me, who was grimly working through all the prayers on her rosary beads. When at some point I heard myself moaning involuntarily with fear, I knew this was officially a bad flight. The final straw for me was when the flight attendants were asked to sit down and strap themselves in, but one was left arguing in the aisle with a woman who wouldn't or couldn't get her todddler buckled in. The attendant totally lost all control and screamed in her face, "Do you want to peel that child off the ceiling of this plane? I've seen it happen! I'VE SEEN IT HAPPEN!!" When we got to Chicago airspace, the weather was still too bad to attempt a landing so we circled the airport for almost an hour. Of course, bumping and lurching the whole while. Finally, the captain let us know that we were now very short on fuel and we would be heading for Milwaukee where we would refuel and then return to Chicago. After an armrest-gripping descent to Milwaukee airport, I disembarked and did not return. Got a motel for the night and the next day rented a car and drove the two hours to Chicago.
( Artamnesia, Mon 25 Apr 2005, 22:04, Reply)