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08/15/2003 Entry: "Flying during the blackout of 2003"

I'm on my way to West Palm Beach, via Charlotte on US Air. I was supposed to be going to Detroit on NWA. For some reason that I don't quite know yet, the power grid that powers everything from Detroit to New York overloaded and shut off.

I supposed that like most people at the airport I was late to the news. My biggest concern was getting through security with my laptop, cell phone, and pager with the new hightened security. It wasn't an issue. After figureing out that there's no free WiFI access and talking to my wife, I headed to the gate. CNN had a Breaking News crawl. Ever since 9/11 that hasn't been good news. Blackouts? How? Why? Where? Detroit? Hmmm... that's going to be an issue. I sat down for a moment to think and then I decided to talk to the gate agent... I'm not really going east... mostly South... perhaps there's another way.

It wasn't quite panic or chaos, but people were every confused about how this affected their very important travel plans. Since I wasn't going with anyone and had all my belongings with me, I figured I could go anywhere on any airline. Some girl about three people in front of me was going to West Palm Beach as well... and had the attitude to match. What a complete bitch. (It's ok, she's not sitting next to me.) I just waited in line.

I was the first people the gate agent talked to after she announced my flight was cancel. Less than 60 seconds later I was booked to go via US Air. 10 minutes later I was seated on the flight... that arrives 12 minute before I was suppose to land on Northwest. Sweet. If I would have waited for an announcement I never would have made the flight.

Now... on the other hand... I didn't eat dinner at the airport, and I'm not paying $10 for a bagel sandwhich... and there's no good food at at the Charlotte airport... I'm not even sure which Carolina I'm going to.

At least I'm not stuck somewhere... like flying above Detroit.

Update!

I'm in Charlotte and my plane isn't here yet and it supposed to leave in 20 minutes. I don't think that's going to happen. The gate I'm sitting at has a plane that supposed to go to Norfolk, but they don't have a crew. So I'm going to have to go to a different gate, but they don't know where yet. Good lord.

Turns out I'm in North Carolina. Good to know.

The disappointing thing is that I did find good food here. They had a Nathan's here. Unfortunately, they were out of their crinkle cut fries. I love those.

Yet another update!

Just got off the ground from Charlotte. We were supposed to land in West Palm Beach at 11.47. That's about the time we took off. I can't imagine how I'm going to get to bed before 2am. Bleh.