Hartford, CT - The Morning After

The July 12, 2006 United Flight 745 was scheduled to take off at 7:20 PM and land at 8:40 PM. After a series of weather delays, the plane finally arrived around 10 PM. About 30 passengers stuck around for the plane. Some rescheduled flights for the next day. Others wanted to get to Dulles, spend the night and then catch a connecting flight elsewhere.

The plane took off around 10:45 PM. We were probably the last plane to depart that evening. The nice part was there was no wait to depart. Once the pilot got to the runway, we took off immediately. Not like busy NYC airports where getting to the runway can take up to an hour.

Everyone from the gate attendants to the flight crew to the passengers were professional and cordial. Nobody threw a complete fit. Some passengers were dissapointed they had to change their schedules. But the gate attendants handled the changes and requests professionally. And the flight crew took care of the passengers on the short flight.

We landed at Dulles close to midnight. Many passengers scrambled to find hotel rooms and change flight connections.

I hiked out to my car and drove home. Normally DC beltway traffic at 12 midnight in the middle of the week is very light. But the Dulles Access Road is being repaved at night, and that slowed traffic way down. What normally is a 25 minute drive with no traffic turned into a 1 hour ride home.

I finally made it and got to bed around 2 AM. It's always a nice feeling to sleep in your own bed after time away. Door-to-door, the return leg of the trip took 8 hours. I probably could have driven the distance in less time. But those are the breaks when you travel during the summer storm season.

After 12 flights over the last 9 weeks, I will be taking a little break from traveling. I get a few weeks at home before hitting the road again.

In the interim, I'm going to post comments about travel web sites and related items. Let me know what you think.