Mood:  mischievious
Topic: Airline Industry

Ah yes!  The sweet revelry of being able to "FINALLY" get connected to the internet.

Here I sit in the Holiday Inn in Newark, NJ on Thanksgiving kicking it up with a few beers and winding down.  Let me put it simply, it's been crazy these past two days in the industry.  Hense the start of the "Holiday Travel Season!"  Yep!  Let the madness begin!

Let's start by saying that the first day started off pretty good.  Just a Minneapolis turn and then overnight in Pittsburg.  Went smoothly.  The next day was suppose to go from PIT to EWR to CVG (Cincinnatti).  Well, we did manage that trip but wound up laning in CVG at just after midnight the next day but not after sitting on the tarmac in PIT for two hours before we finally finalized our wheels up time.

After finally getting airborn we were put in to a holding pattern for almost another hour before we were finally cleared to land in EWR.  What was suppose to be a total flight time of 1 hour 1 minute turned in to a four and a half hour flight time because of ATC and weather in EWR.

After landing in EWR we had to turn the plane quickly so we could get to CVG for our now very short overnight.  We were suppose to land in CVG at shortly after 8:00pm.  Our early showtime of 5:40a.m. for today was moved by a few hours to 8:20a.m. thus taking away our Ashville, NC overnight because of the delay.  Good thing because we wound up in yet another holding pattern for EWR for this trip as well and wound up diverting to ABE (Allentown, PA), for refuling.  The fun part of the diversion was having two young boys with curious eyes wide open wanting to take a look at the flight deck.  We happily abliged and what a thrill it was to see the looks on thier faces when they had the opportunity to sit in the Captains seat and test out the equiptment!  When they finished I took my little plastic wings out and pinned each one of them as they exited the flight deck after thier experience.  The looks on thier faces was precious and priceless!

tAfter arriving in EWR the CA, who lives in Jersey, took off the minute we were on the jetway leaving the FO and I to get the shuttle to the hotel. Then we waited and waited for the shuttle where the hotel told us to wait. Took freakin' forever and still no bus. The FO decided to head for the Crew Room and would meet me at the hotel later. Dah-dah! Never happened and I wasn't too suprised either. 

After waiting a while longer for the shuttle I decided to say "S@rew it!", hauled my a$$ to P4, called the hotel again and asked how long before the shuttle now? "He's on his way!" Yah, how long of a wait this time?

So, I spent Turkey Day by myself. No biggie really! The family knew I wasn't going to be there but at least I had a chance to talk with them. I rather welcomed the chance for a nice, long hot shower, a few beers and the sweet solitude but was just a little bored so I caught up on my Blog. 

So here I sit in the EWR the Holiday Inn for a much longer overnight that is very much welcomed!  Hense the beers and time to kick it up!  I'm enjoying this!  But, not after having to take an hour plus of relaxing to re-format my Internet Explorer and wait for the wireless network to decide it was finally going to work.  UGH!  I need my internet!  Sad, sad, sad!  Guess I need to get a life!

Anywho, time for me to hop in the shower and relax.  If the internet cooperates I'll be back later for more!