I must say that the dreaded snow storm of December 2009 put major cramps in my trip home. What craziness. It did not help, either, that I had this insane flight arranged by our travel office. Kabul -- Dubai -- Zurich -- Geneva -- Dulles. I heard about the snow storm early as it was all over the news, etc. From Kabul I watched as it beared down on Virginia, specifically Northern Virginia on the edge of my seat. After over 2.5 years in NOVA I knew that the weather men/women often are wrong and it goes north of the D.C. Metro area. However, for once, the weather forecasters were right. They said 12-24 inches and record snow falls and it happened. It seems, however, that everyone else, including road workers, etc. knew about it. I was really surprised at how quickly they worked compaired to previous experience in my tenure here. I arrived to see mostly cleared roads. It was not just all the major thoroughfairs. I guess a little planning goes a long way. I was impressed.
Well at least it was all but airport planners. Airports closing? What is up with that? We took off an hour late in Geneva, giving Dulles time to open and assess the Dulles situation as our scheduled take off in Geneva was just before Dulles' scheduled reopening time, 6 a.m. So we waited to get the thumbs up and then were off. The airplane was absolutely full, a product of the closing the day before, I was told. We even had about 6-10 folks on standby get left behind in Geneva for the next day's flight. A full plane does not equate well to good service or even a pleasent flight. On a 10 hour flight that is not too fun. They did not run out of food, as I have seen happen before, but they did run out of softdrinks and any other drinks but beer and water. I also was crammed into a normal seat as all the exit rows and bulkhead seats were taken before I got to check in at Dubai. Which for a 6'6" dude that aint to fun. I was seated next to a kiddo but that did not turn out too bad as he behaved mostly ok. Still, it was pretty much 10 hours of my own personal hell regardless. Every hour or so I tried to stand, though, and walk around. It worked out ok. I did not die, at least until landing.
The pilot did a great job of catching our time up in route. He actually made up 45 minutes of the time we were delayed so we were only 15 minutes late. Not bad for an intercontinental flight, eh? The delay, however, came after we landed. The pilot reported, after we got on the ground that a plan was at our gate and would have to be moved and that we would have a 30 minute delay on the tarmac. Ok, I could deal with 30 minutes. He and the rest of the crew were very apologetic and even allowed us up to go to the bathroom, walk around, etc. However, no soft drinks and the water faded very fast. At about 20 minutes in, the pilot came on and told us that Dulles was severely understaffed, as there folks could not get to work and that it was going to be maybe 30 more minutes. 15-20 minutes later again, then again, then again. All in all that 30 minutes turned into over 2.5 hours, almost 3 hours on the tarmac with a plane full of folks ready to get off after a 10 hour flight. Even though the did let us up and down, it still got to be pretty chaotic with kids running crazy, folks fussing, talking on cell phones, etc. We were told at one time, that there were only a few gates international flights could go to that directed to customs and passport control. Under normal circumstances they would pull us close enough to get a people mover out there, the pilot said. However, Dulles did not have enough folks that had made it to work therefore they could not send us a people mover. My question is, why did they not put employees up close by or even in the airport and keep them there. Not like they would not have plenty of food, etc. Poor planning = pure hell!
When finally we did get off the plan we also found that Homeland Security was not prepared either and it was over an hour wait in that line. So for a flight that landed at 3:30, I left the airport at almost 8 p.m. I calculated the hours from the previous days start in Kabul and it was over 36 hours from the time I left the guesthouse in Kabul and arrived at my destination in Northern Virginia. The trip from hell was over, though!
Monday, I went and saw my customized bike that I had done while I was gone. I must say I am very pleased. It makes me sad that I will only see it for a few weeks before going back. However, she and I will get pretty close with the planned road trip you have read about. Things are still on schedule and I am off tomorrow for Florida. Woo hooo!
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