I flew this week for the first time since COVID hit.
Before that, I used to travel a lot for work.
I'm not a natural traveler, so it's never been something that I really enjoyed, even though I usually enjoy seeing any place that I go to. That is, I don't enjoy the process of traveling much, and I don't enjoy thinking about traveling. My father was the same way, and nearly all of the long distance traveling he'd done had been due to the Air Force.
Occupational traveling, so to speak.
Most of my traveling has been that way as well.
This is 2022, and to be accurate, the last time I flew somewhere was in 2019. I can't really recall the last time I flew anywhere, or to where, but the mostly likely spot would be Denver, as I used to fly to Denver and back in a day routinely. COVID ended that as when COVID hit, it dropped air travel down to nothing for obvious reasons, and when it came back, the number of flights in and out of here locally were cut significantly. The red eye to Denver was a casualty of that. The one to Salt Lake also went away, although I think that was even prior to that.
I used to also fly a lot to Texas for depositions. I'm not sure of when I last did that, but it was before COVID. Zoom took over most of that, so it's rarely done now.
One major thing I worked on should have had trips to South Carolina, Arizona and Illinois, but did not. All of those were done via Zoom. It worked out okay, I guess, but I can't say that I'm a fan even now. It's good enough, however, that you acclimate yourself to it and begin to believe that it's good enough
Anyhow, some travel is slowly coming back, and earlier this week I flew to Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City.
I've been to OKC before, the first time in 1982 when an airliner discharged me there after having taken off from Cheyenne. Their terminal was much more primitive, by my recollection, at the time, and we did the classic old-fashioned walk down airliner stairs, which is seemingly a rarity now, across the tarmac and into the terminal, and then on to a bus, which went to Ft. Sill.
More recently, and in different circumstances, I've flown to Denver and boarded a large Boeing airliner. Based upon another one of our blogs, the last time I was there was in 2014. On that trip I went with two other lawyers, one of whom I knew really well, and it was a fun trip. We flew from OKC to Houston after that, that time on a small commuter jet. Since that time, he's passed away, having only been retired for a year or so when he became very ill and died.
As noted, we flew from Denver to OKC in a big airliner on that occasion.
Not this time.
Locally I boarded a Bombardier CRJ200 and then, to my surprise, in Denver boarded a second CRJ200.
Boarding the CRJ200 in Denver.
I'm not a huge fan of the CRJ200, although it's better than boarding a twin-engined turboprop. Looking it up, I see where production of the CRJ200 ceased in 2006 and that may partially explain it. I've never been on one that was really new, and they show it. Back in 06, locally, you probably boarded a turboprop.
On the ground, the stewardess assured us the plane had been thoroughly cleaned, but we were given wipes. I didn't use mine. I'm getting pretty fatalistic about COVID 19, although I'm zealous on the vaccines and boosters. Some folks did use them, and I can't blame them. The plane smelled vaguely antiseptic.
The stewardess in Denver, upon taking off, warned us the flight was going to be turbulent. The last times I flew, in 2019, they were doing that too, with the same result. It wasn't at all. I'm okay with that, but I wonder what brought about the hypersensitivity to warning of turbulence.
She was also pretty blunt and somewhat familiar in her tone, which is a change from what had been the norm.
It was a smooth ride all the way to OKC.
Getting off the plane was hot. That was the same as it was in 1982.
So the first change noted.
I never would have expected a flight from Denver to OKC on a CRJ200. Are they trying to run smaller planes now as fewer people are flying? I wasn't the only one surprised, the guy sitting next to me remarked, "I thought for Oklahoma City they would have used a bigger plane".
The trip back was more remarkable, but not in good ways.
First of all, I'd moved my flight up by two days, due to a big change in what I was doing there. I didn't pay that much attention to the closeness of the connection in Denver. I used to always do that. It was extremely right.
Concluding my business in OKC I had to rush, by foot, back to the hotel and turned my right ankle something fierce. As a high school student, I turned it severely, and it's never really been the same, although it rarely causes me problems. I injured it very severely a second time, probably about fifteen years ago or so. So it'll turn.
It's still really hurting.
Added to that, some weeks ago, I somehow injured my right elbow. I haven't gone in for attention to it, but it really hurts.
I've never flown injured before, but it's miserable.
When I got on the plane in OKC, an elderly woman was seated next to me. I rarely pay any attention to the passengers seated next to me, but she was hard not to notice right from the onset. For one thing, she was extremely nervous getting seated. She even remarked to me, "you'd think I'd never flown before".
Once on the plane, she was absolutely convinced that there was some trouble with the airplane, as the pilots were not in the cabin. As luck would have it, a pilot from another airline was seated in the set in front of her, and hence nearly me, flying back to his home in Denver. That meant he was subject to continual questions, including "can you fly the plane if they don't come?"
She wasn't kidding, and actually assumed that he could.
The pilots weren't in the cabin as the airplane, we learned, had been on the ground in Denver all day and the interior was very hot. They were outside as there's a way that the plants can be hooked up to external air conditioning, and they were working on that project. The plane never did get cool, but it was tolerable.
The same type of plane on the way down was fine, I thought, but two colleagues who also traveled down, at different times, both indicated that their planes were hot. One volunteered the opinion that CRJ200s were simply a hot aircraft. I'm not sure.
At any rate, we got rolling on the tarmac and the stewardess announced we'd lost some time, but would try to make it up, particularly as there were afternoon thundershowers expected in Denver. As it was, we left twenty minutes late, and then again announced that there were afternoon thundershowers expected, and it might be rough.
The lady next to me was really now worried about her plane being late in Denver. In spite of the instructions of the crew to turn off cell phones, she didn't, and texted the entire flight and took placed a phone call using the hands-free option, making those of us near her unwilling eavesdroppers. From time to time, she leaned up to the traveling pilot and asked if we'd make it to Denver on time. He always assured her that we would. In the row behind me, in the meantime, there were two gentlemen from a foreign land speaking in their native language so loudly that I'm sure it could have been heard back home, wherever that was.
I don't know if we landed on time or not, but we were delayed on the tarmac as they looked for stairs and then had a hard time hooking them up. By the time they opened the cabin door, I had 20 minutes to make it to my next flight, on a different concourse. When they opened up the doors, the stewardess, as they now do, asked if anyone had a "tight" connection, and the lady next to me said she did. The pilot immediately said "two hours, you do not".
I did, and stated that I did. They let me go.
I sped walked through the terminal, concourse A to B with the train in between, on my injured ankle, making it just as they were boarding my plane. Amazingly, they were loading my baggage as I got on.
That's pretty impressive, really.
The final plane was a CRJ700. They made them up until 2020, and they're a little bigger. Better yet, the exit row actually has legroom.
Overall observations? I don't like the smaller planes for longer trips, but who would? I guess I can't blame them for switching to them. I suspect fewer people are traveling for any reason.
And it's easy to forget the manners and habits of traveling, even after just a short couple of years break. I mean that for myself as much as anyone else.
