Headed to the desert..

Its completely dark outside the airplane window as we descend thru the clouds over the Arizona desert...  I can see small patches of lights clustered in the distance, but mostly the desert is vast and uninhabited...

This surreal peaceful arrival is broken up by the loud screams of the young child in the seat behind me........  WAaaah, WAAAAahhh.   And the the 18 month old in the seat in front of me is standing on his dads lap sucking away frantically on his binky...  He was wailing away a few minutes ago, but now is amazed to find me in the seat behind him....

And then there are the two kids in the seat across the aisle...  The three year old was watching Dora the Explorer on her mom's Ipad, but had a total fit when the captain said over the intercom that all electronics had to be turned off and stowed for landing....  Her one year old sister has wailed off and on throughout the trip as well...  I now know why children are awarded to the young folks...

As an old guy, my patients isn't up to par.....   We land..........  The loud rumbling of the wheels on the concrete runway scares, and starts a symphony.....  A symphony of loud wailing from all three of these youngsters.....

As we parked at the gate, the flight steward tosses open the giant door and the night desert air rushes into the overheated plane...  Its dry as a bone, but wonderfully cool...  I escape the confines of the center aisle, as the mothers are packing up belongings for the kiddies...

Out into the night with my one small carry on bag...... Freedom..!

It was only a few hours ago that I was driving the Honda from KC to the airport in Wichita....  I had looked up the locations of the long term storage parking and the ramp from which we would depart..

The Honda had its precious cargo of my RV towing bar and safety cables in the back...  And I was early.... way early...  But I stopped at the McDonalds for a soda and time to collect my thoughts.

You see I was quite anxious because of the TSA screening that I was about to endure.....  After the cancer surgery a couple of years ago, I am now reliant on Medical supplies...  Supplies that aren't within the guidelines of stuff that can be carried onto the airplane....  The bottles of liquid are too big...  Scissors and the like....

Once in line, I had to explain that I needed a special screening for medical needs...   I had to explain in front of several other nosy  people to a less than accommodating officer....  But he took me aside and went thru all of the offending medical things..  And my whole carry on..  Shoes off, belt off, watch and phone in the bucket... Laptop out and turned on... And I passed the metal detector...

So after what seemed forever, we finally were called for boarding... But even that seemed to be in doubt, as the plane coming in was late from Mesa... They had several folks on board that were wheel chair bound...  It had taken a long time to get them all boarded in Arizona...  It took just as long to get them back off again once they were in Wichita.....

And one of our passengers, a young twenties something fellow had arrived at our gate noticeably drunk...  Or possessed, if that is possible....  He was making loud statements to all that would listen, about what he planned to do to someone..  Talking in the third person about himself...  Airport security was called....

They took him aside and I thought a fight was about to ensue..  Several more uniformed officers came from doors all around the situation.. They seemed to just appear...  Up from the ramp... down the concourse...  The fellow was seriously outnumbered....  He capitulated...

Once seated again with most of the officers gone, he began to make loud and intolerant remarks.... I wondered if he was under the influence of drugs...

At that time a rather small lady ticket agent, made an announcement that Allegiant Airlines reserves the right to refuse service to anyone they deemed to be to drunk to comply with flight requirements...  The announcement rang out over the PA system.........  The officers were back within a moment and the fellow was led away in handcuffs..   How can we be having so much fun!!!?

This is getting too long, I'll take up some more in the next post.....

Retired Rod