Originally, I thought that I’d need two duffle bags plus a carry-on bag for my helmet and computer to pack everything I’d need for the next two weeks. Actually, it would all fit into one duffle bag, but the bag exceeded the 50 lb / 23 kg weight requirements of the airlines. So I’ve repacked into one 47 lb duffle, one carry-on, and a small backpack.
I was at O’Hare more than 2 hours before my flight, so even after checking my luggage, clearing security, and trekking to the gate, I had about 90 minutes to spare. (I had wondered if the helmet would cause any odd looks at security. It didn’t, which makes me wonder just what types of things airport screeners see on their screens every day.)
The plane for our flight was about 30 minutes late arriving from Baltimore. Then they had to move it two gates down because of bad feng shui or something. As a result, we were about an hour late leaving the gate. Not a problem yet, as I had about two hours to make my connection in Los Angeles.
Then the storms started moving in. Departures were spaced out at three minute intervals instead of the more usual one minute. And due to our late departure, we were 13th in line for take-off. Then they cancelled all western takeoffs. Then the storms hit, and hit hard: horizontal rain, 65 mph wind gusts, and plenty of lightning.
They closed O’Hare for about an hour, and briefly evacuated the control tower. While we sat in the middle of an open, flat field in an aluminum tube during a lightning storm. Finally, the storm passed, and after another 45 minutes, they reopened the airport and we took off – about 3 hours late tonight. I know my flight to Sydney will be long gone by the time I arrive, but hey – I’ll be 2000 miles closer than I was in Chicago. Let’s see how United handles this one.
That storm was very intense. My aunt had a tree fall in her back yard and as it fell it took out all her power lines. It also caused a lot of large limbs to fall at my house and block both streets by me. That storm had one of the strongest winds I have ever witnessed. I can't imagine what it was like sitting on the runway during it. There had to be a few people in the plane freaking out. I also had difficulty with flying this weekend. When trying to get to Las Vegas on Friday we had two different mechanical problems and ending up having to change planes. I don't remember having all these mechanical problems flying in the past. Either they have gotten much better at finding these problems or the planes are not as well maintained.
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