Flight 192: Fairbanks to Anchorage, 8:25 PM departure; scheduled arrival: 9:25 PM

I walk through the jet way tunnel to board Alaska Airlines Flight 192 in Fairbanks, headed to Anchorage.

Being a man who always likes to sit by the window, I had requested, and won, Seat 7A. I entered the cabin to find a man already sitting in that seat; he was a big man, burly. His countenance was ornery. Still, by rights, 7A was mine.

"Sir," I spoke politely, "I'm afraid you are sitting in my assigned seat, 7A."

"No, this is 7C," he answered. "My assigned seat!"

"No," I held my ground, "Seven C is the aisle." I showed him the designations, "A" window, "B" middle, "C," aisle.

He muttered and grumbled angrily, but got up and stepped into the aisle. I stepped past him and took my seat by the window. Still muttering, he sat down in 7C. Throughout the entire flight, he would not say one kind word to me. He would glare at me continually, even when he was asleep.

His anger did not thwart the other passengers. They just kept boarding, as you can see above.

The man with the hand-held lights directs the airplane away from the Fairbanks terminal, toward the taxi-way.

I had boarded in a state of great thirst and eagerly looked forward to the beverage service. The flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage is so short that this service is minimal - your choice of orange juice or water, or you can buy booze. 

I wanted water. The cart ladies appeared beside us. They served the people in the one row ahead of us and in the two rows behind us. When they started to push the cart, I thought the lady in the back would stop beside us, and ask us what we wanted to drink.

I craved that water!

But the cart did not stop. It went right past us, and kept going until the cart ladies had positioned themselves just beyond the fourth row behind us. There, they began to serve passengers in the rows immediately in front of and behind them.

All the people in my row, on both sides of the aisle, kept looking back at them with disbelief. We were all parched. I figured that was what had made the guy who I had evicted from my seat so ornery. He was parched.

And now we were all outraged, as well.

Parched and outraged.

We did not let this injustice stand. A steward came by, to pick up empty cups. We made him go get us some full cups so that we could empty them.

As we neared Anchorage, it began to snow. I liked the way the snow looked in the aircraft lights.

In the final stages of our taxi run on the tarmac, even before we reached the gate, a man about four rows back suddenly undid his seat belt, jumped up, retrieved his baggage from the overhead bin and pushed his way to the very front of the aircraft, putting himself ahead of even the first class passengers.

The aircraft then pulled up adjacent to the jet walk way and then stop. Just about everybody stood up then. We all waited together. Some people talked on their cell phones. We waited some more.

After we waited for a spell, we kept waiting.  

Then came the voice of a stewardess over the intercom. She informed us that the worker in charge of pushing the jet walkway up to the plane so that the doors match had been on her way, when suddenly she had stopped, turned around, and went back the way she had come.

Something was wrong with the jet walk way. Now, they were going to roll some steps up to the back door, so instead of deplaning from the front of the aircraft, we would deplane from the back.

As you can see, the announcement caused great levity and amusement throughout the airplane.

So we walked to the back of the plane and exited. As I had been sitting so close to the front, there were very few people behind me - only the passengers from row six, first class, and the man who had so rudely got up and pushed ahead of everybody.

Now, he would be the last one to exit the aircraft.

Many people were pleased by this.

Nobody fell during the perilous walk across the icy tarmac. We then had to enter the terminal through this door and climb these stairs. A passenger ahead of me asked if this meant that we would wind up in a different part of the airport then we would have if we had deboarded through the jet walkway. He was worried that whoever was going to meet him at baggage pickup would go to the wrong baggage pickup.

An Alaska airlines worker assured him that we were in the very same part of the airport that we would have been had we debarked from the front, instead of the rear, of the aircraft.

I only had to stand by the curbside for about five minutes before Melanie drove up to pick me up. 

I was disappointed that she did not bring her kitties with her. It is always fun when the three of them pick me up, but she came alone. It looks like she is talking on her cell phone, but she is not. She is talking to me. We are talking the kitties and why she did not bring them.

Still, I was very glad to see my oldest daughter. I am always glad to see her.

Factoring in the stop for gas and her cautious driving on the icy roads, it took about an hour-and-a-half for Melanie to drive me to Wasilla. Then we stepped into the living room and found it to be strangely devoid of people. There were cats and a St. Bernard roaming about.

From far in the back of the house, I could hear the sound of a baby giggling and a woman laughing. So Melanie and I went back to investigate and this is what we found.

Please note the cat laying behind the pillow. That's Pistol-Yero. As for the sling in front of the pillow, I wore it every damn day for four months, but I don't wear it anymore.

I don't know why it was lying on the bed.

It just was.

Comments

[STANDTALL]

i wanted so much to take my planes images when I went to Cape Town but your poor friend has no camera of her own yet.

I love the way you all fought for your water.

[Wasilla, Alaska, by 300]

Somehow, this is a problem that must be solved.