Flying is so wonderful. Being that Thanksgiving was this week, I traveled back home. Now due to bad weather I’d moved my flight up from Wednesday to Tuesday. You don’t want to know what that cost. But my efforts to have smooth sailing were in vain. The flight was delayed more than five hours, not due to weather, but because the plane broke down before it could get to Memphis. I had to push back my connecting flight and might not have made even that one had an airline pilot sitting next to me not told me of a direct flight to Newark. For some reason the ticket agent never told me that there were such flights available.
The problem is that Memphis is not a big airport. The major airlines, to say nothing about low cost carriers, don’t really go there so you are instead relying on their partners who do business under their name. Examples include “Delta Connection” and “United Express”. While on the whole I’ve had decent experiences they operate smaller planes with cramped seats and no in flight entertainment. And the cost is not cheap either. On top of that the airport itself is over two hours away and unless you have your own plane there are no alternatives. Such is life when living in the Delta.
However there was one good thing I did learn out of all of this. At one point I began making contingency plans should I be unable to travel. It was not hard to find someone with an extra seat at the Thanksgiving table. In fact one of that faculty members at DSU regularly has dinner on Thanksgiving for those unable to make it home. That sort of community is one of the things I do like about Cleveland. Back in New York if your alone during the Holidays then your alone.
So there are positives and negatives about Cleveland just as there are about any place. Spending a few days in Rockland has definitely given me a perspective on what those are. In particular, there is much more to do and many more places to go and shop around here than in Cleveland. But that is a topic that deserves its own post.
