Final stretch- or so we thought

And now the fun part begins.

We got to the airport at around 9:30 AM- mostly just to get there, and to get into some air conditioned comfort. The cabbie was a nice man- not a bastard like the first night (yeah, I'm bitter...). We sat with a couple of our friends and had brunch- and I got to talk to a member of the Ferrari team- all about travel logistics. Seems that they travel with 100 or so team members, and plenty of them didn't know any English. There were lots of very short Italian men milling around where we were- all in matching Ferrari outfits. We also saw Michelin team members. It was pretty cool to discuss the race with the guy we spoke to- we found out some of the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Then we waited. Our flight to JFK was scheduled to leave at 1:30PM. We were on time and touched down with no incedent. We got to watch the MJ verdict live from the terminal- and I spent plenty of time watching people in our area.

The flight from JFK was delayed from the start. We took off about an hour late. No biggy, methought, but then it got interesting. Our seats were directly behind first class- and I had the best seat on the plane for the ensuing drama. I was on the aisle behind the bathroom- we were by the door.

Not too long after we reached cruising altitude, something odd happened. The flight crew were milling around the bathroom in front of me. I thought that it was broken- and some burly guy from 1st class looked in there (I thought he was an airline employee- but he was something else entirely). Then the burly guy locked the bathroom from the outside and returned to his seat.

The flight attendants were acting a little nervous- one of them was making a list of passengers on a napkin. I was thinking it was people who used the bathroom. Then the captain announced that we were diverting to Chicago to "deal with a little problem with the plane- it should take about 7 minutes." Right. The flight attendants were acting a little too jittery for it to be something little.

We landed very quickly- no dilly dallying around at all- also a little suspicious. Once on the ground, the burly guy and another burly guy revealed themselves to be fucking air marshals. They didn't let us move at all, and watched us all very closely. I saw emergency vehicles rushing out to our plane on a side runway. Dozens of them. It got very creepy at that point.

The bomb sniffing dog came on board- and promptly came right up to us. Nice dog, but I wasn't exactly interested in being friends. He sniffed Spouse's crotch and was pulled away. He smelled the bathroom and found nothing. A Chicago policewoman announced that a small electronic device had been found in the bathroom. No one confessed to owning it, so they decided to empty the plane to search it with the dogs.

We were the first off the plane after first class. As we left the plane, I saw what looked like around 50-75 law enforcement and fire people. We got on a bus and were shipped to the terminal. They also pulled about 10 people to question. We saw the FBI guys come through the door, and the people were returned to their families. It was creepy. They gave us water and snacks and we waited. We weren't sure if they would let us continue that night, or if we would be spending the night in Chicago.

Finally, at around 10:30 we were able to get back on the plane. By last name. Fucking A. We're pretty far down on the alphabet, so it wasn't fun.

Once in the air, we did ok- we got to finish watching the stupid zebra horse racing movie that was cut off earlier. And I will always think of this flight when I see Debra Messing- we watched that rent boy movie that she starred in as well. The flight crew was a little frayed, and the air marshalls were gone (they had outed themselves, so I presume they were pulled).

We got to Seattle around 1:00AM. Sadly, there was a group of people who were flying back to JFK that night. We got home around 2:30, and the adventure was over.

So I guess that I'm glad overall that they handled the whole thing well- we didn't get blown up. That's good. I could've used free drinks, and more than snacks, but they weren't offering. Stupid American Airlines. I think that we will probably shop around a bit more next time we fly.

In summation- the trip was fun- Montreal is cool (but temp wise not so much)- the F1 race was great- and my first flight since 1998 was dramatic.