Retrasado

May 2, 2005

Flight number 107 leaving for Cancun.... ummm... exactly when does it depart? At one point, we were all wondering if we'd ever get there.

I flew up to Detroit the night before. Why the heck did I fly out of Detroit? I know it makes no sense, but my friend Andrea and her family are all from Michigan, so to get the best deal, I decided to meet them up there.

We got up early for the flight out to Mexico. I'm so NOT a morning person... it was painful. I think we had to be there at 6 am. Ugh. Once we got through security and had our bags checked we boarded the plane about 45 minutes late. No big deal... after all, we'd all be in Mexico in 3 hours.... or so we thought.

After sitting on the plane for about 40 minutes, the captain got on the intercom and said we'd be a bit delayed due to a broken back-up compass. Moans echoed through the fuselodge. I knew this wasn't going to be good. He said he'd give us an update in a half hour.

Tick, tick, tick, tick.

The people in the row in front of me began wondering out loud, "Just how important is a back-up compass? Do we really need one?"

After 35 minutes, the captain said they were still working on it and he'd update us on their progress in 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, he told us we were good to go, but then another 5 mintues later, he took it all back and made us get off the plane and wait. Another hour later, we were told they were still working on it, and if they couldn't fix it, they'd send a plane down from Minneapolis.... in about 6 hours.

In retrospect, I really can't complain. It was sort of like giving birth... once the trip got underway, the monotony and pain of endless waiting didn't seem so bad. Of course, I took pictures to document the ordeal which definitely helped me keep myself occupied.

Here's my best friend Andrea, enjoying her wait.