December 21, 2000

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There were seven passengers and two crew members on the plane. We stayed at the gate for a few more minutes---the ground temperature thing again---then we took off. We got about two-thirds of the way to Charlotte, and the co-pilot , who was also the flight attendant, turned around in his seat to address the passengers. It seems the Charlotte airport was fogged in. So we were going back to Raleigh-Durham.

We got to RDU, and circled. The co-pilot made another announcement. Yes, folks, the (insert expletive here) ground temperature was too cold to let us land. The co-pilot told us we would circle another time, then go "somewhere else" if we still couldn't land. I was beginning to wonder where somewhere else was, and if we had enough fuel to get there, but I figured the pilots might not want me to yell from my seat to ask, so I stayed quiet.

"Somewhere else" turned out to be the Rocky Mount-Wilson Airport. If you're not familiar with the area, let's just say it was a small airport well east of Raleigh-Durham. I believe the airport has been expanded in the years since, but when I was there, the terminal wasn't much larger than the average three-bedroom house. The first thing on my agenda was to call my mother, to let her know what was going on and to let her get in touch with my friend Donna, who was to pick me up.

I looked around for a phone, and discovered there were two public phones for the terminal. They were both outside the building's front entrance. To save the change I had with me, I was making the call collect, which was fine with Mother. But there was a problem doing this---the phone from which I was calling had no number to report to the operator. And the operator didn't quite know how to handle it. I finally said that I was in Rocky Mount, and she should just pick a number from that city and place the call, since I was sure the recipient would accept the charges. That worked for her, so I finally got to talk with Mother. She and Donna were going to stay in touch with the people at the airline to find out what our next move would be.

That done, I decided food would be nice. But there was none to be had at the airport. There was a soft drink machine, and I had the small bag of gift cookies with me. So I had three cookies and a soft drink (Mountain Dew, I think). While I was munching, I was listening to the airline people discussing our next move. No, I was not eavesdropping; I told you the place was small.

And the decision was to take us to Hickory, which is at a higher elevation than Charlotte and had no fog. Meantime, one of the pilots we had had on the first leg of the trip was going off duty, and was replaced with another. This meant we had to report our weight again. I added a couple of pounds to mine---no, I'm not kidding; I had, after all, had food and drink since the last time I was asked.

We got reseated---slightly different seats, due more to the new pilot than to the cookies, I think---and had an uneventful trip to Hickory. Once we arrived there, ground transportation had been arranged to take us to the airport in Charlotte. That turned out to be two cabs, with drivers who liked a little challenge in their lives. They decided to go two different ways to get to Charlotte, and see who got there first. My driver chose the twistier route, so as we slid into each other, the three of us in the back seat got well acquainted. As I recall it, we lost the race. It was close, though.

We got to the airport in under an hour, and the nicest part of getting there was seeing Donna waiting for me. We got in her car, along with a friend of hers whose name I can't recall at the moment, and stopped at a convenience store for snacks to hold starvation at bay till we could get to Mother's.

It was a lovely Christmas, and lots of people enjoyed the Sunbird tale. As I said earlier, my return to RDU was on another airline. And I made my travel agent promise never to book me on Sunbird again.