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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
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We left the house at 1045 and dropped Buddy off at Weeping Willow Kennel with a request that they clip his dew claws while we're gone.
It was a short drive to Salisbury airport; quick check-in and quick security check as there were only about 6 in line ahead of us.
Our plane arrived, from PHL at 1148. We boarded, but were told, by the pilot that ATC had given us a departure window requiring a 20 minute hold.
The flight was uneventful and we landed in Philadelphia from the south.
We took the shuttle bus over to the C terminal and walked to the food court between B and C terminals.
At Wendy’s, Lyd had a spicy chicken sandwich and I had a cheese burger.
We headed over to gate B7 and our, expected, 1555 departure.
At 1515, the gate attendant announced that the aircraft had a minor maintenance problem and boarding was delayed.
Once on board, at about 1615, the Captain announced our departure was delayed as ATC offered a string of weather changes in our route due to heavy weather over western PA.
At 1712, our weather deviation was to be over Little Rock and we don't have fuel for that, so we returned to the gate for fuel.
The bar is now open.
As required by FAA regulations, at 1734, passengers may now deplane if needed.
At 1745, I was shown the prospective route by a flight attendant on his iPad as the captain was aware I was former ATC.
At 1812, the captain says ATC won't budge on our route down over Memphis and Little Rock.
Therefore, we still won't have enough fuel for Seattle and will need a stop in Salt Lake City for fuel.
He's hopeful that there might be a break in the weather once we're airborne, and we're reboarding the plane.
At 1829, the WX has now moved close enough to the field that departures have been suspended until the storm passes the field.
We've opened the door again so coach passengers can go buy dinner.
US Air, weeks ago, had supplied us with commendation chits similar to our Pixie Dust chits, and I passed them out to the flight attendants.
They don’t get paid while we sit at the gate, only after we push back.
At 2006, the storm passed overhead.
Finally, at 2114, we pushed back from the gate to applause from the coach passengers.
At 2130, we were wheels up; 5.5 hours late for a 5.5 hour flight, but back on our original flight plan.
Dinner was an excellent Beef Teriyaki.
I napped for a while.
At 2345 PDT (that’s 0245 EDT) we landed in Seattle (SEA).
We gathered our luggage and took a cab ($45) to the Seattle Marriot Waterfront and bed!
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| Beef Teriyaki |
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