Captain Yak-a-lot

Yesterday morning, I boarded 41 people to fly from Fort Walton Beach (VPS) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). (By the way, my airline requires that we refer to BOTH cities--lest we make Fort Worthians feel bad--so it is always Dallas-Fort Worth. Sometimes I mix it up, and call it Fort Worth-Dallas--I'm kinda crazy like that!)

But, I digress...

The flight to DFW is scheduled to be about 2 hours in the air. About 90 minutes into it, my Captain called me and said that DFW was socked in with fog, that we were going to have to circle for a bit to see if it burns off as the sun warms the air. He made an announcement to all of our passengers letting them know the dealio.

We played Spirograph in the sky making lots of big ol' circles--then had to divert to Houston's Hobby Airport (HOU). The pilots have to land with a minimum amount of fuel and we were getting to that mark. So, we landed, got gas, everyone had the chance to get off the plane for about 10 minutes, and then headed to DFW--by now, the fog was burned off. Sounds like that would be a quick thing, but the reality is, everything having to do with airplanes and airports always takes a long, long time. We ended being in HOU about and hour and a half. These poor people were on this plane for about 6 hours. I watered and juiced 'em to death, broke out our snacks and divvied some up to help tide them over. Everyone was really nice and fortunately, I think everyone made their connections.

It was funny, because the First Officer and I commented to each other at the beginning of the trip how our Captain just yaks and yaks and yaks. He is a non-stop talker and nearly every conversation ended up talking about Bill Clinton this and Hillary Clinton that--not once did he ever ask either of us a question--he just talked and talked and talked, always turning everything back to the Clintons. It was not pretty. (Not that I disagreed with what he was saying--he just liked to hear himself talk--a lot!) I cannot convey how much he talked--we were on the hotel shuttle to the airport at 0530 in the morning and he was blabbing on incessantly about nothing. Usually, our early morning van rides are quiet because--it's early morning! Arrrghhh! However, I was very happy that he was our Captain yesterday, because Captain Yak-a-lot kept our passengers very informed, and I really appreciated that. Nothing is worse than a Flight Deck that doesn't keep updating us during delays--even if it is to say that they have no news to tell us.

I am home today, after my four day trip--have to fly to Chicago (ORD) tomorrow afternoon to start another four day trip on Tuesday. I have a 0545 sign-in and have to come in the night before. I need to get my laundry done, but I am too tired to move. On my next trip, I layover in Cleveland (CLE) Northwest Arkansas (XNA) and Little Rock (LIT). I know, what you're thinking, too....glamorous, right??