Enough, Already!

In a former life I travelled extensively for work. I was involved with a couple of software start-ups, flying around the country to accompany sales reps on sales calls. They would shake hands, schmooze, and pay for drinks and dinner, and I would answer all the technical questions to help close the deals. I loved those jobs. I flew 6-7 times a week, rarely went to bed in the same state I woke up in, and would often have to look at the hotel phone on the bedstand in the morning to see what city/state I was in (all the Courtyards looked the same).

Watching the current crippling weather in Texas made me think about those years I spent in the air. I experienced very cold and severe winters around the country, but there were two trips in particular where winter storms made for some challenging flights and long delays.

The first involved a “short” flight between Madison, WI, and Chicago, IL. I made this trip once or twice a week; it was a quick up-and-down flight. But one January, a blizzard turned the entire region into a winter nightmare. The pictures from Texas today reminded me of Chicagoland then. Snow and wind created a whiteout that had the airports in Madison and Chicago flipping coins on whether to open or close. I was leaving Madison, and when Chicago’s Midway opened, we boarded our plane. I don’t know what the Madison airport looks like today, but back then it resembled a bus station. There was one gate (maybe two?), about two dozen metal and vinyl seats welded together, and you had to walk outside on the tarmac to get to the plane. We boarded the “puddle jumper” (only three seats wide) and sat as the workers sprayed de-icer around the outside of the plane. It was so cold that the plane immediately iced back up, and they repeated the process two more times. We were finally cleared for takeoff, taxied, and rose into the blizzard.

On regular, longer, flights I would fall fast asleep, sometimes before takeoff. But for a short flight like this one I stayed awake, paging through the airline magazine that hid the airsickness bag in the seat back in front of me. We were about 20 minutes into the flight when the captain announced Midway had just closed and we were returning to Madison. We landed back at the airport without incident, deplaned, and cut hurriedly through wind-driven snow and across the frigid tarmac into the airport. I found a spot on the floor where I could prop up against a wall, and waited for the airline to say we could try again (which was three hours later).

That same winter I found myself snowed in at the Minneapolis, MN, airport. It had been an eventful sales trip. The hotel we stayed in (I think it was a Hyatt; definitely not a Courtyard) was also hosting professional wrestlers in town for a big weekend “mania.” They were hard to get around at the bar (they weren’t “mean,” they were just big!). On the business side, our CEO joined us for the sales meeting (which is probably why we stayed at the Hyatt), and we closed a pretty big account. Dinners and drinks were always better after closing a deal!

When we left for the airport later that night the weather was miserable. Another whiteout blizzard had the Twin Cities basically shut down, but we got to the airport. And then we waited… for nine hours. Luckily the Minneapolis airport was much nicer than Madison’s, and they had a nice steak restaurant. The CEO picked up the tab (dinner #2), and after dinner we moved to the bar (#2 and, again, CEO’s treat). I actually sat next to Andy Garcia, the actor, for a little while. We made small talk about the weather, where we were flying, and then turned back to talk to others in our own party. Really nice guy. And I’m sure the last thing he wanted was to be stuck in an airport bar with a fan asking him “Godfather” questions!

At the time I didn’t think too much about my “extreme” winter experiences. In hindsight they were inconvenient, but we had food, beverages, lights, heat. I couldn’t image being in the same situation without power like the folks in Texas. I’ve experienced brutal winters in Minnesota, Syracuse (NY), Detroit (MI), windy Chicago, and it was friggin’ cold outside. But I was never exposed to sub-freezing temperature for more than a few minutes, and once we got inside, we could thaw out.

My thoughts are with the millions who are without power during this winter emergency, and hope they are warm again very soon.