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“Kicking Off Your Sports Weekend–My Vacation”

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You plan and plan for a trip like this, and then ___ happens.

I am writing to you, a postcard, from the corner table at Gate 51-at Lindbergh Field in San Diego.

I’m supposed to be in Holland to begin a week long junket.

But you know travel, hit and miss, and weather…and delays…and re-routes…and equipment problems…and waiting in line to takeoff…and refueling, and union rules that pilots cannot be in the cockpit for 8-hours.

Thus, instead of being in Scandinavia, I am still at Gate 51.

No big thing, except I left home at 4am to catch an American Airlines flight to go to Europe.

It will be 16-hours later before I board a British Airways flight instead..

I’ve spent my life traveling, doing NFL-Hockey-College play-by-play, and have had some wild experiences in flight.

But I have never sat in a plane, on the tarmac, for 5-hours straight, because of all the problems a plane, a pilot, an airline can have.

I wasn’t bored. I didn’t get mad. But I did get talked out.

Anyone, everyone, on this jam packed flight wanted to come up and talk to pass the time of day (morning-afternoon-night).

When will the Padres ever get good?
Wil Myers-all time bust?
How good are all the young arms on that pitching staff?

What will the Chargers do with Melvin Gordon?
Is Melvin Gordon going to give up- his entire paycheck and sit out?
Do you ever think we’ll get another NFL team?

Who’s won the battle for LA…Lakers or Clippers?

Antonio Brown-great head case of great receiver?

Why aren’t you still on the radio?

It took up lots of time, but then I had lots of time, in between changing terminals, trying to find my luggage, and talking to travel people on bad connection cell phones, to get new flights booked.

I don’t think I have ever wasted an entire day of my life, but today might rank as that specific time.

So in the week I am gone, maybe we’ll get some answers to all the questions those fans tossed at me, sitting, waiting to find the next flight, after my last flight got cancelled finally.

And maybe by the time I get back, we’ll know whether American Airlines can do a better job the next time I use them for a European vacation.

You remember the movie, “Terminal”, the one Tom Hanks starred in, where he got stranded in a New York Airport because of a revolution against the government in his home country of Krakovia?

I feel the same way, like I’m living in the Terminal.

Be back next week from my 5-country Scandinavia junket.

If not, maybe you can find me at Gate #51-British Airways. Might still be writing you a column from there.

Regards,

Hacksaw

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