Micro-friendships

Well - the travel gods giveth and the travel gods taketh away. Sara and I are now sitting on our flight to Hong Kong a mere 19 hours later than it was scheduled to leave.

Now we haven't been sitting on the plane for the duration. After a two hour wait while technicians attempted to calm down a jittery gage in the cockpit which turned out to be inconsolable followed by the flight crew de-planing (it's never a good sign when the crew bails) we were told that we could leave the plane but stick close because they expected to get the big bird off the ground in an hour or so.

Smart move on their part. They shrewdly got all 300 plus passengers off the aircraft and dispersed throughout Chicago O'Hare before admitting the flight was cancelled. It seems United Air has learned that pissing off a bunch of people inside a narrow metal tube has its downside.

To United's credit they did put us up in the Hilton with a hundred and a half dollars worth of food coupons (our room service dinner cost 85 smackers).

So, as we wayward travelers wandered through the terminal we would cast knowing glances at folks who we recognized from the aborted flight. This following morning we struck up casual conversations as we bumped into familiar faces. We shared past travel war stories and airport preferences - forming those micro friendships that one does when one is away from home with people one will most likely never see again.

The sharing of an inconvenience just enough of an impetus to pierce the clouds we usually travel within.

Bon voyage