Travel Hell in Detroit, MI

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DECEMBER 27, 2012

“Those who can have the obligation to do so.”

-       thoughts on travel, by Matt, the guy next to me at the airport

Vegetarian option = bread, water, lettuce. 

Its fascinating to me that I have some friends who can’t drive 20 minutes across town to visit me on occasion because it would interfere with their kids’ nap schedule or because the dog can’t be left alone that long.  Meanwhile, there are people like the couple sitting next to me here at the Detroit airport who pack up their three kids, infant to age 5, and take them to Abu Dhabi and Oman for a month.  Raise your hand if you can find either Abu Dhabi or Oman on a world map.  ...Thought so.

The quote above is from their father.  We were stuck in the airport for 10 hours and had plenty of time to chat.  It was his philosophy that anyone who’s job allows them to travel is almost obligated to do so since so many others can’t.  He was a professor who had the “J term” off (the month of January, essentially). 

24 hours of travel and stuck in the Middle East?  Way to call that one Mr. Fortune Cookie..

Thirteen hours after I left my parents' home, that plane finally took off.

In Montreal the airline found a way to blame a pair of mechanical failures on a “massive heart attack” that was miraculously healed with a glass of orange juice.  Weird, huh?  It’s almost like the guy just had low blood sugar and the airline was looking for an excuse to write off the mechanical issues.  Whether its Delta, American, or Royal Jordanian its all the same BS.

Somehow through this all I ended up stuck in Amman, Jordan for two days.  Go find that on the map and tune in tomorrow for the story.