Another long report from me for a relatively short US flight since it is combined with the report of my Grandma's 100th birthday.


MHT-PHL US 225, 2D/F

Since we were flying out early in the morning we stayed the night in MHT at the Fairfield Inn which we booked through Priceline. Not sure why, but all they did for check-in was give us a key. No credit card for incidentals, just a quick signature and we were set.

An early start the next day. We had a wake up call at 4:30 but my wife, recently returned from France, is wide awake at 4am so we get up, shower, pick up a quick coffee in the foyer and off to MHT. After dropping off wife and luggage I parked at lot C to save a few bucks and since it was a nice morning for a walk. Coach check-in line is jam packed but nobody in the 1st/div miles line so we were next in the queue. None of the positions were opened in front of our line, instead the agents for coach were calling over anyone in our line as they showed up. Walking in front of these coach folks who had probably spent the last 20 minutes in line was a little uncomfortable. On the other hand I felt like an advertisement for dividend miles, yet I suspect most folks thought we were paid 1st class passengers.

Checked one bag, which got a priority sticker, handed over four NA certs to upgrade our two flights today and in exchange got two 1st class ticket pairs, 2D/F, on both flights. Thank you very much.

The metal for MHT-PHL was an MD-80 with the old silver body motif. FC was only half full and we were promptly offered pre-departure drinks. Flight left on time. Nice early morning view over the hills of New Hampshire as we climbed to cruising altitude. After take-off another drink service was offered along with a basket of snacks to choose from. Coffee, OJ, and, I think, a Kellogg nutrigrain bar (is it impolite to ask the US FA for the AA coupon on the box??). Descending into the PHL area was quite picturesque, as fog had filled the lower valleys making white, fuzzy rivers. In a couple of the fog shrouded valleys power plants pushed white mushroom blossoms up through the fog blanket.

Arrived in PHL a few minutes early, gate B10. Headed up to the US Club for refreshments and a short break.


PHL-MSP US 1197, 2D/F

After a quick coffee and biscotti in the lounge we head to gate C19 and arrive just as they announce first class boarding so we walked straight on. Plane was an A319, friendly FA greeted us and asked for our pre-departure drink choice as we settled in. Juice this time. FC seemed pretty empty and just before departure it looked like a couple of pilots took seats and, I think, someone from Coach got upgraded at the last minute which left only one open seat by pushback.

When landing in PHL it looked like an Antonov AN-124 (second largest airplane after the AN225) was parked east of the gates. I tried to spot it on the way out to re-verify, but it was on the wrong side of the airplane and I caught just a fleeting glimpse. I'd seen one of these on an earlier flight this year into Orlando. Unfortunately both times I have failed to make out the airline name/markings.

Good day for flying as our departure out of PHL was on time and a smooth take-off and climb to altitude. The FA came around and took breakfast orders, with the choice of cereal or western omelette and asked for drinks. We both went with the omelette. My potatoes were a little soggy (hers weren't), but all in all it was an ok meal since we were both quite hungry. We also chose to have a glass of champagne (not sure on the brand) and followed up the meal with a couple bottles of water. No movie service, but I have my Sony MDR-NC5 noise canceling headsets which I popped on and listed to the audio channels. One of the channels is The Best of School House Rock, which was pretty fun to reminisce with. Anyone else remember "Figure Eight"? I always thought that it had an haunting intro. Alternated between that and the classical channel, nice counterpoint.

We flew over cloud cover for most of the flight. At one point I spotted another aircraft paralleling us at a distance, but by the time I remembered to get out the binoculars it was going under our aircraft and I couldn't get a good focus.

Landing in MSP was uneventful. There's a military base and a number of C-130's parked on standby. Around the corner of one building I spotted some F4 Phantoms and, from what I could see of it, an SR-71 Blackbird.

No US club at MSP so off to the bathrooms and then baggage claim before picking up our Hertz. I was curious if the priority tag would make any difference in delivery. Thirty five bags (none with a priority tag) came out before ours, which wasn't too bad overall but not as good as I had hoped. It was a little circuitous getting to Hertz, but once there we spotted my name on the board and easily found the Nissan. The Nissan key chain came with two key fobs, both with the door lock/unlock and panic buttons but only one of them seemed to do anything, the other one we never figured out. Also the wheel well plastic on the inside rear wheel had lost most of its fasteners, which caused a weird knocking/slapping sound from the back during high wind gusts or passing semi-trucks.


Eureka, SD

Eureka is about 375 miles west of MSP, maybe a little less if we'd taken the right road. A hot, muggy day of driving across Minnesota with lots of RVs and fishing boats being hauled around. Once we got off the main roads the driving was uneventful if not monotonous. Speed limit on the interstate was 70mph (MN) and the secondary roads were 60-65mph. Gas prices we encountered: $1.39, $1.42, $1.28 (lowest grade).

On July 9th my Grandmother turned 100 years old and we went for the party and a couple days visit. They had a pretty good sized party for her, at least for a town the size of Eureka. My cousins had sent out some letters a while back which resulted in Grandma getting congratulatory letters from:

Tim Johnson (SD Senator) (hand written)
Tom Daschle
George W Bush
William Janklow, Governor of South Dakota

Governor Janklow went so far as to declare her birthday an officially recognized state "day" named after her.

Eureka is a small farming community that was formed in the late 1800's. On a plaque by the city's museum it reads "Greatest primary wheat market in the world 1887-1902." Grandma has spent her whole life in this area. They raised three children on a farm outside of town until retiring in the late 60's and moving the farm house to town. Grandpa died twenty years ago and Grandma still lives in the house by herself: cooking, cleaning, and tending a small garden. In recent years she's had a handyman come around from time to time and a local lady has started to spend the evenings and lend a hand around the house. It's pretty amazing to think that Grandma was born a couple years before the Wright brothers finally perfected their new contraption for flying in the air. Her first flight wasn't until the 60's when my Dad took her and Grandpa up in the small airplane (Piper?) we had flown up in from Nebraska. Her first, and only, commercial flight was down to Florida for a vacation some years later.

It was a great party and Grandma was full of energy. At least a hundred relatives and friends showed up throughout the day. Meals consisted of cheese, sausage, crackers, punch, and about 50 different types of cookies.

The next day we bid everyone goodbye, stopped off at Kauk's, the local meat market, and bought fry sausage, dry/cured beef, blood sausage, and liverwurst to take home in a little lunchbox cooler. Slaughter day is Wednesday, which is when everything is at it's freshest. We would have bought summer sausage but someone had purchased the whole supply and it would take a couple weeks for them to make and smoke a new batch.


MSP-PIT, US 552

Drove back to MSP and spent the evening in the Hilton Garden Inn in Eagan, about 10 minutes south of the Airport. A really hot day in Minneapolis, with temps in the mid 90's and not much for wind so it was nice to have working air conditioning in the room. As a Hilton VIP Gold I got a king sized bed in a top floor room and two complimentary continental breakfast certificates which, for an extra $3, were upgraded to a full buffet. The room was clean and comfortable but the fridge wasn't working. I was hoping to stash the meat in it overnight, but they were still well frozen so I didn't bother to change rooms.

Flight wasn't until 12:20pm but we didn't have anything else to do in town so we headed to the airport at 10am and hung out. No US club and also no AA club and I couldn't find my Star Alliance Gold card to attempt using their lounge (never have). Weather reports on the weather channel showed all kinds of storm activity through out PA and moving across the East coast as a cold front moved through. There was a funny commercial on the weather channel for Holiday Inn's double points promo, with an obvious FT type trying to weasel his way into a trip to Cincinnati for the points. I immediately identified with him.

Secured upgrades again which put us into 3d/f on an Airbus 319 EOW (what is that?). Previous flight was late so we didn't start boarding until near our scheduled departure time. Another light FC compartment, about half empty until the plane was boarded and a crew member (FA?) and a US pilot each took an empty FC seat. Drink service was prompt and then we were offered a light snack of grilled chicken w/pasta. I dreaded saying yes, since I've had this so many times, but we were hungry and went for it. The chicken was actually very good and much different than the "compressed" chicken I'd had before. It was an actual chicken breast, not a slab of compressed parts, and it was light grilled and seasoned with fresh tomato slices on top. Very tasty. Pasta wasn't all that hot. It also came with a cheese cake, Wee Brie cheese, and crackers.

About the time the skies started getting interesting outside you could tell that we were vectoring around some storms and heading into a holding pattern. The pilot came on and announced that a big sloppy storm was sitting on PIT and that we might have to maintain the pattern for another half hour and they might have to swing into Cincinnati for some more fuel. Right after announcing this he started descending and wove through openings in the storm clouds for a nice landing. After pulling off the runway we were held short of crossing the other active runway and I watched as the other plane just sat there. Finally the airplane moved, but instead of taking off it taxied a ways and then left the runway. Our pilot came on again and said that the airport had been closed due to weather and with the resulting mess it might take a bit to get to our gate. After the announcement we immediately taxied over towards our gate without any delays. I started wondering about the announcements of problems and then not having them when the pilot came on and said that since the storm had moved in and there was air to ground lightning none of the ground crew was available to bring us into the gate and so we would be pulling in real close, but not be able to de-plane until the storm passed. Of course he pulled in really, really close and we got off the plane right away. Not sure if the ground crew came out at the last minute or he cowboy'ed it in on his own.


PIT-MHT, US 132

Since everyone else was delayed our connection was no problem and we had time to wander PIT a bit. Aircraft on this flight was an A319 (no EOW). We sat on the tarmac for a while (20 minutes?), probably from the backups caused by the earlier closing, but once we started moving we got to the runway and off the ground with no problem. FC was even emptier so drink/snack service was very quick and then the FA went in the back to help them out. The only highlight of the trip, besides the dramatic storm clouds ringing the horizon, was when the first office came back to fix himself a pot of coffee. While he was waiting an FC passenger went up to the bathroom and handed him some garbage. A minute later another FC passenger came up and asked for more wine. At the point the pilot had enough and said "I fly the plane, I'm a pilot. I don't know where the wine is." The passenger apologized profusely and then the pilot turned around, got out a bottle of wine and filled his glass most skillfully.

Things were looking pretty stormy on the approach to MHT but luck was still with us and we snuck right on through without so much as a bump of turbulence. In fact throughout the whole day I don't recall any turbulence to speak of, despite the captain warning us of it from MSP-PIT.

I went to get our car and my wife waited for the bags. This time the priority tag worked and our luggage was the second set to come out. Our main roller had a "HEAVY" sticker slapped on it. My fault, I decided to bring home an old cast iron meat grinder that my Grandma gave me. About ten pounds worth of extra weight in a bag already heavy with a tent and inflatable mattress.

On the drive home we finally hit all of the weather we'd been avoiding all day. Good ol' gully washer slammed us about halfway home, reducing visibility to nothing. One SUV had spun off the road and was being winched out by a tow truck.


Planes spotted (new or interesting to me):
AN-124
Avro-RJ (Northwest uses as a regional jet?)
SR-71
F4 Phantom

In trying to find out what an A319 EOW was (Empty Operating Weight?) I ran across this PDF article should you want more info about buying your own business jet.



[This message has been edited by LEB (edited 07-11-2001).]