Preflight/Transit
American Flight 1282
TPA-LGA
Scheduled Departure: 6:15 PM
Scheduled Board: 5:45 PM

--March 15, 2004 – Tampa International Airport, Tampa, FL--
Once I’d deplaned, I tried to override my natural instincts that require me to walk at a brisk pace. Hopefully if I could slow down the day would move faster but to no avail. After riding the shuttle back to the main terminal, I walked around the Marriott Hotel and looked through nearly every store. Following that, I ate lunch at TGIFriday’s. Meaning I have now eaten at a Fridays at JFK (T8), PIT and TPA. The Tampa one has had the best service and food so far. After chicken fingers were consumed, I got my boarding pass and found myself at Gate F80. This was after having seen the entire landside terminal and F pier with an hour and I still had an hour and a half to go before scheduled boarding. Overall the airport had a nice selection of shops with a decent restaurant selection but it was geared heavily towards a leisure crowd. Thankfully I had my cell phone and my book and using both I managed to get through the next hour and a half until we boarded:

Flying
Gate F80
Seat 8F Main Cabin
MD-80, N523AA
Actual Board: 5:42 PM
Actual Depart: 6:08 PM – 7 Minutes Early
Take off 12 minutes after departure

This plane should have been painted in black and white pinstripes, not red, white and blue. The vast majority of the coach cabin consisted of people on their way back from Yankees Spring Training games. The First Officer was a huge Yankee fan himself so he positioned himself right next to the boarding door and he was firing questions like “How’s Jeter look? How’s A-Rod look?” at anyone in Yankee garb. I learned from these conversations that Jeter had been playing the Prima Dona down at camp, how naughty of him.

I’d never taken off from Tampa before (or even used the airport) but the take off was stunning. We ended up over Tampa Bay, crossing an extremely long bridge. The large body of water coupled with the fading sun made for a very nice view. Once airborne it was all business again. That being a Dr. Pepper with Pretzels and work on my laptop while the kids in Row 7 and 8 regaled those around them with stories of who gave them autographs and who was rude about them (from what they said, don’t ask Torre for an autograph).

Now I’ve been flying a lot these days (as of March 20 I have 51 YTD segments) but I will never stop enjoying the sight of a sunset from the air. As routine as flights are for me sometimes, no amount of repetition can take the beauty of the sun melting into deep blue sky away from me. The stars coming out and the quarter moon only made it better. Once again I had forgotten to get a seat on the damned A side and we had the same approach as two days ago. For the second time in three days I watched New Dorp turn into Bensonhurst which melted into Forest Hills until we were down at LaGuardia. Once there my father greeted me with the news that it was going to snow tomorrow. Oh lovely, I think I’ll just get on a plane to Phoenix right now.
Scheduled Arrival: 8:49 PM
Actual Arrival: 8:32 PM
Gate D8

--March 16, 2004 – Rye, NY--
Today for the first time in over a month I had nothing to do until late that afternoon. This meant I got to make like a teenager and just sleep until I felt I was done sleeping. This was accomplished at 1:30 PM when I got up and made myself some oatmeal. I also decided that even though it was snowing really hard and I was still sore, I’d go out and play some squash at the Club with my brother, after getting my haircut of course.

Preflight
WEDNESDAY MARCH 17, 2004
American Flight 291
JFK-LGB
Scheduled Departure: 7:30 AM
Scheduled Board: 7:00 AM

At 5:10 on that Wednesday morning, my father and I were greeted with quite a sight. It had indeed snowed a good amount the night before. And of course neither of us had remembered that we would be driving to JFK this morning. But we bravely knew what had to be done. My dad grabbed a can of windshield deicer and I (who was only wearing a short sleeved shirt) grabbed the snow scraper. Working as Team Kunz we managed to get that car de-snowed in less then ten minutes. That being done, the drive to Kennedy was surprisingly easy for a morning after a snowstorm. I guess New Yorkers have just realized that sometimes the weather will be inclement and that if you are cautious you can drive in it (unlike people out west who have heart attacks when a few drops sprinkle from the sky).

The construction on the new terminal was looking good today silhouetted against the gray sky. With prospects of a terminal that hadn’t once belonged to United or been built too many years ago to remain effective, I walked into the Terminal 8 Admirals Club to check in. Unfortunately I was greeted with the news that my flight was to leave from Gate 43 and I was in the wrong terminal. This would mean I got to walk outside in the cold (remember I don’t have a jacket) to get to my gate. Bah I said as I went to go spread butter and jelly on a bagel only to find there were no bagels, just some horrible Rye bread. Well today wasn’t going very well. I decided to cut my losses and saunter over to T9 where hopefully the plane would be catered better then my favorite Admirals Club.

As my luck this morning seemed to be higher then the average hippy at Woodstock, I was not surprised to see a huge line growing at Security Check Point for Terminal 9. I don’t know what the problem about this place is in the morning, but everytime I come here in the AM the line is gigantic. Thankfully there is a First Class/Elite Line and I managed to get into it. Although I first let some people hoping to get on the Final Boarding San Diego flight go ahead of me. Just keep paying it forward Kunzie and you’ll get that sweet reward eventually. As much as I hate the snow, I owe it one as the planes that were draped in snow looked absolutely stunning. Especially the SJU bound A300 at 48A which had sheets of white stuff all down its fuselage, I loved it most. Soon though it was time to stop the loving and get myself to the other coast via:

Flying
Gate 43
Seat 10A Main Cabin – Exit Row
757-200, N185AN
Actual Board: 7:08 AM
Actual Depart: 7:34 AM – 4 Minutes Delayed
Take off 19 minutes after departure

I knew today’s flight would be an enjoyable one. I was sitting on one of American’s newer 757’s, this one having been delivered in 2001 and I had 10B empty. But the best part was that I was going someplace warm and I was taking my first actual vacation since October of 2003 (ironically I went to California then too, but to San Diego instead of Long Beach). The woman in 10C (who subsequently moved to 9D to be with her husband) gave me a brief rundown of Long Beach. I was told I’d have lots of fun and how much more she enjoyed flying to LGB over LAX. Her sole reason was that you only had to walk across the street to find rental cars. When I asked her if it was hard to get a cab she appeared shocked and said “it’s not a honky tonk town you know!” Too bad, I was hoping to meet a honky tonk woman who’d take me upstairs for a ride.

There is nothing better then being able to take off from someplace where it is cold and snowy and get to go someplace where it is sunny and warm. Unless of course you have to go conduct a business meeting or something but that wasn’t the case for me. What I really loved about this take off was that it was drab and miserable in New York, but even so, after getting above the clouds the sun was shining and everything was bathed in golden light. After the plane leveled off I reclined my seat, stretched out my legs and waited for my meal. It has been over a year since I got a hot meal in AA coach (I’ve had too many Bistro Bags to count though) and I figured I’d get something decent. Soon I was asked if I wanted rice krispees or the old standby of a cheese omlette. Having not partaken in any Admirals Club grub, I selected the omlette. I was thusly presented with a tray containing my omlette and the piece of Canadian Bacon American has been using since the early 90’s. Next to that was two slices of honey dew, also there since the early 90’s plus a biscuit which came with butter. Now this was new and American must know me because I love biscuits as much as I love DC-10’s. After devouring everything on the tray I was able to say that was a quality meal. The omlette had cheese and some spices in it, the bacon was good and the fruit tasty. I really did enjoy that airplane breakfast, something I don’t usually say, thanks AA!

The meal having been eaten and the movie being Intolerable Cruelty (which is intolerably bad) I decided to sleep. I have learned that packing an eye mask in my shaving kit is a catalyst to a good plane ride’s sleep. Earlier this month I picked one up flying United Business giving me 3 hours good sleep and when I woke up, we were over flying SNA. This left me just enough time to get oriented before we landed at LGB. The amusing part about getting into LGB was that the AA 757 out to DFW hadn’t pushed back yet. We were thus forced to remain on the taxiway until it had pushed back. During this time the First Officer assured everyone that we would still have an early arrival. I believe sweat was wiped off many brows on that plane.
Scheduled Arrival: 10:49 AM
Actual Arrival: 10:37 AM
Gate 23