11.15.2004 17:54

The last few days, Ben and I were down in Southern California. For part of the day on Saturday, we drove from just north of LA where we were staying, to Santa Barbara. This pelican was hanging out on the pier. Santa Barbara is such a cool town. I can see why it is called the ‘Riviera of the West’ – it’s a pretty sweet place.



Anyway, yesterday’s trip back was a bit of a pain in the butt. You see, we flew into the lovely Bob Hope Burbank Airport. BUR is really small (for those of you who can relate, think BGR only slightly smaller, but with more traffic). I like small airports, generally speaking. The car rental transaction was easier, the traffic was lighter, etc. And it was actually cheaper to fly into BUR than into LAX. They don’t have jetways at BUR, just stairs up to the planes, which seems so alien unless you are flying to the Caribbean or Latin America these days, and even in San Jose, CR, they had jetways.



Anyhoo, we got on to the very full plane. I am talking every seat full up like sardines. You know, the type of full flight like you can’t breathe. The captain (a very talkative chap) tells us that we should be prepared for a bumpy ride and that on takeoff, it might be a little rough because of crosswinds that, apparently, are pretty typical for “all airports in the valley” but this time there were pretty extreme cross winds, and that at 12,000 feet, there was a nasty wind blowing at like 120mph.



Then we sit there for a while and he comes on again to tell us that because of the winds, they have to do some recalculations on the takeoff, in terms of weight. We sit there some more.



Eventually we are told that we are returning to the gate because we are just plain (not plane) too bulky, and that all the nonrevs have to get off… there go 15 people. Then they start looking for volunteers… at least 15 more people were eventually removed. And we leave, 10,000 pounds lighter and an hour late.



Taking off at BUR is an experience. Because the runway is about as short as our driveway, it feels a little like being shot out of a canon. At least the rest of the ride wasn’t as bumpy as Captain America said it would be.

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