A Wing and a Prayer

The journey began. With traffic. Lots and lots of traffic. I got a close-up view of parts of Brooklyn I'd never seen before in a two-hour car ride to JFK.

Then, after being hustled through check-in by a well-meaning but still painfully inept American Airlines staffer, I raced to the gate, only to find out the flight was already unboarding. That's right, unboarding. A mechanical failure in the plane's brakes discovered while the flight was boarding led the captain to ask all the passengers to be deplaned while the repair was made. That delayed us an hour. Then, after the brakes were replaced, the mechanics couldn't get the wheel back on the plane. (Now THAT inspires confidence.) So another 45-minute delay. Then, the second we were ready to go, thunder and lightning hit the area and JFK locked down for an hour.



So we finally took off around 10 p.m., for a flight that was scheduled to leave at 6:30.

Seven hours later, we landed in Brussels, to discover (surprise!) that there was no gate available for our plane. We sat on the runway another half hour. Then they finally got a gate for us, though I'm not entirely convinced, given the distance I had to walk to get to passport control, that the gate we deplaned at was actually in Belgium. So maybe I can now add Luxembourg to the list of countries I have visited... who knows?

"Passport control" was the biggest joke I've ever seen. Unlike in the jolly old U.S.ofA. where I repeatedly get grilled despite having a valid work visa, the EU immigration officer looked at me, at my passport, said "Are you staying in Brussels a long time?" I replied "For about five weeks, though I am also going to travel elsewhere in Europe." Without another thought he stamped my passport and handed it back to me without even looking at me again.

A cab ride to the office and then on to my apartment complex later, I caught a two-hour nap and came to the office. But right now it's almost quittin' time in Europe, so I'm getting ready to take my leave for the weekend.

More later, including a picture of my very closely shorn head.