{"id":2926,"date":"2013-01-04T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T17:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2013-01-04T09:41:50","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T14:41:50","slug":"flying-non-stop-from-watertown-to-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2013\/01\/04\/flying-non-stop-from-watertown-to-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Flying – non-stop! – from Watertown to Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Passengers wait for a 7 am flight to Chicago at the Watertown International Airport. Photo: Joanna Richards<\/p><\/div>\n

Just took the new(ish) flight from Watertown to Chicago. First, the high points (and it\u2019s almost all high points):<\/p>\n

1) Non-stop. No connecting flight. No worries about missing that second leg, etc.<\/p>\n

2) Jet service: when you\u2019re a jet, you\u2019re a jet all the way. And you go faster, smoother. Air time to Chicago: two hours. Air time back: one hour, 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Propeller planes of any size are loud, slow and rough. But those nightmare 9-seat puddle jumpers from Ogdensburg, Massena and Saranac Lake really test the limits of intestinal fortitude.<\/p>\n

After boarding the plane to Chicago, I asked the flight attendant if this would be a bumpy ride. (It should be. You go over Lakes Ontario, Erie and Michigan.) He said he originally thought it would be, but was surprised by the smoothness. I was, too.<\/p>\n

No time is a good time for this air route, but winter has to be the worst. Those who fly professionally (like the flight attendant) refer to \u201cair columns,\u201d which is a nice euphemism until the plane you\u2019re on slams into turbulent air and the contents of your stomach look to exit through the in door. And yet, it was fine. No bumps, no bruises, no nauseating dips or dives.<\/p>\n

3) Watertown airport: it\u2019s a one-gate terminal and this has advantages, like free parking. Name any other U.S. airport\u2014that offers jet service\u2014that would charge less than $100 for the pleasure of parking for eight days. I didn\u2019t pay a dime.<\/p>\n

And another advantage: driving to Watertown means not driving to Syracuse: no snow belt to go through.<\/p>\n

4) The American Airlines flight crews: both (there and back again) were professional and personable.<\/p>\n

Now, the low points:<\/p>\n

1) As any North Country misanthrope will tell you, hell is other people. There is no view of humanity so dim that it can\u2019t be made worse by climbing onto a narrow metal tube where other members of your own species are confounded over which seat is \u2018A\u2019 and which isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, this is not<\/em> rocket science: three seats in each row. Seat \u2018A\u2019 is to the right of the aisle. This is, in fact, why there\u2019s a big letter \u2018A\u2019 over these seats. Really. Each row. \u201cAnd there it was, just as plain as dammit,\u201d as Bertie Wooster once said about something even less patently obvious than seat \u2018A.\u2019<\/p>\n

Seats \u2018B\u2019 and \u2018C\u2019 are on the left. They\u2019re labeled as such. Yes, on each row. And they\u2019re together, like pain and suffering. And yet, both going to and returning from Chicago, someone was in my \u2018A\u2019 seat. I know this is a first-world problem and ordinarily I don\u2019t care about such things. Finding someone in my seat, I usually grab another nearby. But I was told the flight to Watertown would be full. Still, I had no intention of digging in my heels and insisting on any seat in particular\u2014at least not until I heard the response of the woman occupying my \u2018A\u2019 seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut where\u2019s seat \u2018B?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Struck momentarily dumb, I pointed with my thumb. Eventually, I managed to spit out, \u201cIt\u2019s right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The light, as it were, seemed to dawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cOhhh\u2026 that makes sense,\u201d she said. And then, once she\u2019d folded the prodigiousness of what I\u2019ll charitably describe as her bulk into the faux-leather embrace of Seat \u2018B\u2019\u2014next to her traveling companion, who was luxuriating in the veritable Versailles of Seat \u2018C\u2019\u2014she said, \u201cOhhh, this is much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seriously, the airline provides oxygen for this<\/em>? It seems a bit much. Still, even in these circumstances and despite such demonstrable merit, they won\u2019t make an example of passengers like this and force them to ride on the roof. It\u2019s a pity, really.<\/p>\n

2) The landing in Watertown.<\/p>\n

I know a little about powered flight, just enough to be nervous about it. I know the pilot must maintain lift, even while slowing the plane for landing.\u00a0As you begin the final approach to the airport and leave the light(s) of Watertown behind you, you\u2019re flying somewhere between 500 and 1,000 feet. It feels like your next destination is the crash site. The minute throttle adjustments seem an existential threat, simultaneously loud and discomfiting.<\/p>\n

Seeing the runway appear (almost magically) didn\u2019t really make me feel better. We were going very, very fast.<\/p>\n

Reverse thrust is one of those 20th<\/sup>-Century inventions that gets almost no mention or recognition. Fans of the thing can now rejoice. The landing in Watertown is a celebration of it. We went from approximately 360 miles an hour to about 40 in a space most North Country residents would consider \u201cshovel-able.\u201d That is to say, less than the length of my driveway.<\/p>\n

Most of us will never know what it\u2019s like to land on an aircraft carrier. For us, there\u2019s Watertown.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the impression of the seat-tray latch on your forehead will vanish. Give it time.<\/p>\n

3) The plow driver at the Watertown airport.<\/p>\n

A lot of snow fell during my trip. I knew this because I\u2019m an American and a very small percentage of my taxes goes to NOAA, which packages weather info and makes it available to everyone. Meaning that, even if I didn\u2019t have a smart phone, everyone I know would still tell me all about \u201call that snow falling on northern New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bless his heart, the plow driver really wanted me to know how much<\/em> snow had fallen. So he graciously pushed as much of it as possible against my car. Even though both door and window were shut, a frozen block of snow\u2014about a foot high and six inches thick\u2014was packed inside<\/em>, between the door and the driver\u2019s seat of my car.<\/p>\n

I brushed out as much as possible, but the remnants melting against my leg on the drive home made me recall that age-old maxim: \u201cAin\u2019t nothin\u2019 free. Not even free parking.\u201d<\/p>\n

But these low points weren\u2019t so bad and might be unique to my trip. There are two other tidbits I\u2019d like to mention:<\/p>\n

I rented a car at Payless. It was cheap and off the airport, meaning that\u2014once I got into the car\u2014I didn\u2019t have to contend with the dizzying vortex of O\u2019Hare traffic. I reserved an all-wheel drive car and that\u2019s what I got, despite the recent blizzard that passed through the northern Midwest. And here\u2019s the kicker: the shuttle driver (who loaded my bags outside the terminal) got my rental as I signed the paperwork inside. When I walked out the door next to the rental desk, my car was running\u2014with the heat on\u2014and my bags were loaded in the back. I have never said this about a rental-car company and I\u2019m pleasantly amazed to say it now: everyone I dealt with at Payless was wonderful. Really, everyone, and I strongly recommend giving them a try next time you land at O\u2019Hare.<\/p>\n

And finally, I flew to Chicago on a dark and foggy Christmas Eve. O\u2019Hare is one of the busiest airports in the world, offering lots of opportunities to see other planes aloft while you\u2019re in flight. And so it was easy to tap my wife\u2019s shoulder, point out the window at a red blinking light in the distance and say, \u201cLook. There\u2019s Rudolph.\u201d<\/p>\n

She smiled and nodded. And she agrees, this flight from Watertown to Chicago is a gift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just took the new(ish) flight from Watertown to Chicago. First, the high points (and it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2927,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions\/2927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}