Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 02:06:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Shouri Chatterjee <tuku@cisl.columbia.edu>
Subject: Trip to SD

Hi All,

Hope you are fine. I reached San diego at 10-30 am this morning - after a
wonderful adventure. :) (As usual...)

I was supposed to reach SD yesterday at 9-17pm. My itinerary was like
this:
4-50pm: Take off from La Guardia, New York - United Airlines Flight 419
7-10pm: Arrival at Denver
8-00pm: Take off from Denver - United Airlines Flight 965
9-17pm: Arrival at San Diego.
At the airport someone from Microsemi was to pick me up, and a friend
of mine would also be there.

I reached La Guardia airport at 3-30. I checked in my baggage, went to the
gate.
The aircraft was coming in from somewhere else - it was delayed slightly.
It landed
at 4-30pm - we were told that the flight would leave by 5-10pm, so that we
would reach Denver more or less on time.

Promptly at 5-10pm we backed out of the boarding bay. We started taxiing.
At 5-30pm our captain told us that it would be at least an hour before we
would be able to take off! Flight time would be 3 hours and 27 minutes.
She told us that since it would be a while before we could take off, we
could switch on our cell phones and tell our near and dear ones that our
flight would be delayed. There was a flurry of activity after that. This
has been the only one point of time in my life when I felt that a cell
phone for myself could have been better.

They started the video entertainment - there were monitors along the
aisle. I started listening to the audio channels instead of watching the
video. As I was surfing through the channels, I found a channel which
sounded very much like ham radio. "Follow alpha alpha to short of echo -
roger..." Immediately I knew that this was from the cockpit. This was
really exciting - I was on a window seat and could visually follow every
instruction that was being issued. There were more than 20 different
planes on this frequency - the traffic controller was issuing instructions
and the pilots were faithfully following them. Our aircraft was being
identified as "United 419". In wireless communications they refer to A as
alpha, C as Charlie, D as Delta, E as echo, L as Lima, N as November, O as
Oscar, W as whisky etc etc. There were signs on the taxiways designated by
these alphabet. It was exciting. The ground traffic controller was
extremely good and efficient. La Guardia is an airport which is heavily
overscheduled. There are only two runways - one was being used for
landing. The other one was for the planes which wanted to take off -
really, it is not the traffic controller's fault if twenty flights are all
scheduled at the same time. Finally at 7-30pm we managed to take off.

The flight was pretty rough. There was bad weather all through. The pilot
kept saying that our course was getting diverted because of the really
rough weather. They served dinner in the middle. When we finally reached
Denver, my watch was saying 11-30pm - which means that it was 9-30pm at
Denver. My connecting flight had left long back - even the flight right
after that had just left. At the counter they set me for a flight the next
morning - which was the next flight to San Diego. They gave me a coupon
for hotel reservation at discounted prices. I called Dada - forced Dada's
roommate to wake him up. I also made a courtesy call to my friends at San
Diego who had gone to receive me at the airport. I could not reach my
company then.

I was tired, jet-lagged by two hours. So I decided to stay at the hotel. I
booked a room over the phone. They said that I should take the super
shuttle from the airport to the hotel. Denver airport is huge - there are
three terminals connected to each other by an underground train that
shuttles back and forth. I have reason to believe that the trains are
unmanned. Anyway, I went outside the airport. It had a shock as soon as I
went outside. It was very cold. Then I remembered that as soon as the
aircraft landed they had said that the temperature was 45F! And I was
wearing just a T-shirt. It had rained a lot at Denver. I stood outside in
the cold for quite some time before the super-shuttle came.

The driver was a Sardarji. We talked a lot on the way. There were other
passengers too - I had a fellow passenger from La Guardia and we told the
others our story. La Quinta hotel was quite a distance away - it took us
nearly an hour to drive there. Denver seemed to be a large sprawling
place, with lots of cars.

When I entered the hotel, it was past midnight. The lone receptionist
received me. He arranged for a wake up call the next morning at 6am. I
went up to my room - it was a huge room with two large beds and an
attached bath. It looked like a luxury suite. There was a tv and a phone
at my disposal and the bathroom was beautiful. I washed and then slept. It
was past 12-30am.

I woke up very early in the morning - waiting for the wake up call. It was
light outside. At 5-40am I couldn't sleep any longer and got up. I drew
the curtains open - and the view made me gasp! It was beautiful. My room
was looking onto the Rockies - at a distance, dark brown and black capped
with snow. The sky behind had dark clouds. It was a wonderful feeling.
When I had reached this place the previous night I didn't even have the
slightest idea that it would be so beautiful.

I had a nice luxurious bath. The wake up call came punctually at 6am. I
went downstairs, checked out of my room, had breakfast - just in time for
the super-shuttle back. The trip on the super shuttle was wonderful -
Denver is a really beautiful place. The super-shuttle driver was very
courteous. He dropped me at the airport at 8-15am.

The flight to San Diego was wonderful. I had a window seat - but I was at
the end of the aircraft. The sky was mostly clear - and I could see
everything beneath. We flew over the Rockies. They looked barren and
uninhabited. From the top I could easily see how the rain or snow melted
water would flow down the mountains, through the valleys. The beauty of
the Rockies was pristine. We flew over the Grand Canyon. This was another
breath taking sight. I could see the entire course of the canyon, Colorado
river at the bottom, the branches of the canyon, the ever so familiar part
of Grand Canyon which is so often seen on TV and on magazines. It was a
beautiful sight which I would want to go back to time and again. Pity that
I don't have a camera to capture these sights...

We landed at San Diego Lindbergh field at 10-29am. The pilot said that we
had arrived a minute before schedule - and we would be able to enjoy our
stay at beautiful San Diego a minute longer...

I came to the baggage claim. I had one suitcase which I had checked in the
previous day - and I didn't expect to find it. The bags came onto the
carousal one by one - and of course mine wasn't there. I went to the
baggage office and showed them my baggage claim slip. The officer looked
up the number on his computer and after a few moments went inside and
brought my suitcase! My suitcase had reached San Diego long before me!!
This was the most mysterious part of the story... How could my suitcase
come before me? After all I was on the first flight to San Diego today -
and when we had reached Denver last night there weren't any more flights
to SD. I had narrowly missed the last flight to SD - could it be that my
suitcase made it while I missed it? Unlikely... But then is there any
other explanation?

My friend had come to receive me. I contacted my company too - I'll be
meeting them and going to my new apartment tomorrow.

Lots of love,
T