Oklahoma Report Day 6

Other Oklahoma Trip posts: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Wrap-up

We had a good first half of our last day in Oklahoma, and a really tough second half. I can't post any pictures yet because the camera cord that attaches to my computer hasn't made it here yet. Read on and you'll find out why. First, the good half.

We attended church at Bethany First Nazarene in the morning and enjoyed a wonderful first day of Advent service with some great music. We just don't get to hear that stuff at our church and I've missed it.

Following the service, we had lunch with most of our Oklahoma family and it was a great time. We don't get to see those folks nearly often enough, and whenever we're together, we really enjoy each other. We'll have to try and get back there again sometime soon.

Then came the trip home and that's when things got interesting. Oklahoma decided to drum up a good old fashioned windstorm for the afternoon, and by the time we got to the airport, we had steady 30-35 knot winds with higher gusts. At one point the gate agent said that if the winds increased two more knots, some flights would be grounded because the crosswind component would exceed the specifications for some of the aircraft.

To complicate things, Dallas was also having high winds and because they were coming out of the west, which is unusual for Dallas, instead of having seven runways to use, they were down to only two. On the busiest air travel day of the year, Dallas was running at a fraction of capacity, and it was causing problems all over the country.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:45 pm, but we didn't actually begin boarding until about 5. We pulled out of the gate and then sat on the taxiway until 5:45 due to the problems in Dallas. This was going to make our connection pretty tough, but we had been assured that all flights in Dallas were experiencing delays, and we shouldn't have a problem making our flights.

Takeoff and climb-out wasn't as turbulent as I expected due, and we got a good view of very large prairie fires that were burning in south Oklahoma and spreading quickly in the high winds. They have some big problems down there.

During the final 20 minutes of our decent into Dallas, it got really rough. We were bouncing every which way in some of the worst turbulence I've ever been in. Everyone was pretty relieved when we finally set down. I figured turbulence like that was probably old hat for the pilots...that is until the captain came on and told us that in 30 years of flying, those were the worst conditions he'd ever seen. Not only did we have very turbulent conditions, but the west winds made for a very tough crosswind landing. He also told us the first officer had made the actual landing, so I'm nominating that guy for a fourth stripe. He did a nice job.

If the rough ride wasn't enough, the landing put us in the far northwest part of the airport and we taxied forever to get to the gate, the whole time wondering if we still had a connecting flight. We finally parked at the gate and stepped off the plane at 6:55 pm (our connecting flight was scheduled to leave at 6:46). We had been assured that everything was delayed, so when I checked the overhead monitor, I was shocked to learn that our flight to Orange County was only delayed until 7:08 - 13 minutes from now. Yikes!

We had to run for the Skytrain tram and then dash off two stops later and arrived at our gate just as they were preparing to close the doors. We managed to get on the flight, but correctly assumed that our luggage would not be joining us. As I write this, there's still no sign of our bags and I don't expect to get them until tonight. They supposedly made the next Orange County flight, but due to delays, that plane was diverted to Los Angeles and our bags will have to come from there.

The excitement wasn't over yet, however, because once we left the gate, we spent the better part of the next hour taxiing to the far off runways that everything was using, and waited and waited for our turn to go. Once airborne, we were once again in very heavy turbulence and that continued for the first ten minutes of the flight. No fun.

After all that, we finally go to Orange County about an hour later than planned and without our luggage. Hopefully the stuff will arrive later today and all will be well. It was a great trip in spite of the travel problems we had, and most importantly, it was good to see the family again.

Thanks for going along with us.