So, if you're reading this, and you used to be a reader (when I used to post) you might be thinking....Wow! she posted something here? What could be so important that it sparked a post at this site?

Well, I'll tell ya....

I had a 3:30pm flight to Atlanta from Dallas yesterday. We were told that we would have a gate change because our plane was being removed from the gate for repairs. We got a new plane and a new gate and were on board around 4pm. We took off for Atlanta....a while into the trip we hear that there is a terrible thunderstorm hovering over the Atlanta airport causing delays in landing so we had to stay put where we were for a while so we didn't clog the airways and run into any other planes. I'm not sure how long we "hovered" in that space, but later we heard "we're not sure how long we'll have to wait our turn to land, so we need to go to Mobile to get some more fuel". About 20-30 minutes later the landing gear went down, the plane started to descend and just as we started to descend we heard the landing gear go back up and the plane went back up. About 20 minutes later we heard, "I'm sure you've noticed we aren't landing in Mobile...there were high winds and a thunderstorm with lightening there and decided it wasn't safe enough to land so we'll now be heading to Montgomery." By the time we landed in Montgomery it was 8pm (CST) - we had been on the freakin plane for four hours. About 1.5-2 hours more than it should take to get to ATL from DFW. We land in Montgomery, we aren't allowed to get off and the toilets are packed full so they recommend that we stop adding to the overflowing tanks. TWO hours later we had fuel and the captain had his new flight plan, but then we had to wait 30 more minutes while they checked things off of their list before we took off for ATL. By the time we landed in ATL it was 12pm (EST) - we had been on the plane for SEVEN hours. I checked into my hotel at 1:10 am. It was the longest day I've had in a really long time.

As much as I'd like to say I was pissed about the whole thing....I can't. I saw one of those Discovery Channel or National Geographic shows that discussed how planes crashed when they tried to land when the weather was bad, or when they flew into thunderstorms. It was enough to make me realize that it can be dangerous and the "sprites" from the lightening are very dangerous. I was glad the pilots had my safety in mind - even if it meant I was stuck on a plane (in the MIDDLE seat) for 7 hours.