Entry #13 - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Well,
There has been such a delay between posts that you can bet you are one of only a few to actually be reading this. But here it goes...
Where I last left off, I was comfortably resting at the Asiana Airlines lounge in Korea awaiting my uneventful rest of the Journey home. Leaving the lounge at 6:45pm, I took the 5 minute walk over to our departure gate. I again was able to skip the long line of those waiting to board by use of the business class/first class entrance (If you think the line is long getting onto a domestic flight - you should see the line for a large 747 - unreal). Taking the now familiar stairs up to the business class section of the plane, I located my seat - 8K (A window seat) and began to unpack. I noticed that the overhead light was not functioning and neither was my new neighbor's in 8J. The stewardess offered to move us, and while I agreed, 8J wanted to say. As luck would have it, I got the window seat in the exit row (11A). And best yet, nobody was seated next to me. Sweet. The only down side is that the window was slightly behind the seat, so that I couldn't look out without being fully reclined. Oh well.
About an hour into the flight, as we headed east, going directly over Tokyo, dinner service began. This time, I went with the western menu and the steak sirloin. Dinner was tasty and after dessert, it was now about 9:15pm and the lights went off for sleepy time. For me, that meant 8 hours of discomfort, darkness, and relative quiet (with the exception of the guy across from me on the isle who had a bad respiratory cough). I did manage to sleep on and off, and awaited dawn (of which I could only guess with all of the time zones we were traversing). Eventually, about an hour off the coast of Washington I took a peek out the window and saw the bring sun! The remainder of the flight was relatively uneventful until we neared landing...
Approaching Chicago O'Hare, we were notified that it was currently snowing, and after about an hour delay, we headed in for our final approach. As we neared the airport (about 5 miles out), the captain notified us that we would be unable to land at this time due to heavy snow. We turned around and was stuck in a holding pattern about 90 miles out for another hour or so. Luckily for me, whenever I am a flight that is scheduled to land, I always make a bathroom stop before we begin our final descent as I have been burned before on seemingly endless circling and delays right before landing.
Eventually, we punched through the thick clouds near the airport,and sure enough, it was really snowing. After coming to a halt, we could really tell this was no small storm, and we were probably lucky to not have our landing in Chicago canceled altogether. As we approached our arrival gate, we came to a stop about 20 feet short. An announcement was made that maintenance had to come out to fix something. Let me tell you, that a 747 sitting in the wrong spot really causes a jam. A wall of snowplows waited patiently for us to clear the area, and many other planes were all jammed up around us waiting for us to get out of the way. After about 20 minutes or so (seemed like 2 hours), we made it the final 20 feet and our gate.
After deplaning at about 6:00pm, we all took the long walk to immigration where a long line awaited us. It moved fairly quickly, and after an uneventful official entry to the country, my fellow passengers all gathered once again awaiting the delivery of our baggage. After a long 40-minute wait, my bag actually appeared (I had my doubts after checking in at Dalian, China). I then headed out into the blizzard for the short bus ride to my rental car. In the darkness, we arrived and my car was, unlike Steve Martin's experience, in the correct spot awaiting me. Unfortunately, the vehicle was a sporty little Pontiac G6 - a pretty decent car under any other conditions than that night. At the time, however, I failed to completely understand just how bad the weather and roads actually were. Heading out, I made my way onto the tollway and began my northern journey to home.
At this point, I was having some doubts that the kids would still be up. It should take about an hour and a half or so to complete the drive in normal conditions and that would put me home a bit after 8:30pm. Right about the cutoff for bedtime. As I continued to head north, the snowing picked up, the snow cover on the highway increased, and I started to realize I would be lucky to just make it home at all this night. The trip had me slipping and sliding, and narrowly avoiding about a dozen accidents that happened all around me. A steady stream of police lights and wrong facing headlights did manage to keep me awake despite my extreme exhaustion. My legs, on the other hand, didn't fare as well - the were pretty much asleep for the night! Seriously, the numbness from the long day of sitting (despite walking around and standing as much as possible), was slowly working it's way up my legs. I really didn't have a good option here as stopping would have meant getting off the snow-covered highway and surely getting stuck (the car proved awful in the snow). All I could do was push on. The slow drive at 30mph, was harrowing, uncomfortable, and just generally miserable, as I now had a terrible craving for a McDonald's Coke! As the drive continued, the snow increased, and by the time I reached Milwaukee, I decided that I couldn't even risk taking I-43 to Racine, instead, I would need to travel further north to I-94 W towards Madison, and exit at a main road in order to not get stuck. By around 9:30pm, I turned onto McCall Street, and saw my next challenge - the driveway. I gave it a bit of extra gas and managed to get through the plowed in end of the driveway and was home free! Well, almost - After punching through the end, I was stopped by the measly 5 inches on snow just sitting on the driveway. The snow coupled with our stunning 5 degree incline was enough to stop the G6 in it's tracks. So, after the 7000mile trip home, the remaining 75 feet would be done walking through the snow.
As I exited the car and grabbed my suitcase, I received an early Christmas gift (a good one too). That was Isabelle running down the driveway in her jammies, boots, and her jacket. I got a big hug and kiss! At that point, the tough journey home had merely done two things: 1) Made the reward I just received all that much better and 2) Gave me one extra blog entry to have written.
Take care everyone.
Dave Snyder