Motown Madness

Just for all of you who are wondering, the whole "missing your connecting flight and being stranded in Detroit for a night" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Perhaps more frustrating though, is missing your flight because your first flight is DELAYED AN HOUR and then, once you make up time in the air and land in Detroit, your plane is SITTING ON THE TERMINAL because the GATE IS OCCUPIED for FORTY MINUTES.

Just enough time so you can stare at your watch and think "I might still be able to make it." And then SPRINT TO YOUR CONNECTING GATE which conveniently, is located IN ANOTHER BUILDING.

So you are DRIPPING IN SWEAT only so the snippy person at the 100-MILE AWAY GATE can inform you (with an attitude) that the LAST FLIGHT TO PITTSBURGH left SEVEN MINUTES AGO.

Welcome to Detroit.

You think the excessive use of Caps lock is overkill? You should have talked to me last night.

There was, I guess, a silver lining, or at least some type of lining that wasn't composed of toxic waste, which was I met three people who were in the same situation (only stuck in Detroit on the night on their way from D.C. to St. Louis.) At least Delta is consistent. Since our flights left at the same this morning, we stuck together for the night - first eating together in the hotel restaurant, and then meeting up in the morning to head over to the airport at the glorious time of 5:00am.

Quite the eclectic group, actually. There was a freshmen boy from St. Louis University, heading back to class after spring break, a Cambodian woman who talked about moving to America after a civil war in her country (abt 30 yrs ago), and a girl, about my age, who was originally from Afghanistan, but moved to the U.S. when she was 13 and is now working towards her nursing degree.

Since the wonderful Airline rep only gave me $6 in meal vouchers, but gave each of them $36... they contributed to my healthy alternative to dinner:

Remember like, two days ago when I was all "I wonder if I've ever been to Michigan, I'm not sure." Well, I am now one thousand percent sure that the creepy hotel with a random pair of pants left behind in my room is about all I need to see of Michigan. Permanently cross that one off of my "lists of places to go." The lady beside me on the plane told me the airport "was actually one of the nicest parts of Detroit." Not exactly comforting.

However, in said airport that I had sprinted through I had the pleasures of running through a trippy rainbow tunnel connecting the two buildings. It was probably one of the most ridiculous experiences of my life to date. Just all-out sprinting with two bags on a moving walkway is pretty crazy, but the trippy rainbow tunnel (which I photographed this morning) really provides the most exhilarating atmosphere for this activity.

You can actually see one of my new friends in the first pic taking a picture herself, so we both have eternal memories of the great state of Michigan... as she said, "I'm really going to miss this place." To which the SLU freshmen agreed, "It's like a second home."