The Flight From Hell Brought to Me by Delta

It has been more than five years I take a direct domestic flight until Yesterday.....it seemed simple, direct flight from Sale Lake International Airport to DC National Airport, a total of 3 hours and 32 minutes, non stop flight.

We get to Columbus Ohio and the weather reports start coming from DC telling the pilot to wait it out in the air. He hoovers the plane over Ohio for m,ore than an hour. Every about 15 minutes the pilot makes an announcement telling us things are not looking too good or they are improving. He finally gets instructions to land in Ohio Cincinnati Airport. We are told we are not to leave the plane....then 10 miutes later they tell us we will be allowed to leave for 30 minutes.....

We end up leaving the plane to get some food and freshen up (there is so much junk food one can eat on a vacation)

We board the plane (not all passengers leave, some chose to stay behind on the plane) We wait in the plane for about one more hour....then the pilot tells us he will let us leave again as things in DC do not look good as the tornado is still at full swing. He made things worse by toying with our expectations that we will board soon (he had good intentions of course)

so we deplane again, this time for about 30 minutes I grab a pretzel, from a store called Wetzel Pretzel...the best pretzel money can buy.

About 25 minutes later I hear them asking us to head back to the plane and get ready for the flight....we board and we take off 30 minutes later...

a flight of 4 hours takes us 10 plus hours and Delta does not even have snacks or try to bribe us with anything other than water. Too bad Roa had to see this as we both felt we are back in Rafah waiting to be cleared for travel from the Egyptian side.

Yes, it is not entirely their fault. But I am withing my right to dislike this experience.

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Back To Running

After overworking my ankle early January, I took a break from running. I took a month of no running, just using bike in the gym to allow for my ankle to rest. Late February I started running on the Treadmill for 5 to 10 minutes once a week just to test my ankle and not to put pressure on it. Slowly things started to look good for ankle and I felt confident about going outdoors for a short run (4.5 to 5 miles) Last Sunday Roa joined me on my run and it was cut short as the mud in Rock Creek Park was intense. Last Wednesday, I ran for an hour and felt fine. Today on Sunday I had to try if I can get back to my old route and push it a bit further. I was especially motivated because I saw a number of people on the DC metro who have just finished a Run DC half Marathon and Marathon. I was like, "I need to get back to this" Roa noticed my jealousy from other runners. The sweet weather in DC of course helped me as I knew other runners will also be hitting the asphalt. Thus Roa was cool about my run this morning, I told her I will try not to work too hard. Anyhow, it ended being an hour and 27 minutes. I estimate a close to 10 mile run. Which might be the longest run I had taken since my return from Gaza. I do not plan to do that very often, but it really felt good to know you still have the stamina. I still have to find a knew doctor who can tell me what is the matter with my knee!

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Roa Takes a Bite of the Big Apple

So Roa liked the Big Apple, she loved the city, the lifestyles and the lights. She is promising to visit the city and indulge in more of what the city has to offer...for seem reason New York seemed a lot nicer than ever before...

I have always loved the city, and I now know it is the greatest city in the World...the diversity, the food and the energy this city has is unmatched.

We did catch a show in Broadway, NEWSical, walked in the harbor, Central Park, Time Squares, 99 cent pizzas, Pretzels, Papaya Dogs, Nuts4Nuts, and Junior's Cheese cake. And we walked a lot and shopped more. Roa liked the hats in the city, we ended up buying three hats from this Senegalese lady...she was nice and quite charming.

the show was entertaining, of course you cannot see a musical about the news without having them make fun of Arabs and Muslims. But overall it was a pleasant show in an intimate setting.

Some Asian street artists scammed us into drawing us in cartons. What was a five bucks job, ended up being 25 dollars, he wanted 35. That's not the problem, the tragedy he did not draw me in the picture, he drew what looks like his man crush, the Senegalese lady concurred with us.

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