I was all geared up for the usual drama of air travel on the day before Thanksgiving. I had checked the weather forecast–no snow (except it was snowing, just a bit). I checked the news for anything related to traffic snarls or huge waits at security–I saw nothing out of the ordinary.  So, of course, I assumed it was going to be horrible and the news just had not started to report on it.

My flight was scheduled to leave at 4:30pm. I like to arrive about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes before the flight.  But given the expected travpocolypse (this is going to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel season EVER!)…I figured that security would take an extra 30 minutes. I calculated that I should arrive 1:30-1:45 hours before takeoff. (That’s my math whiz at work.) It takes anywhere from 35-60 minutes to get to the airport, so I figured that I would give it 60–just in case. That means rather than leaving at around 2:45pm, I would need to leave about 1:45pm.

My Lyft arrived at 2:00pm and I was on my way. There was no traffic, we sailed right to the airport in 30 minutes. There was a small delay in the airport, but all the traffic was going to arrivals and my driver did a neat little swing into the taxi lane and scooted right up to departures. I thanked her for the great driving, wished her a happy Thanksgiving, and hopped out. She dropped me right outside the door that leads to the TSA-Pre check security. I was stunned: There were only 4 people in line. I joined the “line” and  barely got my ID out before the TSA agent waved me forward. BOOM! Through security in under 5 minutes.

I had 2 hours before my flight….oh well, better safe than sorry. I found a spot to sit, pulled out my laptop, and did a bit of work. We boarded right on time. I put my bag into the overhead and settled into my seat to watch Narcos on Netflix.

Once everyone had boarded the doors did not close, always a bad thing. Then, about 5 minutes after everyone was seated, one more person got on. OK. I figured, they were waiting for her.

The doors still did not close….

Then the dreaded pilot announcement. We have a maintenance issue. If you don’t recall the drama from my last flight (also on American), here it is.  Luckily (luckily?) the maintenance issue only delayed us about 1:15 hours–on a 2-hour flight–and we took off at about 5:45.

The flight was uneventful and I managed to get through three episodes of season 3 of Narcos. I would highly recommend the series if you haven’t watched it. The only unusual thing that happened on the flight was that my seatmate (it was a small plane, just 4 across) just sat in his seat the entire time.  He did not read anything, he looked out the window for a bit, but other than that he just sat and stared straight ahead. He didn’t seem to be a nervous flyer, he just seemed like he shut down for the flight–I wonder which brand of cyborg he is.

I am flying home on Saturday morning, so stay tuned to see how that flight plays out.