Rockingham red flagged, flight red flagged.
04/20/2004
Sunday was a bit challenging. I headed to the airport to find the flight delayed, something happened to the plane in Vegas. We got into Dallas, they had held the flight to Austin, a large group of us had the connecting flight. We boarded the plane then the captain let us know there was something wrong.
He had pushed his seat back to get out and now it wouldn’t go forward. He couldn’t reach the peddles, not a good idea when your piloting a large aircraft. The mechanics tried a hammer to release the seat, no luck, they ended up replacing the whole seat. It took quite a while to complete that task, we were stuck on the plane and no getting off. I managed to borrow a cell phone to call my friends to head back home. They were on the way to pick me up at the airport. In the end, it would have been quicker to drive the 5 hours home then sit in the airports for over 6 hours. This was a bit unusual, South West Airlines has always been a joy to fly, not Sunday. I wouldn’t want to fly with out peddles so it was just a long ride home.
I got to watch the Rockingham race up until the Red flag flew. I left B.’s house and managed to watch the race in the airport bar. Robby was out of contention after a tire got cut down. The race report said he had damaged the sway bar. It must have been a long day for him, red flag, track repair and just circling the track. I was glad see Rusty Wallace back in a win, it’s been a long time.
I got some sad news when I arrived home, my friend Esther passed on Saturday. She is the lady I bought my house from. I have often said, I bought a house and got a family. She had been a good friend to me over the years. She used to stop by weekly to see what was going on with the reconstruction of the house. She would cheer me on and keep me on track. She had wisdom, homegrown and straight shooting. There was never a dilemma she didn’t have some good advice on. She was 81, was failing in health the last few years, but it is still sad. I am heading to the services tonight, I am sure I will cry a river of tears. I’ll miss my friend…
