We’re Off Like a Herd of TURTLES

Written By: Samara Friedman

It was hot in the car, the weather was terrible and there was so much traffic! Snow, snow, snow, I love it so much but I do not like it when you are driving in 3.5 hours of traffic because of the it. There was enough stress not knowing if our plane was going to take off. What if it the plane took off and we could not even get to the airport on time! Well, we made it just on time. We had about one hour to get on the plane.

Our plane was only one out of the four planes leaving that night! The airport was so empty that it looked like a ghost town! We got to TSA pre-check but the guards had closed it off before we had gotten to the airport. So them we got on the regular security line which was long but it was okay. We got through security and our plane was supposed to take off at 7:30 — it was almost that time! It was quite a walk to our gate but what a convenient coincidence because there was a lounge right next to our gate. We still had a couple of minutes until our plane was boarding so we ran in. Then my dad got an email that our plane was delayed until 8 o’clock which was okay. At the lounge we met a couple of people who were also on our flight. Now our plane, Amsterdam, and Rome (which was taking off at 10 o’clock when the worst weather was going to hit) were the only planes taking off all of the other planes were canceled for the entire night and the next day! Our plane was delayed another 30 minutes and we finally boarded at 8:30.

When we got on the plane the captain announced on the loudspeaker and said that the plane was taking off in forty-five minutes to one hour due to the ice on the wings. After an hour they had a woman from Buffalo (who knew what ice looked like) said that the plane had not been properly de-iced so they had to spend another hour de-icing the plane! It got really hot on the plane because they had to turn off the air conditioning so that the fumes would not come in. Finally they were done but by that time everyone was so hot! It had been close to 3 hours since we boarded the plane and almost 8 hours since we left school!!!!! But we were off like a herd of turtles!

And that is the end of our adventure or the beginning…

Acknowledgements: Mom for helping me proofread it! Photos taken by Jill Anton.