So after a week of enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Peavey Electronics in lovely Meridian, MS for a training course, Delta goes and messes things up by having a hydraulic pump failure in the CRJ200 scheduled for the one and only flight out of Meridian this fine Saturday. The strains of The Guess Who singing “Running Back to Saskatoon” in my head come screeching to a halt, and I file past the overwhelmed ticket agent trying to sort out how 60-odd people are going to get to destinations ranging from Atlanta to Singapore. Shockingly, he found a set of flights that will, in theory, get me to Saskatoon tonight yet, by taxiing me to Columbus (you’re going to taxi me to Ohio? What? Oh…I’ve never heard of Columbus, MS.), and flying through Memphis and Minneapolis instead of the original Atlanta and Denver. The connection in Minneapolis is rather tight, so hopefully my gates won’t be too far apart.
So, I’m in Columbus now. Any bets on whether I get to sleep in my own bed tonight?
Congrats on the possibility of getting home, at least.
My brother, his kids and I came back from Mexico almost two weeks ago. We’d already had our flights completely rebooked because United had cut both of our Mexico City flights, so our travel was going other than orginally planned. (No sleep, because instead of leaving the afternoon after a wedding, we had to leave the morning after a wedding. Not fun.)
When we got to the airport on the way home, they informed us that our flight was leaving an hour late, which hosed our connection in Dulles. The lady spent about 1/2 an hour trying to get us home that day (including trying to get us to either Dayton or Cincinnati), but everything was full. We spent the night in Washington and got home the next morning. Which gave my brother exactly 3 hours to unpack and repack for that day’s business trip.
The weather’s fine here and in Memphis, so I don’t expect any issues apart from Minneapolis. All my flights show on time on Northwest’s website. Looks like I’m on a window seat of a little Saab turboprop job for the hop to Memphis, so I checked out the google maps satellite view of the Ole Miss and MSU campuses. If they’re within visual range on the left side of the plane I should spot them.
Last night our instructor took us out to a tiny little “restaurant” in the boonies south of Meridian, Jean’s Red Door BBQ. Basically a regular family dwelling with a little commercial kitchen and a side room with seating for about 16. Ramshackle little place, and they didn’t have much food so the menu was kinda restricted, but Oh my I do believe I have an inkling of why BBQ is a religion down here. If y’all would turn up the dehumidifier outside, I might have to make a point of visiting again.
Columbus is a neat little place. It’s home to the Mississippi University for Women (affectionately known as “The W”), chartered in 1884 as the first state-supported college for women in America. Men have been admitted since 1982. One of the most famous alumni is the writer Eudora Welty.
Glad you enjoyed the barbecue. Y’all come back now.
When did MSCW become MSUW? Once, long ago, it was my pleasure to “keep company” with a most pleasing young lady that was a student at MSCW. Now it’s MSUW and they admit male students!..Sometimes I feel so out of touch.
No luck spotting Oakminster’s cathedrals, but we bounced our way to Memphis without incident. Found the gate assignments in Minneapolis and it looks like I’ll have to hoof it a bit, but with a seat near the front on this flight I should be okay.
Plane had no drinking water best delay I heard lately, Captain said load up some bottled water, good to go…
as far as MS, or AL, or the FL Hurricanes good luck on that Lake deal, Laneir?
MUW, not MSUW. (I teach there, BTW.) The last name change was in 1974. (The next one, apparently, is going to be announced on Monday at the opening convocation, although odds are it won’t actually go through. I shall keep everyone posted if there are any entertaining fireworks at the convocation.)
The Welty estate has refused permission, apparently, so it definitely won’t be named after her.
From what I understand, the two contenders left in the running were “Reneau University” and “Waverly University” – but the politics of this whole thing have been very very weird, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the name that gets announced on Monday is something completely out of left field.
I’ve heard several bandied about over the years (can’t recall them now), but I don’t think Reneau would work very well. Waverly, maybe. Isn’t there a golf course with that name? Hmm.
In case anyone’s wondering, D6 is too damn far away from F11 at MSP to run all the way. And not a single motorized sidewalk in sight, either. But I snuck on to the Saskatoon flight just before they closed the door and made it home, no thanks to the goddam tower that made my incoming flight from Memphis circle a couple times before landing. Kudos to Delta/Northwest for finding more than one way from those boonies to these boonies all in a single day.
It’s bee a while! It was MSCW when my mom was there. It’s MUW now (or “the dubya”) and a name change is underway and will be instated this semester - which is where I’ll be next week!
Hate I missed you, Gorsnak. We had a party last night and I could have taken you!
I don’t think they’ll start tossing the W stuff until the state legislature approves the change, which may not be for a while. I hope I can get a W blanket for cheap…
