(Note: I wrote this
while waiting for a plane at the terminal in Chicago O'Hare.)
I hate Chicago O’Hare.
I’m sure everyone has disdain for this airport at least a bit but I really
hate it. In July upon returning from
Ireland, my wife and I had a 7 hour layover at O’Hare before a 10:30 pm United flight
to Minneapolis. That layover became much
longer as the flight was delayed until 12:30… and then eventually cancelled
because “the pilots were too tired.” We
were given a room for the night and meal vouchers (for next morning of course
because everything was closed by then), but we were quite frustrated and
exhausted after being up for 27 hours.
It took almost an hour and a half before we got from the gate’s desk to
our hotel room and lied down for the night, getting only 3 hours of sleep
before arising at 5:30 am to catch our new 8:45 flight.
With all that said, it was with much hesitation that I again
booked a flight itinerary that stopped through O’Hare. This past week I helped my brother-in-law and
his girlfriend move from the Twin Cities to Ann Arbor, MI. Since we drove a U-Haul truck there, I needed
a one-way flight back home. Sure, there
were direct flights from Detroit (the nearest real airport to Ann Arbor) to
Minneapolis, but United flights connecting through O’Hare were a third of the
price. Although I was shaking my fist in
the air the whole time, I booked the cheaper option through O’Hare.
Today, stepping off my flight from Detroit and into the C
concourse just brought back every bad memory of the bad experience in
June. Mean coincidence had my arrival
gate be just steps away from the gate we wasted our lives away waiting for a
flight that wouldn’t happen. In another
twist of fate, my United flight today is co-numbered as an Aer Lingus flight –
the airline that we took to and from Ireland back in June. (On writing this, I’m also realizing that the
random quiet-ish spot I found to write today may be the departure gate for the
flight that did finally take us to Minneapolis back in June.)
I should probably get something to eat or at least get up and
walk around, but I want to avoid experiencing this crap airport as much as I
can. The quality of food is poor at
best. For example its Applebees or
McDonald’s isn’t just worse than their respective non-airport locations, but
they’re even far worse than other airport locations. That isn’t to mention that O’Hare charges exorbitant
prices for food, even much more than at other airports. Oh and good luck not waiting in line. O’Hare is so crowded with people because the number
of flights, and the number of passengers, has far surpassed the load that the
airport can actually handle. Just a few minutes
ago when I was walking around, one could barely get through the terminal
because of the amount of people in line for McDonald’s. It stretched from one side of the terminal to
the other, being eight lines (or eight people) thick.
So why do I write this rant on O’Hare? And why do I write it while at the
terminal? Because I’m ready to get home
and run. Even with lending a hand in
moving, I was able to get a run in during the five days I was away from
home. While in Ann Arbor, my
brother-in-law and I did a 2 mile run to the Big House, Michigan’s football stadium,
and back to his apartment. Still as nice
as the run was, it wasn’t like running on familiar turf back home. It wasn’t normality and – as nice as it was
to run with someone else – it wasn’t my self-exploring (and contrasted with O’Hare)
quiet run like at home.
Although I haven’t stepped upon home soil again, I’m already
feeling like I need to embrace my “home” running as thoroughly as I can. Of course having just moved to the Twin
Cities area just in July, I’m not yet fully used to all of my running routes or
the local running scene. I was thinking
of doing it before my trip to Ann Arbor, but now I’ve decided I must register
myself for at least one fall race in the area.
It’ll give that extra spark of feeling even more comfortable with
running in my new home.
Until then though (and even after that), I’ll just be hating
(or still hating) O’Hare.
(It should be noted
that because of O’Hare’s plane traffic being over capacity, my flight to Minneapolis
was late on arrival. Why? Because we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes
waiting our turn to take off.)
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