föstudagur, 13 júlí 2007

Photo credit Björn Larsson - see other historical timetables at http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/fi.htm

Since I live 8 hours away time zone-wise from Iceland, I left a day early in order to be better acclimated to the time and area when the tour started on Sunday. So off to SeaTac early Friday the 13th, then to Minneapolis to catch the Iceland Air flight to Reykjavík. I learned a very original travel trick while transferring from Lindbergh to Humphrey Terminals; if you really want to make sure that no one leaves baggage claim with your luggage, wrap the oldest, most worn, and most not-really-grungy-but-who’s-gonna-look-closely tube sock from the 70s around the handle. Guaranteed never to have someone think your bag is theirs!

When checking in at the counter, the Teach Yourself dialogue that began with the greeting “Flugfélag Íslands, góðan dag” kept running through my head, but I couldn’t practice with the Midwest-born and raised Sun Country personnel. Soon it was time to board and see where the die was cast as far as screaming babies and bored 7 year olds who kick the back of your seat for 6 ½ straight hours. Bingo on both accounts.

Now it was time to push away from the gate – but we didn’t budge. Instead of taxiing off into the sunset and flying directly into dawn, we just clunked to a full stop. After a minute the very pleasant voice of a flight attendant came over the intercom: “ Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot back out because our right generator that powers the right engine you see outside the right window is dead. We are awaiting a call from Iceland Air mechanics all the way in Reykjavík to see if we can start it from a power source on the ground. I will let you know what they say.” The two ladies sitting next to me and I – on the right side – glued ourselves to the window to peek over the wing for a glimpse of this possible (and mighty) jump start.

And there we sat for about 10 minutes, wondering how to check jet battery levels and hmmm, where do you clip those cables on a jet? when the flight attendant came back on the intercom. She said, “I know that you are all very concerned” – and then she paused for some reason, perhaps to gather her thoughts in order to make a short and sweet announcement. But when this pause reached critical mass the entire coach section burst into nervous laughter! Without any giveaway of whether she understood what we were laughing at, she eventually continued with “about your connecting flights” and then we laughed even harder. No, my dear, making any connecting flights is really of no concern to us right now. We all want the squirrels to run as fast as they can in that right turbine!

Eventually the mechanics in Reykjavík gave the ground crew the go-ahead to do a 757-sized jump start, and off we went for an extremely uneventful and bilaterally-powered flight to Iceland.