Last weekend I spent a fast two days in Chicago and got to visit with three lovely ladies, all of whom managed to motivate me in their own way to get back to doing the things that I love and that will help me accomplish some goals. One of those things is blogging, but as many of you know once you break a blogging routine it’s hard to re-establish it.
To rejigger my blogging mojo, I hope to be doing more frequent but far shorter posts. Maybe they’ll even be more interesting than my longwinded writing. In any case, here’s a quicky about my trip to Chicago …
My trip included a regional jet flight to Charlotte, NC, where I picked up another flight to O’Hare. The puddlejumper flight between Knoxville and Charlotte is a mere 30 minutes — you actually spend more time taxiing on the runways than you do in the air. About 20 minutes into the flight, my seatmate, who could have easily been a cast member on any of the Real Housewives franchises stopped the flight attendant and pointed out a fella sitting a few rows in front of us who had recently made a trip to the lavatory. The attendant sounded concerned and asked for more details. She disappeared for a minute and then came back and thanked my seatmate profusely.
Seatmate turned to me and asked if I noticed the cigarette scent she had smelled coming from the fella on his way from the lavatory back to his seat. I hadn’t, but some of the other folks sitting around us on the aisle started murmuring that they had smelled it, and it was fairly intense. (My excuse is my sinus troubles kept me from smelling much of anything). The other flight attendant came by and got my seatmate’s contact info — he had noticed the cigarette smell in the bathroom too, but didn’t know who was responsible.
Let me reiterate something here. It was a 30-minute flight.
After landing, the flight attendants told us all we had to remain in our seats until notified, even after pulling up to the gate — this after we had taken off 30 minutes late and with most of the plane due for a connection at the Charlotte airport. A Charlotte cop came onboard after about 10 minutes of sitting there and escorted the innocent-until-proven-guilty party off the plane and sort of detained him on the jetway while the rest of us deplaned.
As I was exiting the jetway, another passenger — not the accused smoker — got mouthy with a cop because he was concerned about missing his connection. The cop replied, ‘You don’t want to argue with me, sir.’ Since I had a mere 15 minutes to make my connection on the other side of a very large airport, I sadly didn’t get to stay and watch the end of that show.
I don’t really have a moral to this story, because we all know you’re not supposed to smoke on a plane or argue with a cop, right? Right? I have been struck wondering how people who smoke frequently (and if you are one, please enlighten me) handle transcontinental or transoceanic flights.
I was a smoker for many years, and during that time I took two round-trip transoceanic flights. I was fine. I took overnight flights, I slept most of the time, and since I never woke up from my regular sleep schedule to smoke, it was no big deal.
What a strange situation! One thing I love about traveling is experiencing weird situations like that, as long as they don’t mess up my own travel plans!
I am a smoker and travel a lot, by car & plane. I am the only smoker in my immediate family. Last year, I bought an electronic cigarette. I can smoke in the car with my husband and there is no smoke or odor at all. I have never tried in on an airplane, though I always have it in my purse. I am always scared to death that TSA is going to confiscate it. Smoking is one of those things that makes non-smokers extremely uneasy in confined spaces and wary even in open spaces. Even though I could use my electronic cigarette anywhere without endangering anyone, I tend to still only use it in open air spaces. I think if someone saw the vapor from the electronic cigarette coming out of a ladie’s bathroom stall, the smoke police would be notified immediately. If on a plane in a single restroom, a person could use the electronic cigarette and not get “caught” nor would anyone on the plane be the wiser as there is no smell and it is only water vapor that come out. I have noticed that just having it and knowing that I could get my nicotine fix at any time is reason enough to keep my jitters at bay until I can get to a place where I can smoke with relatively little disdain from others. Since I have started using the e-cig, I have noticed that I use it more and more often, eventually I hope to stop using analog cigarettes(real tobacco cigarettes) altogether. Curious… check out . This is the brand of electronic cigarette that I use and like the best.
I’ve been wondering if the electronic cigarettes were allowed on planes. Personally they wouldn’t bother me since there is no smell, but you’re right in that inevitably someone would freak out about it.
That story still cracks me up. I mean, I’ve NEVER had that happen on any regional or international flight. Crazy. And I’m not sure if I’m one of the three ladies you referenced but literally it was so awesome to see you. We need to get another meet up on the books.
I am way behind on cleaning out my Google Reader, so I’m just now reading this, but WOW. Can’t make it through a 30-minute flight without a cigarette? That must be some addiction.