Airports Can Be Interesting Places

Wednesday April 29th we left for a weeklong visit with Robin, Jeremy, and Autumn in Oklahoma City. We had a flight leaving from Oakland at 9:05 and connecting through Phoenix.

On our way to our gate we passed a baggage carousel in the throes of disassembly for maintenance. I paused to snap some photos of the elaborate turntable in its exposed configuration and the two busy technicians were very pleased that I was taking their picture as they worked. I asked them about the process and was told they had estimated three weeks down time to maintain the equipment. Typically the carousel should be maintained every 6 years but this one had functioned 10 years without a hitch. I learned the carousel has 500 rollers and 167 plates and these two gentlemen were replacing each and every one of them all manually. One 5 HP motor runs the entire assembly.

These "words of wisdom" amused me. If I was not inclined to "sit or climb" on the baggage carousel in its normal state, this bare bones arrangement would be even less enticing. I also thought that with the shear number of components that needed to be handled, the encouraging words on the orange bucket were motivating. "Let's DO this!" (Those technicians must have done it, because when we returned one week later, the baggage carousel was assembled and operational.)

Our flight to Phoenix was not full and Frank and I employed our best strategies to foster that the middle seat between the two of us remain empty. We took a long time getting settled, dilly-dallied in putting our backpack under the seat, avoided eye contact with passengers walking down the aisle, and, when all those stalling tactics were no longer feasible, Frank placed his copy of Fifty Shades of Grey on the seat with the cover facing up. His theory was that it would discourage someone from taking the seat or, if someone did, at least that person would be interesting company. The seat remained empty and we could stretch out a bit.

Upon arrival at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport we had a couple hours until our next flight. Outside one of the rest rooms I encountered a dinosaur on one of the terminal walls... a pay phone. I thought they were an extinct species of communication.

We posed this photo of old juxtaposed with new. I meant wall phone versus cell phone. No, I did not mean cell phone operator versus cell phone, although that is also a valid interpretation.

We strolled Terminal 4 and shared some really good soup at Barrios's Cafe.

We admired these metal sculptures hung high on the wall just outside the cafe, in the main terminal corridor. They look like they were laser cut and portions had been bent out of one sheet of metal. They intrigued me with their intricacy.

Frank jokes that when we fly anywhere we have to tack $100 on to my fare if we connect through Phoenix because of the Brighton jewelry store at the airport. He hopes for very short layovers there. As a quilter I love, love, love color. Although not very colorful, I was atypically attracted to this necklace since it was an exploration in textures with graduated beads in wood, glass, and etched metal in various shapes and sizes.

Ironically, not far from this necklace was a sign at one of the displays touting, "Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet." I am not quite sure I understand what the author Paul Klee meant, but it made me think. When I googled him, I found another quote of his. "A line is a dot that went for a walk". Now doesn't that just that conjure up a whimsical image?

I looked up Paul Klee in Wikipedia, since I had never heard of him, and learned he was a Swiss-German painter who lived from 1879-1940 and deeply explored color theory. As much as I like color and as catchy as his quotes were, I was a bit disappointed to find the Wikipedia article quite dull and when I googled images associated with Paul Klee they were just plain weird. Oh, well, I still like the idea of a dot out for a stroll. And I did buy that necklace, though colorful it was not. Frank's fears were not allayed.

Our return flight home mid-day on Wednesday, May 6th was on time and uneventful. It was full so we knew resistance was futile and did not act out our "preserve the middle seat" charade. We landed at Denver but our flight was continuing on and we did not need to de-plane. We were able to move up and snag the pair of seats that have more leg room right behind the emergency exit. The weather was sunny and warm at Oklahoma City, Denver, and Oakland. Apparently we left Oklahoma in good time. That very evening, just a few hours later, tornadoes tore through the area and folks at the airport had to evacuate into protective tunnels that connected to the parking garage – twice.

I guess the airport personnel have the process down. Here is what the tunnel to the parking garage looked like when travelers were evacuated to them in May of 2013.

Frank and I were very lucky. Timing is everything. Yes, airports can be interesting places.

Note: Robin, Jeremy, and Autumn weathered it all fine though I am sure their stress level was raised quite a bit as they were poised near their own tornado shelter. Frank and I had some tense moments watching the weather channel that evening. My next post will tell about our visiting time - for which the mercurial weather was much kinder.