Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Hold That Plane!

This happened long ago, before airports enjoyed the security measures now in place. We had been at a convention at Boca Raton. When it was time to leave, we decided to take the leisurely, scenic route back to Fort Lauderdale Airport via A1A. We completely misjudged the time it would take to get to the airport. About halfway there, we panicked. We returned to the main highway, and sped the rest of the way. We arrived at about the time our plane was supposed to take off. I dropped off my wife with the luggage and hustled off to return our rental car. But the return area was a long way from the airport, so I simply stopped the car in the middle of the airport road and ran for the gate. Passing the Hertz counter, I ducked to the front of the long line, without a word I tossed the keys to the girl behind the counter, and continued running for the plane. My wife was standing in the door of the plane, explaining to the stewardess that her husband would soon be there. We got on the plane. They closed the door and we took off. We never heard from Hertz again and had happy memories of our trip. Just imagine trying that stunt today.

Ps. Of course, our luggage missed the plane, but it did catch the next one.

3 comments:

Archana said...

Hey, we took the A1A route to Fort Lauderdale when we went visiting too :-)!

Guess you will have a SWAT team on your heels if you try the stunt these days :-D!!

kenju said...

That would never work now! You would be shot on sight if you were running to catch a plane about to take off. Funny story; I'd like to have seen that!

Anonymous said...

Really! You'd be face-down on the tarmac with about 20 shotguns pointed at you the minute you tried to exit that car. ;)