Traveling by plane can sometimes take a long time.

When arriving at Sioux Falls to get my plane on Saturday morning.
There was this lady who came to the States to see her brother from Brazil. She spoke very little English. Her brother helped her check in and gave them information where to reach him if they needed him.

And finally arriving at the gate. There were tons of people. My first thoughts were, I sure hope these people are not waiting for our plane.
There was a young man who came thru security just behind me. He was going to be in airports all day. And stated that it would be a very long time before he got to where he was going to go. With a number of different airport stops before he got to his destination.

I don't remember where he told me that he was going.
Then there came this lady, I would say she was older then me. She sat down beside me and started talking. She had been at the airport since 4:30 a.m. they were to fly out at 5:30 and their air plane had a fuel leak. She declared the pilot who brought the plane in knowing the emergency light was on when he left Chicago early that morning should be fired.
The fuel leak was so bad there was fuel on the ground....The pilot who was to take it back to Chicago refused to take that plane and all of those passengers had to wait till the brought in another plane to fly them to Chicago.

As I left Sioux Falls this is what I saw and I had to wonder if that was the plan that needed repair. It is sitting away from the run way at a not so normal spot to see planes.


Back to the lady. As she sat there she and I talked about the fact that they were lucky to have found the leak and refused to fly the plane, that it might have saved their lives.

I do not know why but she proceeded to tell me that her second husband was murdered. And how her daughter was in an abusive marriage, etc.
She said her grandkids didn't believe it that her husband was murdered.. So she had to send them a copy of the newspaper clipping to prove it to them. And that it was on tv in later years.
It was as tho she needed a sounding post and I was that post. I just let her talk. Figured she could relieve some of her frustration of having missed her future connections and might not even get to go home that day.

When I finally got to Chicago I knew that I had a 3 hour 55 minute lay over. So I was not in a hurry to get off the plane and to the next gate. Taking my time getting there and finally finding my gate, I passed a McDonalds. And since I was hungry I got myself my favorite---a McRib meal.

Sitting there reading and waiting, I had a lot of time to observe people.

Couple one.... retired.... came flying in and sat across from me. Her carry on fell over and she picked it up, and he said something to her then got up went away from the sitting area in 1/2 a huff. When he came back---he had a McDonald's bag. As he sat down he proceeded to give his wife one thing after the other out of his bag.... rammed a napkin onto her lap, then the sandwich, very gruff looking and in a really foul mood. She sat there calmly and never said a word. Later I saw them when they boarded their plane. He was ahead of her and left her to deal with the bags. Had to simply wonder "Why was he in such a terrible mood?"

The next thing I knew there was this much, much older couple who sat down on the same row I was in leaving one empty seat between us. Oh, what a sweet couple.... She sweetly ask him if he was okay and if he was hungry. He assured her that he was fine just tired, and yes it would be lovely to have something to eat. Sweetly he told me they were in route To Rochester.
He looked oh so frail..... When she returned with their McDonalds it was so sweet to watch them help each other with their food, Such tender loving care they showed between them.Then it dawned on me...I don't think they were going home. The were going to Rochester..... where the Mayo Clinic is... and he did look awful frail. I truly hope that if that was where they were going, that the Doctors were able to do something to help them. They were so sweet!


Boom, here comes a lady and plops down between us. She took one look at me and said , " I have been away and on air planes for over 24 hours. I am so glad this is the last leg of my journey."
She was hard to understand. Her accent told me that she was not born in the United States.
More like a British or Sweden accent.. (I'm not good at deciphering where from) But a sweet lady who was totally exhausted.

I had to wonder....are there people out there watching me and what are they thinking about me?
Hoping that perhaps speaking to the lady about Thanking God at being alive and listening that just perhaps I made a little bit of a difference in her life that day.