The Slot Canyon of Life
I snapped this picture with my cellphone yesterday evening as we stood beside a baggage carousel in the Dallas airport. And why, you might ask, were we collecting baggage in Dallas? Our flight to Santiago was cancelled. Rumor has it that this flight has now been cancelled two nights in a row. There were definitely people at the carousel who were there the night before, doing the same thing. Kind of like that old movie, Groundhog Day, but without the good parts. According to the folks at Raytheon, other members of the icebreaker team who traveled other routes were also delayed, but due to weather. I’m sure we will get all the details in Punta Arenas.
As a full-time pessimist, I planned for this to some degree. That is, I packed in such a way that all would be well if we were delayed by a day or so, and all would be reasonably well if my checked baggage was lost. Luckily, my bag was on the carousel. Others were not so lucky. Steve E. and Chris Huffard spent the night with just their carry-ons.
If we have to spend another night here, however, things will get appropriately more complicated. We shall see.
On the bright side, we were helped by a truly wonderful American Airlines employee in the Admiralty Club, a Mr. Jones, who expedited our new flight arrangements. (We will try the same flight again tonight.) And we had a beautiful view of the Arizona and New Mexico deserts on our way here. I have seen Nevada and Utah many times from the air, but never Arizona. Mesas look as if someone took a flat tool and scraped the tops off of mountains. How does this happen? I will have to quiz the geologists among us. Equally impressive are the slot canyons — so deep, so narrow, so twisted, just like life. LOL. I can’t look at them without thinking of Edward Abbey’s Monkeywrench Gang, that seminal work of environmental activism.
Here’s hoping we make it to Santiago and beyond tonight.