Mike's Shoes
By Goose
I’ve known Mike Miller for a very long time – gone camping to Gilsum and worked summers for him. With all this time to get to know him there are a few things that I’ve learned, like how he thinks. He has a fascination about studying people and their actions in certain situations. When we worked together I noticed that if I said something or did something that was the slightest bit amusing to Mike, it was instantly up on the blog. For example the Cell phone Incidents and the Slug Throwing. This interest in studying people has rubbed off on me a little, and I did not really notice it until my trip to Colorado this past December.
A few years ago my aunt and uncle on my mother’s side bought a house in Silverthorne Colorado. Silverthorne is in the Rocky Mountains surrounded by three major ski resorts – Breckenridge, Keystone, and A-basin. These Mountains have given me the best skiing experiences in my life, so far.
When I was there this year Denver got hit with 18+ inches of snow. The airport was closed and the city was almost shut down. Now we were having some of the best snow for skiing so that was AWESOME, until it came time to go home.
The two days before we were supposed to leave for home the airport had closed because of the snow. I kept on looking at my flight hoping it was still scheduled, and I found there were until about 5 hours before I was supposed to leave. My cousin’s flight was canceled and things were looking grim, so we all decided to drive to Tennessee, and I would fly home from there. But then I found out that my flight was on, so I was taken to the airport. I checked-in at the curb for my plane. Then I said my good byes and walked into what look like a refugee camp.
I could not believe what I saw. The lines for the check-in counter were 300 people long. I was a bit hungry so I tried to find some food. NOTHING! All the cafes had run out of anything that was worth eating. I decided that it would be best if I went to my gate , but I found the security line looped around the whole airport.
I was in shock. It wound through all the ropes and then though all the cots, and people that had been stranded there for 2 days were around the airport. Knowing that I did not have that much time to spare, I hid behind a pillar and when no one was looking, I darted into the line and continued on my way. No one even noticed. When I got to my gate there were people there fighting for a flight to just get out of Denver. They wanted to find a way home, but seeing that it was near Christmas there was nothing for them.
It was really interesting to look at how certain people were dealing with their situation. I said to myself what would this situation look like if I was in Mike’s shoes, and it opened my eyes to people’s behavior patterns. Some were just patrolling back and forth looking for a flight that had one seat that they could use to get out of Denver. Others were just yelling and swearing and just making fools of themselves. I felt so bad for them, but there was nothing I could do. I was just one of those lucky ones that had their flight leaving almost on time.
I was very grateful that I made it home for Christmas, but I will never forget that I was one of those lucky ones.
“I was a bit hungry so I tried to find some food,” Now there is a surprise!
“Then I said my good byes and walked into what look like a refugee camp.” Great line.
“..if I was in Mike’s shoes.” Literally, you wouldn’t fit; figuratively, you did quite well. Soon, grasshopper, you’ll be tossing open box cutters to people.
Comment by michael — January 23, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
Goose, great entry. Your first (actually by you), I believe? Very nice.
Mike, I’m not quite sure what you thought you meant by your remark, but I don’t think it was wise. Airport + shoes + box cutter + refugees … not a good combo on the blog.
Comment by Jennifer — January 23, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
Nice to get a first hand account of this as we heard so much about it on the news. Sounds like an adventure. If you were in Mike’s shoes you would be photographing people while observing. Or filming them and putting it on YouTube.
Comment by La Rad — January 23, 2007 @ 11:20 pm
Great story! One first hand tale is better than a dozen newspaper columns.
We almost had a story to tell, too, of an escape from Denver airport in the snow. Almost, but not quite. Yesterday morning we were car slaloming from Boulder across the crystal white prairie towards the airport to fly out to CA to see my Dad. The night before there had been a fall of a few inches of snow, and the plows were doing a good job. However, we got caught behind a snowplow shoveling up a 6-ft high wall of snow by the road, and we were delayed by at least half an hour.
We reached the check-in line 43 minutes before scheduled takeoff. The self-service check-in kiosk told us that we were too late (by 2 minutes), and we almost gave up then and there, but we asked a human agent who told us to run to the gate, and gave us “prioritized” boarding passes. Now we had 20 or 25 minutes left before takeoff, and had to get through security and get through 3 terminals on the train shuttle.
The security lines were a half hour or more long, snaking across half the terminal, but brazenly we sneaked into the First Class line, and we got through security in 10 minutes. We looked at our watches and again almost gave up, but hustled through the corridors and raced to the gate and got waved on board. As the airplane doors shut behind us we laughed in relief. If we hadn’t lucked out and gotten on that flight, we’d have had a 6 hour wait till the next American flight to LA, and a sad blog story to tell about snow delays in Denver.
Comment by rakkity — January 24, 2007 @ 1:29 am
Well done. Glad to see Goose learned something from all those hours with Mike. But this bit: “I hid behind a pillar and when no one was looking, I darted into the line and continued on my way…” sounds a bit like the (goose) apple did not fall far from the (mother goose) tree…
What Goose doesn’t know is that Mike was more worried about Goose getting home in time than Mother or Father Goose!
Comment by BirdBrain — January 24, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
Great entry, Goose. On your next opportunity with Michael’s shoes, you need to start interviewing the out of control travelers about their life histories. It will give you great Michael-like follow-up stories for the blog.
Comment by anon — January 24, 2007 @ 4:20 pm