This weekend is Octoberbreak at Purdue, so I used it to do what anyone would do with a 4-day weekend... fly 2000 miles home! After my last class today, a class on the King Air, 2 friends and I drove to Chicago to catch flights out of O'Hare to the Pacific coast. While my friends were flying to Seattle, one on American, one on United, I was headed home to San Diego.

Upon checking in, I was told that the flight would be quite full and waited for my name to be called in hopes of getting a seat. Finally, about 15 minutes before scheduled departure, I was given a seat assignment. Fortunately, it was a window seat... I was not looking forward to spending 4:15 in a middle seat! I boarded the 757 and was pleased to have More Room Throughout Coach, yet again dissappointed that the 757s don't have the new interior seats and color scheme. We pushed back at 7:03 pm CDT, 8 minutes behind schedule, and taxied to 32L. For me, it was very cool to take off on this runway because, for the last 7 weeks, I have been shooting the ILS approach to the same piece of pavement in our 727 simulator at school. We have been flying the 14R approach, but it's the same runway as 32L. Anyway, shortly after takeoff we were served drinks as we climbed to 28,000' We were cruising low to avoid especially strong headwinds at higher altitudes. After the beverage service, dinner was served, along with more beverages. In the main cabin, we had a choice between baked ziti or pot roast. I chose the pot roast, which was served with vegetables, potatoes, a salad, a roll, and a brownie. It was really a delicious meal!

When they finished serving dinner, they played "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle," followed by CBS Eye on American. The CBS programming including 60 Minutes, some Letterman, and an episode of The King of Queens, as well as some other miscellaneous stuff. The flight was quite uneventful, and we landed about 15 minutes behind schedule. When we taxied into the gate, the flight attendant replaced the standard "Welcome to San Diego" with "Welcome to America's Finest City," and I was glad to be home, if only for a weekend. I'll be heading back Tuesday and, with any luck, will be trying out American Executive Class service, including a lunch flight and a dinner flight, travelling SAN-LAX-DAL-ORD-IND. Conversely, I may fly SAN-DFW-ORD-IND, flying on the 777 for the DFW-ORD leg.