Everything happens when I'm outta town!

The last time I flew somewhere, it was to Atlanta in July. The week I was there, my mom got fired from her job of eighteen years and my brother got engaged.

Today, I was in the air en route to Cincinnati for a work conference when "The Earthquake" hit. It was when I landed that a fellow passenger relayed the news to her flying companions. And here is an eerie side note from my personal experience.

I arrived at the airport with an hour to spare before my flight. For some reason, this was not a good day to go thru the TSA Security Checkpoint. I got the full "take off your braces, give me your shoe, we have to re-test the canes" treatment. It took about 30 minutes. Once that was over, I had about 25 minutes to get to my gate. As I arrived, after buying a soda and a candy bar, the gate attendant said over the mic that the "pilots would like to leave early so I didn't even sit down at the gate, I walked straight to the attendant and boarded.

My flight was scheduled to leave at 1:47. We were off the ground and in tne air by 1:40. According to NBC News the quake hit at 1;52. I find it a bit eerie that, had DELTA been running on time or late (and let's face it, DELTA usually runs late), I probably would have been inside a very small plane (12 rows of seats...and guess who was in row 12?) on the Tarmac when the quake hit.

While part of me is a bit bummed I missed the first "Big Quake" to hit VA in 114 years, I'm relieved I was in the air, oblivious to everything when it happened.

I hope everyone is okay and no one was hurt or had major damage. Bonus: Richmond's "The Diamond" baseball stadium was shown on Cincinnati's local NBC affiliate. Bet that's a first!

I hope the aftershocks are few and barely noticeable. I'm in my hotel room, happy I managed to get out of town before all of the flights got pushed back.

My next trip out of Richmond is to Atlanta in October. I wonder what's gonna happen then?

Thanks for reading,
Barry