After a few days in Phoenix, it was now time
for me to fly back home. There’s
definitely a lot more to Phoenix to discover than I initially thought that I
will have to come back again at some point in the future. But for now, I hopped into an Uber to make my
way to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The drive to the airport was actually quite
enjoyable. After telling my driver some
of the interesting things I did in Phoenix, including the Chase Field tour, we got
into a discussion about Major League Baseball.
As it turns out, Rene, my Uber driver, was family friends with Joe
DiMaggio's cousins.
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| Passing Downtown Phoenix en route to Sky Harbor International Airport |
A year after DiMaggio retired from Major League
Baseball, the Yankees held an exhibition match in Cuba. Rene was just a four-year-old child at the
time, but he vividly remembers watching DiMaggio hit a homerun on the first
pitch. As he rounded the bases, he
tipped his cap one last time to the crowd as this was his swan song to his
professional career. At that precise my
moment, Rene became a lifelong Yankees fan.
As to why he was in Cuba at the time, Rene mentioned to me that his
family worked in the Casino industry in Cuba at the time.
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| Phoenix Airport Museum - "Memory Arizona" (1991) - Howardena Pindell |
He eventually found himself working in Las
Vegas later in life with Mickey Mantle’s brother at one of the casinos. One time when Mickey was visiting his Brother,
Rene arranged to meet him over some drinks.
After telling him how much of a Yankees fan he was, Rene worked up the
courage to ask Mickey Mantle for his autograph.
Unfortunately, all he had available at the time for him to sign was a
cocktail napkin. The next day, Mickey
gave him two autographed Homerun balls he hit. How cool is that! Rene is a really engaging story teller, and
as much as I would love to have heard more of his baseball related stories, we
had already arrived at the airport within 25 minutes.
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| Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport |
There are four Terminals at Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport. Terminals 2 – 4 handle
all domestic and International flights while Terminal 1 is reserved for the
American Air force. Because I was flying
with Air Canada, Rene dropped me off at Terminal 4. Check-in took about 30 minutes. The self-check-in kiosks were a bit chaotic
as it some passengers had no clue what they were doing, so a few of us walked
around them to check in with the Air Canada agent instead. This caused a bit of a rift for those who
thought we were budding line. Whatever. As I headed towards Security, I noticed
various pieces of artwork throughout the airport. I was intrigued to learn that the Phoenix
Airport Museum has exhibits throughout the various terminals to entertain
passengers while they look for ways to kill time before boarding their
respective flights. This is the first
time I’ve ever seen such a thing.
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| Waiting for takeoff at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport |
Finally, I made my way through TSA
Security. Strangely enough, I wasn’t
required to take off my shoes nor take my laptop out of my bag during security
screening. However, as I started to
question the “lax security,” the guy behind me was pulled over to the side as
he was found with a pocket knife within his carry-on luggage. He was extremely upset when TSA told him it
would be confiscated unless he wanted to mailed it home or to his next
destination instead. He couldn’t
understand why his knife was going to be confiscated when he’s brought it on
his carry-on luggage with him countless times before in other International
airports. I couldn’t help but shake my
head and wondered if he was actually hearing the words he was saying. Really?
You can’t understand why you wouldn’t be allowed to bring a pocket knife
on board an airplane departing from the United States? Where have you been for the past 17 years?
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| Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport |
Having cleared security within minutes, I had
more than enough time to grab some lunch before boarding. I ended up eating at Ciao Cowboy as it seemed
to be the best and closest option to my gate.
Following lunch, I made my way to Gate B25 to prepare for boarding. It turns out that AC 1836 was over sold by
one passenger. Yes, one! If someone was willing to give up their spot,
then Air Canada would pay for one night’s accommodation in Phoenix and rebook
you for the same flight 24 hours later.
I was seriously tempted to give up my spot. But not wanting to go through the hassle of rescheduling
my Friday conference calls and the simple fact that I was just completely
exhausted from the past few days in Phoenix, I refrained from giving up my
seat. Fortunately, some lady took the
offer a few minutes later. Right beside
at Gate B26, the WestJet flight to Calgary – WS 1403 – was overbooked by 10
people! It was crazy busy at the airport
today! For a Thursday, I wasn’t
expecting Phoenix Sky Harbor to be this busy at all.
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| Phoenix, Arizona |
Due to the time it took for Air Canada to deal
with the overbooking, our flight was delayed by almost 20 minutes. Once we boarded the Airbus A321, I noticed
that AC 1836 had a 2x2 format in Business Class with about 8 rows. Economy, on the other hand, was in a 3x2
formation that had us all crammed together like a can of sardines. Yeesh!
On top of that, we had a very turbulent takeoff – worse than what I had
experienced in Orlando a year earlier – that was just very bumpy. We had a couple more rough turbulence incidences
– one about three-quarters of the way through the flight that felt like we in a
bumper car and another instance about 15 minutes from landing in Toronto.
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| Watching "Wonder Woman" on Air Canada Flight #1836 |
I killed time on the flight by watching a
couple of movies. The first was Wonder
Women. Starring Gal Gadot as the title
character, this movie received a lot of critical praise when it was initially released
in 2017. It’s definitely a bit confusing
as the plot is set during the First World War and somehow combines the events
of the war with how Wonder Woman was brought to Earth from her mythical island
of Themyscira. I never grew up reading
comic books like other children do, so I am sure there’s a lot I missed out on
that prevented me from keeping up with the plot. But the action and cinematography is very
fast paced and engaging and really helped in passing the time more than half of
the flight.
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| Descending upon Toronto Pearson International Airport |
As for the second movie – Entanglement – it took
a bit for me to get into this comedy-drama romance film starring Thomas
Middleditch. The main character – Ben Layten
– finds himself in a downward spiral that leads him to several failed suicide
attempts after becoming divorced and jobless with no direction in life. This all changes once he accidentally finds out
his parents gave up their adopted baby Girl once they were able to conceive Ben
on their own. Ben then goes on a mission
trying to find this “long lost Sister” of his to bring more meaning into his
life.
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| Dusk setting over Toronto Pearson International Airport |
Unfortunately, due to the length of Wonder
Woman, I was only able to watch the first hour of this movie before we landed in
Toronto. While the movie has its
moments, I can’t imagine myself seeking out this movie elsewhere to watch the
remaining 25 minutes that I missed.
Aside from that, there’s not much more to add to this flight report
other than it started to rain once we got closer to Toronto. After several consecutive days of mild dry
heat in Phoenix, it was a bit of shock to the system coming home to this cold,
rainy weather. It honestly felt more
like October than it did May. But I was
back home safe and sound with my next scheduled trip about six weeks away.
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| Toronto Pearson International Airport |
AC 1836 – PHX to YYZ
Operated by: Air Canada Rouge
Aircraft:
Airbus A321 (twin-jet); Seat: 42F
Cabin:
Business – Continental Breakfast; Economy – Food for sale
Depart: 12:48PM MST – Phoenix Sky Harbor
International Airport (PHX) – Terminal 4, Gate B25
Arrive: 08:05PM EST – Toronto Pearson
International Airport (YYZ) – Terminal 1, Gate F83
Flight
Time: 4:17; Non Stop Flight – 2029 Miles/3265 Kilometers; Date: May 3, 2018
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