The day dawned bright and early out the hotel bedroom window that Wednesday morning. I sat up in the same bed I’d slept in for the past four days and the first thought that ran through my head was, “June 29. Today I leave New York.” We, my parents, brother, and I, had spent the last week in the state of New York – the first three in long island for my uncle’s wedding and the last four in the city. I hadn’t done half the things I’d wanted to do nor had I seen half the things I wanted to see, but everything must come to an end – and so this trip must to, as much as I didn’t want it to – or so I thought…

            We didn’t even need to leave the city for the airport until noon, so we went to go see the massive library in the middle of Manhattan. I could have spent days scanning up and down the rooms upon rooms full of books just waiting to be read and explored. Too early, it was time to head back to the hotel and grab our things before grabbing a town car to the airport.

            At the airport, we got all checked in and passed security without any issues. At the gate, the four of us sat in the plush black chairs. About fifteen minutes before we were scheduled for departure, the flight attendants called our seat numbers and we filed onto the plane. In our seats, we carefully stowed our carry-ons and lightly fought over the window seat. The rest of the plane boarded, we were all buckled in, and were just waiting for the flight attendant to come and explain the safety features so we could be in the air. After about fifteen minutes of waiting – about five minutes after our scheduled departure – we weren’t too worried about being behind schedule. Apparently, though, we should have, because just then, over the loud speaker, one of the flight attendants started talking to us.

            First, he introduced himself and then went onto say, “We’re sorry, but we’re having some technical difficulties with the plane.  Maintenance is coming and we’ll tell you more when we know more.” So, we sat on the plane for two hours. About thirty minutes into waiting, the in-flight movie was turned on, Snow Dogs, and we watched most of that before, again, the flight attendant came over the loud speaker saying, “Thank you for your patience. We’re sorry for the delay and we’ve decided to deplane you and put you onto a new plane.” We all got up out our seats, grateful to be off this stationary piece of metal. We exited the plane at the same gate as the one we had entered and walked directly across the busy pathway between gates. We board that plane with the same ease as the first and sat waiting for the plane to take off. If we left right now, we wouldn’t miss our connection in Denver.