South Carolina Sojourn No. 1: Cincinnati
This is the first in a mini-series of mini-adventures from the past weekend.
We had decided to book our flight from San Diego to Columbia with a stop-over at Cincinnati because we wanted to check off "Ohio" from our states-not-yet-visited list. Unfortunately, the Cincinnati airport is actually in Kentucky. Whoops. We have three reasons to visit Kentucky: bourbon, whiskey, and banjos. We have no reason to visit Ohio.
We had to change terminals and had about 45 minutes to do so. I'd seen that the weather report predicted that it would snow in the morning and just be cold in the afternoon, which is when we arrived. In just about every airport that I've ever been to, you access the other terminals internally via walk-way, escalator, moving platform, subway, monorail, etc. This airport has outdoor ultra-wide buses the drive across the tarmac.
We went down to the tarmac level and actually exited the heated airport to find ourselves in weather in the teens. With wind-chill, it was below 0 degrees. We quickly boarded the frigid buses and held-on as it criss-crossed in-between planes and runways. Mind you, we had dressed in San Diego and had assumed that we would remain "in doors" until Columbia.
At the other terminal, we hustled back into the warmth and headed toward our gate. Little did we know that these gates were for commuter flights and they were just doors that led outside: to the freezing tarmac. As each flight called for it's passengers to board, another door was open and the resulting drop in temperature was drastic. The poor ticket-counter attendants were bouncing up and down as their breath came out as vapor.
We had to walk outside and leave our carry-ons to be stowed because the plane was so small. Then came the bone-numbing experience of putting hand to cold metal as we mounted the steps into the belly of the plane. The entire flight, my feet stayed frozen. I attributed it to the Kentucky cold, but later learned that it was just that type of plane.
Our next installment: The Inn at USC.
Future installments: The case competition, Barack Obama (in person!), toilet seat covers, and more!