We took off from San Francisco and headed toward Chicago. Upon arrival, there were massive storms in the area. On the first landing attempt, the plane was shaking pretty hard, swooping left to right like a seagull riding the ocean currents, and up and down like a pogo stick. The pilot decided to abort landing and we went back up. We circled for a while and off in the distance we could see the lighting and dark clouds covering the airfield.
The pilot came back on and said we had a break between storms and he was going to attempt a second landing, and if we had to abort again we would need to fly to Indianapolis to refuel.
On the second approach, the plane was just as wobbly feeling. It was quite frightful, but also a bit thrilling at the same time. The plane was pretty silent aside from the occasional “Oh Jesus!” and “Dear Lord!!” When we touched down, we hit the ground so hard and we were moving so fast.
I have to give credit to the Southwest Pilot and his awesome skills. He got us there safely – but we still had quite a journey ahead of us.
On the car ride from Midway to the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago, we hit standstill traffic because of 3 feet of standing water at an underpass. Luckily, my friend Jeff has some dope driving skills, which included using the shoulder, using an accident investigation site to turn around, and going the wrong way on the other side of the express way to get to an open exit. Even though it was 5 a.m. and it took a long time, we made it to Chicago!
