My visit to the United States - V

Its been a while since I encountered snow. Well, this time I did and this time the snow more than made up for the separation.

The backdrop was the picturesque Seattle. It snowed for a couple of days before I arrived. After half a day's break it continued to snow overnight and then again the next evening and the next as well. I was informed that the last it snowed like this was about 10 years back. It was a punishment to go out in this weather. However, I had my flight to the windy city and had to leave. My poor brother in laws Pratik and Vikas were the guys to bear the brunt and had to drive me to the airport. The roads were filled with ice and snow. The trees had a white cover. It was as if the whole city had turned white. It was an over whelming sight. Driving on ice was a dangerous task but was handled very well by Vikas.

After an hour's drive we managed to reach the airport around 7.30 in the morning. The scene inside was something like I'd never seen before. I was scheduled to take the Alaskan airlines flight bound for Chicago via Reno departing Seattle at 8.45. There were hundreds of people queued up to check in at Alaskan. The que went on for what seemed like miles. People were in the que since as early as 4 ! Most of them had already missed their flights and were in the que to get re-booked. I realised that there was no way that I would make it in time and so went from one airline to another seeking seats for any possible connection to Chicago. "No seats until the 24th" said one rep. A few airlines had cancelled all their flights out of Seattle that day. The snow took its toll on everyone. As for me, I had no other option but to cancel my trip to Chicago and take the hour long drive back home with Pratik and Vikas.