I have nothing against Tulsa, Oklahoma. Nothing at all. I"m sure it's a perfectly fine city. I'm sure the people there are wonderful, hospitable, and very courteous. I thihnk I've been to Tulsa twice before, and have no bad memories or experiences.

So please don't take offense that I had to get the heck out of town as soon as I could.

You see, I never should have been in Tulsa in the first place last night. No, when I left the Seattle-Tacoma airpoirt at 11:15am PDT on AA flight 670, I fully expected to be on the ground at DFW by 5:15pm CDT. Unfortunately, mother nature and the air traffic controllers had a few things to say about that.

Have I mentioned lately that I'm not crazy about flying? I'm much, much better than I used to be, but I'm still a bit of a white-knuckle passenger. And we had already flown through some unexpected turbulence over Colorado, so my nerves were already a bit thin.

So an hour before landing when I though we shoudl be making course adjustments to start lining up with the airport, the plane banked into a graceful, if somewhat shallow, turn to the south. About the time we had come a full 180 degrees and I was thinking "something is up, I wonder when we'll hear about it" the captain came on and let us know that we had been put into a holding pattern because of inclement weather at the DFW airport. They expected about a 20 minute delay, then we'd be cleared to come in. Good, so I knew what was coming, and for the next 10-15 minutes, we banked through several lazy turns.

We got back on our eastern heading as the captain came back on and said that we had been cleared to approach. Muffled cheers came up from the bulk of the passengers, prompting him to say that we hadn't landed yet, and really hadn't been cleared to land, just cleared to approach. But at least we were heading home still.

About 5 minutes later, we went into another swooping turn, and I saw the same cloud formations pass my window that I had watched for the previous 20 minutes. Sure enough, the captain came back on to let us know we had been put into another holding pattern, again for about 20 minutes. Only this time he mentioned that he was requesting clearance to redirect to a different airport, because we only had about 30 minutes of fuel left.

That didn't bother me too much, but I was a little perturbed, because I have a big project this morning, and I absolutely have to be back on the ground to get home in time to get some sleep before working. Sure enough, just a couple of minutes later, the captain informed us we had been cleared to land in Oklahoma City. Woo hoo! I thought to myself. I'll get off the plane, rent a car, and be home in three hours if needed. The inclement weather in Dallas included wind shear warnings, and I'm all in favor of not trying to land in wind shear conditions, as that didn't turn out so well for Delta back in 1987. The plane banked around to the north and we started heading for our next stop.

Not five minutes later, the intercom crackled to life again. "OK, folks. Plan number thirty-two," said the captain. Turns out several other flights had been redirected to OKC for refueling, and they didn't have any room on the ground for us, so we were going to Tulsa to refuel and wait out the storm. And because there was some weather in Oklahoma, the flight might be a bit bumpy getting to Tulsa.

Twenty not-so-harrowing minutes later, we were on the ground in Tulsa. As soon as I could , I turned on the phone and called my wife. "Where are you?" she answered. "Your flight status shows you to be delayed." "I'm in Tulsa," I replied, and had to go through the chain of events that got me there. I asked her about the weather at DFW. Sure enough, it had been raining in DFW, but by the time she got to the airport, it had cleared and the skies were mostly sunny. So I asked her to check and see what the weather was supposed to do over the next hour or so, and she had to check with someone and call me back.

The air crew let us know that they didn't know how long we'd be in Tulsa because of the weather in Dallas, but other flights were landing there as well. They also said that if anyone wanted to deplane, they would check and see if that coudl be arranged, but no one could get off with their checked luggage, as we weren't at the gate. I dutifully pressed the steward call button and waited one one of the staff to come by. I explained that if there was going to be any kind of significant delay, or a possibility that we might get grounded overnight, that I'd rather deplane now and drive back, as my home is between Tulsa and the DFW airport. They checked into the options, and came back a while later to let me know that I'd been cleared to deplane, and they'd let me know when I could disembark.

I called Anna back and she said that there were several waves of storms rolling through the area, so I gambled and decided to go ahead and deplane in Tulsa. It woudl only be a 4.5 hour drive back to the house (about as long as the initial flight should have been) and I should be home no later than 11pm to get some sleep. So when they called for the passengers who had requested departure, I hurried to the back of the plane.

One other passenger got off the plane with me. She lived in Tulsa, and this is where she was heading anyway. Good for her. We rode in a work truck that took us to the underbelly of the Tulsa air terminal (the plane had just been parked on the tarmac, along with the four other planes that had already landed for refuelling) and let us in. I made my way up to the auto rental counters to get my car for the ride back to Dallas. The agent at Alamo mentioned that several flights to DFW from Tulsa had been delayed or cancelled, and when I looked on the airline chart right behind me, sure enough, several had. So I guessed that I had gambled correctly. Rather than sitting on the tarmac for several hours or flying through more rough weather (or worse, getting stuck in Tulsa all night), I had opted for the early exit and would be well on my way home before they had any kind of update on the flight.

The drive from Tulsa wasn't bad at all. I made it home by 10:30 (OK, so I might have exceeded posted speeds just a bit) and got my full night's sleep last night. All I have to do today is get my work project done so I can head down to the airport to pick up my checked luggage and drop off the rental car.

So, to Tulsa, I really didn't get to see much of you while I sprinted through the airport to the cars to the freeway out of town, but I certainly enjoyed what I did see of you.

Oh, and as it turns out, the flight landed safely at DFW about 7:15pm. It must have cleared for takeoff as soon as my feet hit the tarmac. Go figure.