Hurricane Ike: Preparations and the wait

Well, this weekend is being spent in Houston as we wait for Hurricane Ike. This massive storm should create havoc overnight as it passes through our fair city.

I went out this morning and took some preparation pictures, so enjoy...As I type this the wind is gusting pretty good. it is weird, it is first loud, then silence, then loud then silence. No rain just yet. One good thing is that it gives me a chance to clean up my apartment...

Oh, the Internet access is extremely slow...

A view out my window; I somehow don't think this dead tree will make it. Or at least it will have no leaves left on it.

A look down the street; seems normal.

In the other direction.

The local hardware store is quite busy and they are out of D batteries. Since most flashlights use D batteries, you would think they would stock up on more of those, no they have countless AAA and C sizes.

A local apartment gears up.

A few sand bags to keep the water out.

Removing the awning just in case the wind decides to have it for dinner.

My shopping neighbors; not as bad as I expected at all. Except that I could not get any quarters as the Customer Service counter was closed; due to the Hurricane the girl said. Does that make any sense to you? The supermarket closed at 12:30p which does make sense. I eventually got my quarters from the Kolachie Factory after buying breakfast. Alls, I needed was just $2.

Not much bread left on the shelf. This picture is mis-leading as there was a cart off to the right with brown whole wheat bread.

This is not misleading though, this is the paper products aisle.

A closer look.

The parking lot.

I like the design, do you?

Churascos getting the awnings down


More bags of sand.


Looking kind of normal...

The birds are chilling trying to balance on the wires.



I hope this house is O.K.

Plywood to go.

Look at those clouds.

Orange County September 2008: Arriving in Houtston-Intercontinental, Houston, TX (IAH) from Los Angeles, CA (LAX)

10SEP08 Houston Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH)

We touched down at 10:00a and when I took my phone out of my pocket, I realized that it was still on, oops...

I went back to sleep and awoke again when we blocked in the gate at 10:06p. I gathered my stuff and disembarked and headed for Baggage Claim in Terminal C where I picked up the parking lot but.

Before I did though, I did ask the Welcome to Houston folks about getting a Metro Card. They said they did not sell a card and that if I needed change I should go by the SuperShuttle counter and they should be able to help there. Interesting...now why can't we just have a machine that sells the Metro Q cards as well as a change machine?

Orange County September 2008: Departing Los Angeles International, Los Angeles, CA (LAX) for Houtston-Intercontinental, Houston, TX (IAH)

10SEP08 Los Angeles International, Los Angeles CA (LAX)

It was 4:03p, when we pulled into LAX. In about two minutes, we made it to the Tom Bradley International Terminal and dropped off the guys who were going to Delhi.

At 4:13p, I arrived at Terminal 6 for Continental and Delta and disembarked. Great, I can make the 4:50p after all. I re-printed my boarding pass and headed to the TSA, showed my ID and went upstairs. The TSA agents up there gave me a hard time and had myself and another guy waiting to be searched. It was just stupid. The guy kept calling someone on the radio who eventually came over and told him to let us clear as we had no issues.

I then made my way to the gate and asked the agent to change me to the earlier flight which she did without any issues; I even got a window seat with the middle empty.

I looked out the window and saw aircraft N17105, a Boeing 757-200 with winglets pushing back from the gate. I also noticed someone’s name on the nose; “Jay Putsell,” I wonder who is that?


Boarding soon started, but was halted soon after as the jetway was backed up. In about three minutes it restarted and I made my way in.

Orange County September 2008: Arriving in John Wayne International, Orange County CA (SNA) from Houtston-Intercontinental, Houston, TX (IAH)

08SEP08 John Wayne International, Orange County CA (SNA)

We touched down with a thud and taxied into the gate. It's been a while since I'd flown in this airport and not too much had changed.

It was fantastic to see all the private airplanes including a few G3s. Not sure I'd see that many private airplanes in a long while.

The flight attendant made an announcement to close the windows and open the vents so the airplane would keep cool and almost immediately almost everyone closed their blinds making the airplane dark and hiding my view of the outside world.

It was 5:25p when we made it to the gate, 0:44 late. I disembarked and made my way to the arrivals where our ride was waiting.

Orange County September 2008: Houtston-Intercontinental, Houston, TX (IAH) to John Wayne International, Orange County CA (SNA)

CO1821 8SEP08 Houston-Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH) to John Wayne International, Orange County CA (SNA) 3:05p 4:41p 73G N??775

Flight Time: 3:01
Seat Map

It was slow going as we all got onboard. All the 12 First class leather seats were already occupied on this single aisle Boeing 737-700 with winglets.

I continued to my aisle seat in the 3-3 configured Economy class. I did not have any issues finding a place for my bag, but it was filling up fast. I opened the window shades as the cabin was quite dark and dreary and also a bit warm. Soon, the other two passengers in the window and aisle arrived so I made way for them to get settled in.

An announcement was made that we should close the shades and open our air vents so the cabin could cool down. Almost everyone complied, so the cabin got even darker.

At about 3:42p, the Captain came on the pa and announced our flying time of 3:01 and advised that it would be bumpy on the takeoff.

At 3:48p, an announcement was made that those without seats should take any open seat to avoid any further delay of the flight. Those standing quickly took their seats. At 3:50p, the door closed and four minutes later the safety video started as we pushed back and then headed out to the runway.

I had no idea which one we took as all the windows were still closed. It was not until 4:12p, that we were finally airborne. I actually took a cat nap just as we started down the runway.

When I awoke, the movie had already started and there was a drink cart next to me. We were served two packs of peanuts followed by beverages of choice. Beer, wine, alcoholic drinks or margaritas were 5 USD or a continental currency worth the same.

I did not recognize the movie, so I looked up the move and it was “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” with Amy Adams and Frances McDormand. There were also 12 music channels, but I had no headset to listen to any of them and did not feel like paying $1 for one. The music channels were:

1. Movie Sound Track
2. Now & Then
3. Ambient Groove
4. Latin Fiesta
5. Continental Lounge
6. The Classics
7. The Hit Factory
8. Jazz Beat
9. Movie Sound Track
10. 
    
11. Country Roads
12. Live Broadway

The handset actually went to channel 22.

A second drink service passed me heading forward at about 5:59p local time in Houston. By now the movie was over and a Behind the Scenes program was on about the making of “Horton hears a who!. By this time at 6:17p, the drink cart arrived.

At 6:31p local (4:31p West coast time), the Captain said that there was some weather ahead and we would get to it in about 10 minutes, as it will be bumpy, he advised us to use the restroom if we needed to at this point. We would land at 5:18p he said.

By now there were music videos being shown on the overhead monitors. Soon the promised turbulence started and by now there was some CNN Sports on the monitor. We still had about 34 minutes to go before we made it to John Wayne.

At 4:49p we started our descent and the captain came on the PA and said that in about 27 minutes at 5:17p, we would be on the ground at SNA. The winds were 17knots with clouds at 1,600’ and a temperature of 76F. it was his pleasure to have us on board hope we have a great day come back and fly with us again. The flight attendant then said that this concludes our beverage service.

Some CNN video played on about a place called La Haine and then one continued called Global Trends about Berlin. This was followed by the sitcom, “My Wife and Kids” with Damian Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin.

We then cleared 10,000' and prepared for our descent.

Orange County September 2008: Arriving at Houtston-Intercontinental, Houston, TX (IAH) from downtown Houston, TX

Houston-Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH)

It was 2:01p when the parking lot bus pulled into Terminal C. I noticed the new 500 bus service waiting to my left. This is the new Metro bus service that costs $15 each way. I went over to the driver and asked him where would I pay for the service. He motioned me to go inside and look by the Super Shuttle sign.

Sure enough, inside there was a Metro Direct sign right under the Super Shuttle sign. The place was devoid of people, so I said hello into the open door. A lady came out with food over her hands, apparently it was lunch time as I noticed some others within the room eating as well.

I asked how do I get a Metro card and how much was the bus and she said that it was $15 and I would get a Metro card. I said, well I really just wanted a Metro card for the cheaper $1.00 bus and she said hold on. She then went in the back and came back with another lady who was whispering that they are not supposed to sell a Metro card if the traveler Is not taking the #500. The first lady then said to me that she can issue a Metro card, but the minimum she would put on it is $15. I said thank you and left.

This is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard as there is no other place in the airport where you can buy a Metro card so you can use the #102. It is ridiculous that they are doing this just so they can promote the #500. I think I’ll have a talk with the Metro CEO about my experience. Only two weeks ago, I had to give two visitors $1 each as they had no change to get on the bus and no place at the airport to bus a Q card. The Q card allows you get a free transfer otherwise you have to pay $1 each time you board the bus or rail.

Annoyed, I went upstairs, cleared security and made my way to my gate. I stopped in the presidents club briefly, picked up a copy of the Financial Times, some crackers, checked e-mail, then headed for the gate at about 2:45p; boarding should have started at 2:30p.

When I got there, I noticed that there was no airplane and heard the tail end of the announcement mentioning that the airplane was in another location and a tug had gone to retrieve it. The departure time still showed at 3:05p, which was laughable at best.

I started to head back towards the Club, where if I sat close enough to it, I could use the WiFi, then I saw my boss with whom I’m traveling sitting at the gate so I joined him.

The airplane showed up at about 3:00p and at that point, we were showing a departure time of 3:10p. boarding of First Class customers started at about 3:15p and at that point we were posting a 3:40p departure.

My row was called at about 3:25p so I boarded.

Orange County September 2008: Leaving downtown Houston

Downtown Houston

It was 1:25p when I left my house and headed for the highway. Traffic was light so getting onto I-45 from downtown then to I-10 and finally to US59 was not an issue. It was 1:51p when I pulled into the airport parking lot

Orange County September 2008: A work trip

I'm off to Orange County for work...

Berlin September 2008: Departing Berlin-Tegel, Germany (TXL) for London-Heathrow (LHR)

07SEP08 Berlin-Tegel, Berlin Germany (TXL)

As we entered the airport, the driver asked me which gate was my flight. Well I had no idea and so he pulled into an area with a list of all the flights and their departure times and gates. This was cool as I always saw this gigantic flight Information Display there and wondered how it was used and now I know. We checked our check-in area as A04 and he used that information to drop me directly outside of the door.

As I usually take the airport bus (109 or X9) back to the airport, I did not realize that this was the case, although I had taken a cab once before now that I think about it. The guy never stopped and checked this board though.

I arrived at the terminal at 6:30a, paid the drive the 19.80 EUR fare plus a tip and entered the terminal.

There was no one at the normal check-in, but the line for Fast Bag Drop was about 6 people long. I checked in and was told to hang on a bit for a boarding pass. At about 6:45p, one was issued to me, an apology being made for a middle seat, but that was all that was left on the plane. I thanked the agent and made my way to security line which was really long. I think everyone had waited until this time to get on the security line.

Soon, an agent came out and directed some of us to another area which had no line. In no time, I was cleared through security after the agent re-checked my back as she saw something, but when she checked it was fine. I then cleared Immigration and made my way to the gate. The area we used was actually that for Continental’s flight to Newark which was departing at 9:35a.

As they were boarding, I boarded right away and the same agent who checked me in was took my boarding pass.

Berlin September 2008: Arriving in Houston Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH)

7SEP08 Houston Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH)

We touched down quietly and made out way to the gate. It is always weird when you sit in the middle of the plane as you can never tell what is going on outside. All I could see is the flaps on the left wing.

We blocked in five minutes later E4, so we could not have been that far away from the gate.

I got my stuff together and headed out towards the Immigration Hall. As I walked out I could see that they were using the Lee Road runway as I saw the Lufthansa (LH) Boeing 747-400 behind a few Continental (CO) planes and a United Airlines (UA) Airbus A319.

It was quite the wait there as they were having computer trouble so they could not process the Visitors which was really annoying. I could just imagine if that was the case when I arrived in the U.K. on Saturday, I would not have made that connection at all.

Eventually after about 15 minutes waiting I saw an Officer, cleared and then head to the Baggage Claim area. I did stop by Global Entry and was told that I do have to make the appt. online and then come in. I will see if I can get an appt. this week. I then made my way out.

Berlin September 2008: Arriving in London-Heathrow (LHR) from Berlin-Tegel, Germany (TXL)

07SEP08 London-Heathrow International, London England (LHR)

I was jolted awake by the touch down on the right runway. I continued to sleep until we blocked in at the gate. I did hear the pilot say that we had blocked into the Satellite terminal so we would have to take the train into the main terminal.

It was quite a long way to get from the plane to the train. It is a series of walkways, escalators, signs and elevators. They do have a board with a few flights that have to take a shortcut, which is cool. There were about 6 flights on that list including flights to Miami and Los Angeles.

I cleared Immigration quickly after waiting a bit for a train to show up. I then cleared Customs and looked for the signs to the in terminal train. I could have also taken a bus, but decided against that this time as I had done that once from T4 to T5 which was an O.K. experience.

Once I made it to the platform, I noticed that the next train was in 10 minutes. Bummer. I waited and sure enough in 10 minutes, we were out of there. Sadly, there is no direct way to get from T5 to T4, so the train first went to T1,2,3 and then I had to wait another 10 minutes for a train to T4 that takes 4 minutes. Come on Heathrow, I think I know why you did this, just so you did not have to have special trains just go between the terminals, but you do have one that goes from the satellite to the main terminal? It should not take a customer 28 minutes to get from T5 to T4 by train!

Once in T4, I re-printed my boarding pass, got my security checks and then headed for the security area. I cleared without any issues and headed for the Club. Once there, i showed my credentials and entered. I had a little trouble connecting to the Internet, but eventually it worked.

I also headed up to the "tower" and watched planes depart. It was great to see Virgin's B744, Air India's B777-300ER as well as Jet Airways' plus a few BA's Airbus A319s.

It was soon time to go, so I headed to the gate where I got a seat at the aisle in the first Economy class cabin of the Boeing 777.

Leaving from gate 9 always gets me as it is farther than it seems from the HoliDeck.

Berlin September 2008: Arriving in Berlin-Tegel, Germany (TXL) from London-Heathrow (LHR)

06SEP08 Berlin-Tegel International, Berlin Germany (TXL)

We landed on the far runway at about 1:40p or so. It was not until 1:51p that we made it to the gate. It was cool to see plane spotters on the roof of the terminal.

I got my stuff together and made my way off the plane. As I exited, an agent asked me my name and I advised I was me. I thought it strange that there were about three security officers there as well. He said that they noticed that I was taking pictures back in Heathrow and wondered why I was doing that. I was pretty scared as this was a scary situation.

I told them that I am an airplane enthusiast and I take pictures of airplanes for my Web site. After some talk in German, they said it was fine. Quite odd as this had not happened before. My thought is that earlier when the flight attendant asked me if I was with the film crew that was onboard and I said no, he alerted the security folks. Quite weird I thought.

Outside at Immigration, they did take a little longer than usual to check out my passport. Basically, the guy checked every page thoroughly and then I was free to go.
Once outside, I contacted my friends and made my way to meet them.

Suhl, Germany: Arriving in Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) from Leipzig-Halle, Leipzig Germany (LEJ)

31AUG08 Frankfurt Main, Frankfurt Germany (FRA)

We taxied for a bit and I realized that we were heading for the hard stand. It was cool to see the Cargo carriers from Lufthansa, ANA, World and a few others.

We finally made it to the hardstand at 7:41a, then deplaned and boarded the bus and headed into the terminal.

It was weird as the bus dropped us right outside the secure area in Terminal 2. It was weird. I checked the board and my flight to Houston was still leaving from C15. I started to make my way there and it was really far away. This was actually a new area that is setup for the flights to the U.S. and select other cities. This C concourse is actually in Terminal 1 so it is quite a walk to get there.

There were flights leaving for Miami, FL (MIA); Dallas, TX (DFW) and Houston, TX and New York. They were all Boeing 747-400s except the flight to Newark which was an Airbus A330.

This area is set up with the lounges one floor up so passengers can board from their directly onto the planes. It is a little confusing with the signage, but it made sense after walking around a bit. They also had newspapers at the gates which was cool and a place to get a snack before boarding.

Boarding did not start until 9:27a with kids first, then Business Class and then Economy. Lufthansa's First Class passengers do not board from the same area as others. They actually have the choice to be dropped off on the tarmac in a car of their choice from the First Class Lounge.

Suhl, Germany: Leipzig-Halle, Leipzig Germany (LEJ) to Frankfurt Main, Frankfurt Germany (FRA)

LH1101 31AUG08 Leipzig-Halle, Leipzig Germany (LEJ) to Frankfurt Main, Frankfurt Germany (FRA) 6:30a 7:25a D-ABIS 735

Flight Time: 0:45
Seat Map [PDF]

The boarding process started at about 6:05a. I was able to see the airplane just outside the window.


In addition to a large hangar belonging to DHL across the field.

There was also this airplane and I have no idea what type it is.

In addition, an Antonov cargo airliner was sitting across the way.

It was a pretty light flight, so the boarding process was quick. I said hello to the flight attendant as I boarded and she reciprocated. On this aircraft, there were about four rows in Business class in a 3-3 configuration with the middle seat lowered as some kind of tray that is shared by the two passengers.

There is a partition for Economy class in a 3-3 configuration. I found my seat and settled in. I had to put my bag up in the overhead as I was in the Exit row.

At 6:15a, boarding was complete and the door closed shortly after. At 6:21a, the manual safety demo started, then two minutes later we pushed back with the engines starting up as we did.

On our way out to the runway, we passed a few DHL planes and I could also see three World Airways planes at another part of the airport.



One was a cargo MD-11. One of them had just arrived. This was the airplane that one of the crew had told me they were waiting on to arrive. The guy next to me also told me that earlier there was a Boeing 747 of World's that left.

I could also see the control tower across the way and then a view of the terminal that we had just left. It was great that the sun was just coming up so I could see the airport layout.


We took to runway 8R and were airborne by 6:36a.

I was sitting next to a pilot for an American carrier so we talked all the way to Frankfurt. Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendants came through with tea, coffee, water, juice, etc. There were no snacks served.

we soon started our descent in Frankfurt and touched down at 7:28a.

Suhl, Germany: Arriving/Departing Leipzig-Halle Flughafen (LEJ)

31AUG08 Leipzig-Halle Flughafen, Leipzig Germany (LEJ)

It was 3:47a when the train pulled into the station at LEJ. We were a minute early as we had left a minute early.

The airport is much larger than I thought and there were maybe five of us on the entire platform. I looked around a bit and then went upstairs two levels to the check-in area.

There was a crowd of people being checked in for a 5:30a Air Berlin (AB) flight to Mallorca, a 5:30a to Las Palmas and another at 5:25a by Condor (DE) to Herkalion. All the other counters including Lufthansa's (LH) were empty.

I walked the length of the walkway to the departure/arrivals area to kill time and also to scope out the airport. Nice airport and quite large.





I then headed back to the check-in area which was not yet open, but the agents were preparing. In a few minutes, it opened up at 4:30a. I waited a bit until the line was cleared and then got checked in. I got a seat for this flight and was on the standby list for the flight to Houston from Frankfurt.

I looked around a bit again to try to figure out exactly where the active runways were and then headed back upstairs and made the long trek to the departure area. Here is a model of the airport from 2001. It changed somewhat since then.


I cleared security and noticed that there was a flight crew in the crew line. It puzzled me as there were too many of them for any of the departing flights. I then noticed that they were from World Airways and later found out they were doing a charter to the U.S., Bangor, Maine I think. The flight was actually in transit when it got here and is an hour late today.

After security, I went up to the gate and waited. The other flights were in their final stages of boarding. Mine would not start until 6:05a, that is another 45 or so minutes away.

Suhl, Germany: Train station (Hauptbanhof) in Leipzig, Germany

31AUG08 Leipzig, Germany

It was 12:31a when I arrived in this new city. The train station reminded me a lot of Paddington station in London, England. It was vast with about 23 train bays, with very tall ceilings and very wide arches. I had been wondering what the heck I’d do until 3:33a since I had thought I’d arrive a lot closer to the departure time of the train for the airport.

I scouted out the station and noticed a McDonald’s with a “24 h” sign on it; aha! I thought…I then went outside and had a look at the city. It was vast, tall buildings were abound and as late as it was there were people everywhere. Straight ahead it looked like the main bar area. As I had nowhere to put my bags (the baggage locker place was closed), I went back inside.

I walked around a bit again and then headed outside to another area of the gigantic and really beautiful terminal. I noticed a Burger King that was closed, which explained the heavy traffic at McDonald’s. I took some pictures and then headed back inside. Once back inside, I looked around a bit, noted the track of my train’s departure and headed into McDonald’s.

I ordered a chicken sandwich, fries and a drink and settled in.

At 3:15a, I left and headed for track 13. Yup, my train was sitting there so I boarded. At 3:32a, the doors were locked and we departed for the airport.