Finally Home

I had a long layover in Houston yesterday.  When arrived there it was a partly sunny day, but as the afternoon progressed it seemed that rain was on the way.

My flight to Cleveland was supposed to begin boarding at 5:55 P.M. and depart at 6:30. The boarding process was delayed by about ten minutes because they were waiting for one of the flight attendants to arrive.  Nevertheless, we seemed that we would be ready to leave at the scheduled time.  Outside, it was starting to rain.  

Then one of the attendants announced that there would be a delay... the pilot's PA system was not working, and a mechanic would have to be called in.  That was only a short delay.  We left the gate about ten minutes late and taxied out onto the runway.  Then the pilot announced that, because of the strong winds with the approaching weather system, it would be necessary for us to use a different runway.  Of course, many other planes had to make the same change, and we had a long wait for our turn to take off.  

At last, we were in the air, however there was a fair amount of turbulence.

At one point as we were starting to go through the clouds, I saw what appeared to be a funnel cloud in the distance.  Unfortunately, I had put my camera away, and did not get it out quickly enough to take a picture of it.   Finally, after we rose above the cloud deck, the flight was smooth.

The weather system forced us to take a different flight path. (I was watching the path on the screen in front of my seat.)  We headed east across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama before heading northward as we came to Georgia. We encountered turbulence once again as we began our descent over Ohio where it was also raining.  Instead of arriving in Cleveland at 10:15 P.M., it was 11:00 P.M. when we finally landed.  My friend Frank, who house-sits for me, was at the baggage claim area waiting for me.  Finally, around 11:45, I was back home.