A week with no rides

It's been over a week since I last rode. In fact, last Friday I started doing a major tuneup on my mountain bike primarily because I knew I wasn't going to get to ride this week. I overhauled the hubs of both my main wheels and my backup pair, and threw both cassettes in a bucket of degreaser. That's where they have been for a week now.

Besides just being generally busy I went to Milwaukee to testify in the sentencing hearing for this case. The couple got 48 months for immigration and indentured servitude violations, which seems low considering they held a domestic servant 'captive' for almost 20 years. Then again, they are Filipino citizens which means when they get out of jail they will almost certainly be deported. I was called to testify about the back wages owed to the servant (almost 3/4 of a million dollars.)

Wrong Plane
A funny thing happened on the way to Milwaukee though. I had to fly to Denver to connect through to Milwaukee. It was one of these small Canadair Regional Jets that hold 40-50 people; one where to board you usually exit the airport and walk across the tarmac to the plane.

At the Denver Airport all of the similar small jet flights use the same main gate, and then you walk down some stairs and through a long hallway with doors labeled A-N. They have people with clipboards checking tickets etc.

As the time approached for our flight to push back, I was commenting to the man seated across the aisle that we may have gotten very lucky since we were the only two people on the plane seated in rows with empty seats. Just then a frazzled woman came rushing on the plane and sat down next to me.

We chatted briefly as the plane took off, and then I returned to my book. After about 30 minutes the pilot came on the intercom and did the spiel about our altitude, the weather and the expected flight time to Milwaukee. "Jill" tapped me on the shoulder and with a shocked expression said, "Is this plane really going to Milwaukee?" Of course I said yes, to which she responded "I not going to Milwaukee. I'm going to Indianapolis." To which I responded "Not without going to Milwaukee first..."

The funny thing was that her ticket was for a seat in row 13; my row. Had she held a ticked for any other row there would not have been vacant seats and it is likely the flight attendants would have put her on the right plane.