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COMMENTS BY KIM: Flying through a pandemic

It was an eerie feeling. Desolate at times, too.

Earlier this week I returned from a Florida fishing trip. The trip gave me a view of how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting other parts of the country. I was originally supposed to fly out of Minot in early April but that didn’t happen. There was way too much uncertainty about coronavirus.

However, Florida opened up to visitors in June and I made the decision to go. I would be staying at a friend’s house and fishing every day. You can’t get farther away from likely coronavirus sources than that.

There weren’t many people on the plane leaving Minot. Face masks were mandatory on Delta Airlines. It made for an unusual sight. An effort was made to keep passengers in compliance with social distancing guidelines, but it’s virtually impossible in the close quarters of an airliner to keep everyone six feet away from one another even when more than half the seats are open.

Minot’s airport was basically empty when I checked in at the Delta desk. I think the line consisted of only four or five people. My flight was to have gone to Minneapolis and then non-stop to Miami, but with limited planes in the air the airlines have made many changes to scheduling in an effort to avoid flying planes with very few passengers.

Unfortunately, that meant the non-stop flight from Minneapolis to Miami had been changed to Atlanta and then Miami with arrival late evening rather than early afternoon. I opted for a plane to Fort Lauderdale, about 45 minutes away from Miami but put my arrival in Florida several hours ahead of the Atlanta option.

The Minneapolis airport was quite a contrast to what usually is experienced there. Almost every shop was closed. There were only a few people in the airport, all wearing masks. The restaurant of choice, the only choice, was McDonald’s. Weird times.

In Key Largo, Fla., where I stayed, my host and I made a couple of trips to pick up necessary groceries and a few other items for boat maintenance and such. The few stores that were open required customers to wear masks or they were turned away. A popular marine store hadn’t received any new merchandise since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

I boarded a flight at the Miami airport for my return trip to Minot. Again, the line at the ticket counter was almost non-existent. It took only a few minutes to check in at what is normally one of the busiest airports in the United States. A few shops were open, but very few. Those that were open were selling face masks, hand sanitizer along with the usual snacks and reading material. Everyone was wearing face masks.

There was no direct flight from Miami to Minneapolis. Instead, the airline opted for a Miami to Detroit to Minneapolis to Minot route. I’d never been to Detroit, so I really didn’t mind. Especially since I was told the only place to eat at that airport was a Popeye’s. That works for me. But it didn’t.

The flight was nearly full. I know because I was seated in the last row and therefore the last to get off the plane. I made it to Popeye’s only to find it had closed 15 minutes earlier. A hastily written sign hanging on the security gate said the closure was for “unforeseen circumstances.”

Fortunately, another eating place had opened up in the airport the same day. Seating was limited due to social distancing guidelines. Everything was slow but it worked and I made my connecting flight with a couple minutes to spare. Almost everyone in the airport was wearing a mask or had one pulled underneath their chin. Everyone on the plane was wearing a mask.

With the changes in flight schedules comes some challenging moments. I had one at the Minneapolis airport. The arrival from Detroit sat outside the terminal for a long time. The pilot said our early arrival meant there was another plane in front of him. Eventually we were directed to another gate but the boarding of my flight to Minot had already begun.

By the time I got off the plane I had less than 10 minutes to departure time and the gate was about a mile away. I heard last call in the almost abandoned airport and hollered that I was on my way. An equally exhausted and masked man pulling a suitcase about forty yards behind me gasped a “thank you.”

We were the last two to board the plane, walking down a narrow isle flanked by masked passengers.

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