7:29am G2 bus from downtown New Haven to Tweed
I, hauled my luggage out the door, and was on the B1 bus by 7:03am and connected to the G2 in New Haven. The ground was still damp from the overnight rainfall, but slowly evaporated in the warm early sun. It was a quiet morning and the bus had few passengers, but the same boisterous woman from my last ride to Tweed was onboard and bellowed more stories of cookouts to fellow riders. The tone of her voice and vocal inflections triggered memories of the character Annie (Lillian Randolph) from It’s A Wonderful Life. After her stop, though, tranquility resumed.
The busses to the Tweed run only hourly and the later one would have arrived too late for check in, so I got there well before departure.
passengers boarding US Airways Flight 4297 at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport (HVN)
By 7:45am, I had my ticket in hand and over an hour to kill. As the sun climbed higher in the sky and vaporized the remaining moisture, the morning grew hot and humid, but I opted to sit outside nonetheless. It was nice to breathe fresh air and feel the daylight on my face while listening to the calls of birds and the rhythmic tapping of runoff water dripping in the aluminum downspout from the roof.
After watching a single engine prop gracefully land at the adjacent private airstrip, I went inside to take a break from the heat. It was quarter past eight when I passed through security and quarter of nine when I boarded the plane. With earplugs inserted and shades across my eyes, I settled into my seat with the hope for some rest. There were only two of us in the five-seat row along the rear bulkhead, so I slid over by one to leave a vacancy on either side. Since I knew they would be crushed, I allowed my bananas to ride beside me in the empty window seat, 8F.
