Flying Pepsi
At the end of March, 2000.
I was heading for Florida to send the lovable Montreal Cadadiens to Playoffs. Of course, I knew whether I go or not does not matter, though…
The Canadiens struggling for the playoffs berth were schedule to face the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. If they win both 2 matches with them, it was almost sure that they would go to playoffs. There was another reason for me to visit Florida at that timing. The spring camp of my favorite Montreal Expos was also held in Florida, too.
Arriving at Miami via Chicago from Tokyo, despite the jet lag I directly drove a rent-a-car to Sunrise where the Panthers have their home arena. Sunrise is located at the east coast of the Florida peninsula.
While I cheered hard, the Canadiens were beaten after the Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure marked two goals.
I guess that the players went to Tampa by the charter flight just after the game. Tampa is located at the west coast of the Florida peninsula.
I slept at a motel in Sunrise and went to Tampa by car on the following day. 8 hours…
On my arriving in Tampa. the game against the Lightning just started.
Jet lag, long drive… I was sleeping in the arena while the game was on. I remember that the Canadiens won the game, however, I do not remember how…
On the following day, I was to make another 8-hour drive to see the Expos’s preseason match. Jupitor, where the Expos held the spring camp, is located at the east coast of the peninsula and it is just near Sunrise in which I stayed at the previous night. Because a Japanese hero (?), Irabu, was supposed to pitch for the game, I wanted to move to Jupiter by noon.
I woke up at 09:00… It was impossible to get there in time. For the mean time, I called several airline companies. Luckily I found a flight to West Palm Beach near Jupiter leaving Tampa at 10:30. I was surprised to know that the flight from Tampa to West Palm Beach is less than an hour! I regretted I drove from the coast to the coast on the previous day.
While I was arriving to the airport, the sky got dark and dark. Finally, it was about to start raining heavily. I left the rent-a-car at the airport at this other side of the coast.
I finished the boarding procedure and waited the light near the gate. The thunder storm covered the whole city.
I bought a hotdog and a big cup of Pepsi at the stand, thinking the flight may be delayed. The Big cup of Pepsi is huge size from the Japanese point of view. The lady at the stand asked me if I needed the lid. I answered “No”, as I thought that I would be able to drink all while I waited the delaying flight.
However, the flight was not delayed and suddenly the announcement for the boarding began. I pushed the hotdog into my mouth, but could not drink up the Pepsi. Considering the remaining amount in the cup, I did not trash it.
I arrived at the gate for the boarding, but there was no place around there. I thought I would take a bus to the plane. And I found a tiny place was waiting for me ahead. The capacity may be less than 20 persons, I imagined. It is impossible to find such a tiny plane in Japan… Because the place is so tight, the boarding bridge can not be attached to the door of the plane. Passengers has to walk to the plane after passing the gate and getting down to the ground. There was no roof from the building to the place for some 25 meters. Heavy rain still punching the ground.
I dashed to the place with Pepsi without lid. I got soaked and the amount of Pepsi increased a little…
The tiny plane with 3 passengers and 3 crews was at the edge of the runway. All other planes, middle sized or small, looked like jumbo jets. Heavy rain still continued.
The place wait for some minutes probably due to weather. Then, it started running, and jumped. 5 meters, 10 meters, 20 meters, 50 meters, the altitude was gradually getting high. The speed of going up was very slow compared with bigger planes. It is no way…
The plane very shortly plunged into low-hanging thunder heads. Thud… I felt the plane bounded. My body jumped at the seat. And,,, the Pepsi without lid also jumped. Thanks to the law of gravitation, the jumping materials fall, The Pepsi lashed down retrorsely… The businessman seated behind me cried.
The seatbelt sign had never turned off during the flight due to the weather till the place arrived in West Palm Beach. I found the droopy businessman’s white shirt now became a dotted shirt…
