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Well Folks, after it was COLD, FREEZING RAIN and all, it was time to head back home that day.
My Friend and I had been talking figuring out if we would be de-iced or not. We saw a long line for it and I concluded most likely that we would. He took me back to DFW, we went into the garage. We got out and walked to Security. We said our good byes and I went through security. Took no more then 2 minutes at all. Beautiful!
I walked to gate C-4. I ALWAYS ALWAYS leave from that gate when I fly back to STL. I kid you not. It is like "ok alex is flying back to STL, assign him gate C-4" Whether it is an MD80, or 757 it has always been C-4, interesting! I sat down, and it was 40 minutes to boarding and there was basically no one around. I talked to a passenger who was traveling with her husband, she was from Palm Springs, connecting to STL via DFW. I told her you are in for COLD weather! 
The 757 landed and taxied to our gate it was N701TW 
The VERY FIRST 757 FOR TWA , I was ECSTATIC! Such a shame I wasn't able to fly it under TWA colors, but still very neat for me to be able to do that!
They announced the boarding for our flight and I looked around, it did not seem full at all, maybe...80 people if that?! Extremely light load for sure. Groups, 1, 2, and 3 were called. Finally I was announced in Group 4. I got on the plane, walked down to my row, 22. There was a really huge guy sitting in the aisle seat completely taking up the middle too.
He is lucky he wasn't flying SWA. I had the window seat and I did not want to make him move but I was not going to climb over him either. So I figured since it wasn't full I'd sit down somewhere else and just wait. But he saw I was standing and said "are you in 22F?" I said "yes but--" He immediatly got up and struggled to move without disturbing anyone else. I coould see it was really hard for him to do that. I said "thank you so much" I sat down and thought "im not going to go to the bathroom now 
" Some may feel sorry, some may not, I don't care how they got to be that way but they did and it was obvious, he wasn't enjoying it.
I peaked out the window and saw an MD80 coming in from BNA. It was being towed in and i saw its flaps were still hanging out!
Definetly very strange. It was at the gate until we pulled out and not once the flaps came back in. No one walked around to look at it or anything. Odd.
I heard the chime go off for our row and saw the man had ringed a F/A. She came by and he requested a seatbelt extentioner (sp?). She got one for him and he put it on. We finished boarding and our 757 backed out. We taxied, and taxied, and passed 2 AA MD80 getting DE-iced. I thought why are we not going there to be De-Iced?
We passed by them and then went around E Terminal too. Over the taxiways. We passed an ATA L1011
Then we passed a 737 with winglets.
We went to a ramp area, and the pilot announced we would be de-iced.
Here is a map of the route we took, quite a long taxi! Circle is where we got de-iced.
I spotted a NWA DC9 and AA 763 being De-iced too.
We stopped and the engines quit. The de-icing men came over and started spraying us.
After we were done being de-iced he started the flaps, started the engines, and we started moving, very fast. We swung onto the runway and we immediatly started the take off roll! I mean from the ramp to the runway in 45 seconds. It was amazing! We then took off and headed into the cloudy sky!
We were served pretzels and drinks. I got myself a coke again as usual. CBS Eye on American came on again of course and the pilot made so many announcements that the TV basically stood still the whole time
I gazed out the window and i saw blinking lights rapidly flashing in front of us, it got closer and closer and I saw it was a Southwest 737-700 with winglets in Blue Canyon Colors! I think it was taunting me 
Last sunlight of the day before it got pitch black. Soon I saw the city lights come by as we approached near St. Louis. I saw 270 go underneath us and we turned right, and flew over 40 East, we turned over the arch and west for STL Airport. We were extremely high up and he put up the spoilers and i could feel the air rushing or rather not rushing haha over the wings. He was pushing that plane down! about 40 seconds or so from touchdown the gears dropped and locked into place. then the threshold came up. We touched down immedaitly on the runway-R 30L. We started slowing down quickly, spoilers came up, flaps down and out. then i heard and felt huge vibrations and rumblings from below, and the loudest squeal coming from below. HE WAS USING THE WHEEL BRAKES TOO It was so rough I thought the gear would snap off. The plane seemed to shudder, then we veered off the runway to the left onto the taxiway, still going quite fast. I looked out the window and saw we got off on N! He landed that damn plane in less then 5,000 feet- quite a MDW feat landing!
We taxied to gate C-22 I think....not sure. We got off the plane and i headed to the shuttle, got on the bus and found my car. I went home and was back into my house by 9pm!
Alex
My Friend and I had been talking figuring out if we would be de-iced or not. We saw a long line for it and I concluded most likely that we would. He took me back to DFW, we went into the garage. We got out and walked to Security. We said our good byes and I went through security. Took no more then 2 minutes at all. Beautiful!
I walked to gate C-4. I ALWAYS ALWAYS leave from that gate when I fly back to STL. I kid you not. It is like "ok alex is flying back to STL, assign him gate C-4" Whether it is an MD80, or 757 it has always been C-4, interesting! I sat down, and it was 40 minutes to boarding and there was basically no one around. I talked to a passenger who was traveling with her husband, she was from Palm Springs, connecting to STL via DFW. I told her you are in for COLD weather! The 757 landed and taxied to our gate it was N701TW The VERY FIRST 757 FOR TWA , I was ECSTATIC! Such a shame I wasn't able to fly it under TWA colors, but still very neat for me to be able to do that!They announced the boarding for our flight and I looked around, it did not seem full at all, maybe...80 people if that?! Extremely light load for sure. Groups, 1, 2, and 3 were called. Finally I was announced in Group 4. I got on the plane, walked down to my row, 22. There was a really huge guy sitting in the aisle seat completely taking up the middle too.
He is lucky he wasn't flying SWA. I had the window seat and I did not want to make him move but I was not going to climb over him either. So I figured since it wasn't full I'd sit down somewhere else and just wait. But he saw I was standing and said "are you in 22F?" I said "yes but--" He immediatly got up and struggled to move without disturbing anyone else. I coould see it was really hard for him to do that. I said "thank you so much" I sat down and thought "im not going to go to the bathroom now " Some may feel sorry, some may not, I don't care how they got to be that way but they did and it was obvious, he wasn't enjoying it. I peaked out the window and saw an MD80 coming in from BNA. It was being towed in and i saw its flaps were still hanging out!
Definetly very strange. It was at the gate until we pulled out and not once the flaps came back in. No one walked around to look at it or anything. Odd.
I heard the chime go off for our row and saw the man had ringed a F/A. She came by and he requested a seatbelt extentioner (sp?). She got one for him and he put it on. We finished boarding and our 757 backed out. We taxied, and taxied, and passed 2 AA MD80 getting DE-iced. I thought why are we not going there to be De-Iced?
We passed by them and then went around E Terminal too. Over the taxiways. We passed an ATA L1011
Then we passed a 737 with winglets.
We went to a ramp area, and the pilot announced we would be de-iced.
Here is a map of the route we took, quite a long taxi! Circle is where we got de-iced.
I spotted a NWA DC9 and AA 763 being De-iced too.
We stopped and the engines quit. The de-icing men came over and started spraying us.
After we were done being de-iced he started the flaps, started the engines, and we started moving, very fast. We swung onto the runway and we immediatly started the take off roll! I mean from the ramp to the runway in 45 seconds. It was amazing! We then took off and headed into the cloudy sky!
We were served pretzels and drinks. I got myself a coke again as usual. CBS Eye on American came on again of course and the pilot made so many announcements that the TV basically stood still the whole time
I gazed out the window and i saw blinking lights rapidly flashing in front of us, it got closer and closer and I saw it was a Southwest 737-700 with winglets in Blue Canyon Colors! I think it was taunting me Last sunlight of the day before it got pitch black. Soon I saw the city lights come by as we approached near St. Louis. I saw 270 go underneath us and we turned right, and flew over 40 East, we turned over the arch and west for STL Airport. We were extremely high up and he put up the spoilers and i could feel the air rushing or rather not rushing haha over the wings. He was pushing that plane down!
about 40 seconds or so from touchdown the gears dropped and locked into place. then the threshold came up. We touched down immedaitly on the runway-R 30L. We started slowing down quickly, spoilers came up, flaps down and out. then i heard and felt huge vibrations and rumblings from below, and the loudest squeal coming from below. HE WAS USING THE WHEEL BRAKES TOO It was so rough I thought the gear would snap off. The plane seemed to shudder, then we veered off the runway to the left onto the taxiway, still going quite fast. I looked out the window and saw we got off on N! He landed that damn plane in less then 5,000 feet- quite a MDW feat landing!We taxied to gate C-22 I think....not sure. We got off the plane and i headed to the shuttle, got on the bus and found my car. I went home and was back into my house by 9pm!
Alex
Stop Searching. Start Traveling. southwest.com 
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