A little while ago, my wife had a business meeting in Miami and I had a day off so we decided to make a long weekend trip of it. We chose a flight, UA1142 that left Houston mid-afternoon so we could take care of loose ends before heading to Houston's Intergalactic Airport. Although the meeting was in Miami, my wife's business contact had suggested we fly to Fort Lauderdale and then drive. Fort Lauderdale has a smaller airport, it's easy to get in and out and the drive to Miami is about half our drive from home to either of Houston's airports. Our only reservation about the mid-afternoon flight was the risk of thunderstorms in Florida in the late afternoon.
The flight from Houston went fine. We headed out over the Gulf of Mexico enjoying United Airlines fine hospitality – they graciously allowed is to pay for TV and drinks. Flying today is such a retrograde experience from the golden age of flying, (which for me was in the late 80s and through the 90s). The only real disappointment I had was that the handle on my Samsonite carry-on bag broke as I lifted it to put it in the overhead compartment. Devastated as I was, my wife pointed out that I had bought the case back in February 1995 at a cost of about $100 so I'd had pretty good service from it!
As we approached the west coast of Florida I saw a wall of cloud to the south-east, pretty much aligned with the coast, illuminated from the setting sun to the west. I shot several frames of the scene with my Canon S100
