Pretty Fancy Airport

Waiting at the airport

In order to get to the small town my sisters live in we had to change planes 3 times and the end of the line was Ft. Smith, Arkansas.  It is a small,  regional airport but we were really surprised by the decor.  No hard plastic seats for the weary traveler, but rather upholstered wingback chairs.  And the bathrooms were rather upscale too.
While waiting for our plane to depart on the homeward leg of our trip instead of a boarding gate personnel making the announcements, the pilot of our plane stepped up to the podium, informed us that he'd flown the plane we were about to get on from Memphis, with the landing gear extended.  There was some problem with a switch and he had the option of having the ground crew work on it which would involve the cancellation of that flight and subsequently our flight, or of flying with the gear down.  Because he said it was only a switch problem he decided to fly with them down, that would make our flight a little noisier and a little longer but it wasn't a safety issue.
How did I feel about that, well the gear have to be down anyway so we got onboard and flew.  Didn't notice it being any noisier than usual, but we did get to Memphis a little later, which meant that instead of grabbing some ribs from the numerous restaurants (and Memphis is known for its ribs)  in the airport we ran all the way to our next flight and didn't get anything to eat till we got home.  They don't feed you on short flights any more, not that airline food was ever very tasty.
But it was a pretty fancy little airport.