They could not fuel the plane in Sacramento, had to remove a panel to access a manual valve of some kind so that they could gas it up (I had a Jaguar XJ-6 like this once). Anyway, that took an hour and a half.

Then, somewhere over Nevada, a passenger passes out in the aisle right next to my seat. The guy had a mild heart attack, according to one of the four doctors who were swarming around him. The captain then tells us that we all have to stay in our seats when we land in Salt Lake City until the EMT's get this guy off the plane. He also said that he was very very sorry that most of us were going to miss our connecting flights.

Anyway we land and the guy seems OK and can even walk off the plane with the EMTs. I have less than 1/2 hour for my connection to Lewiston.

I go humping it across the terminals to where the little planes are -- amazed at how many people wander the airport while texting/surfing and are not even looking up. Also amusing are the people who walk four abreast and weave aimlessly.

I get to Gate E 80 and the Lewiston plane is not here -- it's late. No big deal as it was a half hour extra I had to walk and stretch.

We all get on the plane -- a Canadian Regional Jet 200 and we sit and sit and sit.

Finally the Captain comes on and tells us that there is a maintenance issue. There is a cracked dust cover on the instrument panel that needs to be replaced. Not to worry, because the crack maintenance guys are cannibalizing one off another jet as we speak.

They found the part, brought it on our plane and proceeded to BS with the flight crew for about ten minutes.

It took 2 guys and 30 minutes to replace this little dust cover and all the while -- no water, no AC.