Stone crabs to Ohio

The Stone Crab Incident took place about 2 years ago during stone crab season in Florida.  Knowing that we had left Kristin at home and she was handling everything for me in the office and how much she loved stone crab I decided to go Captain Johnny’s and make a large purchase and bring them home on the airplane.  I made several stops before I found the best cooler I could find that would hold enough stone crab but also fit under the seat on the plane.  Captain Johnny packed them up for me to bring home on ice.  I picked them up and returned to the condo only to discover that Captain Johnny had packed way too much loose ice in the cooler.  So I repacked everything in zip lock baggies with just enough ice to make the 3 1/2 to 4 hr trip to and from the airports and home.

It just so that happened this flight was one of the few flights where we had scheduled so late that I didn’t have a seat assigned.  Chuck did have a seat so I convinced him to carry the stone crab with him and in the event that I couldn’t get a seat, at least the stone crab would get home.  I neglected to tell him to be sure to put the cooler under his seat instead of in the overhead bin but figured he would think of that.  Chuck’s seat was almost all the way in the back of the plane and when I finally got my seat it was located near the center of the plane.

As the plane begin it’s ascent into the sky, Chuck happened to look up and noticed that a few seats ahead of him, a passenger was holding a paper up in the air to keep water from dripping on his head.  A few moments later the passenger and a few others around him begin making a commotion to get the attention of the flight attendants who were seated for takeoff.  One quickly came to their aid and immediately began inquiring as to who put a cooler in the overhead compartment.  Of course Chuck hadn’t stored the cooler right above his seat but rather a few rows up.  Eventually Chuck fessed up and told the flight attendant that his wife made him bring the cooler on the plane.  He got up, grabbed the cooler and tried to take it back to his seat without falling.  Instead, the flight attendants let him stow the cooler back in their area.  Chuck hung me out to dry with his story.  When the plane had leveled out he came up to tell me what a mess I made back there.  Now the stewardess knows where I’m seated and she comes up and tells me I shouldn’t have been able to bring the cooler on the plane. Now I’m feeling really bad and know that Chuck is pissed off.  He has to sit back there listening to people complain about a wet seat.

I got off the plane in Cleveland and called Kristin to tell her she had better not get her hopes up for stone crab because I don’t know if they would be coming off the plane or not and that her Dad might be a little pissed off when he gets home.  Luckily, when he came out of the plane he just looked at me and shook his head.  I tried to tell him if he would just have set it under the seats even though it might have cramped his feet it would have been fine.  And how was I to know that the baggies weren’t going to hold up and the claws would poke through and leak out the melting ice.   It didn’t matter.  He would never again bring stone crab home to Ohio for anyone even though they were the best stone crab we’ve had!