Strangers meet in airports—it’s such a cliché, yet it happens every day. Our intersections bring together disparate folks on a shared mission, Point A to Point B, sometimes on a journey extended by extenuating circumstances.
The pair next to me chatted merrily—if at high volume— as I took a stool at Four Peaks Brewing in Terminal 4 at the sprawling Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. By the time I had a Peach Fruit Ale in front of me, I knew at least half of her story without any inquiry on my part. She’d come into money as the result of a dear relative’s untimely demise, and was criss-crossing the country to come home from a glorious relax in Cabo. He lived in Colorado, a construction worker on his way back from a family visit. They had co-located layovers that had lasted the previous two hours, and they were not nursing their respective drinks.
Making the approach into PHX 
The fresh and fruity Peach Ale at Four Peaks Brewing at PHX 
The smooth and well-balanced Hop Knot IPA from Four Peaks Brewing
Believe me, I’m not judging. But I do believe strongly in being compos mentis before rolling onto an airplane just in case I have to use an emergency exit.
She’d moved on to catch her flight by the time my Hop Knot IPA arrived, so that I could reflect a bit more as I enjoyed its marriage of pine resin and grapefruit peel smoothness—a feat not always achieved. I finished my nearly three-hour layover with a check to my watch and a mad 5K back to the C gates for fish tacos to go from Sir Veza’s.
Because missing that intersection (me and great tacos) would’ve been a sad story indeed.
A very worthy fish taco from Sir Veza’s at PHX 
A view from the terminal at PHX of the Camelback in Phoenix