Papal intervention

Despite some weather in the area, we made great time and arrived in Philadelphia early, only to be immediately told by ground control to park beside the runway.  Today was the Pope's visit to Philly and we knew that he was scheduled to leave slightly before we arrived, but between our early arrival and some delays on the Papal side, he was still on the ground and this meant all planes were ordered to stop where they were.  By luck we were stopped adjacent to the Pope's plane and my window had a perfect view of the American Airlines jet the Pope had chartered as his motorcade drove up.  I watched them load (too far away to actually see the Pope), taxi away, and take off on one of the far runways.  Yet, we still sat there.  Apparently the Vice President was also at the airport having met with the Pope, and we were now waiting for Air Force Two to take off, which it eventually did in spectacular fashion on the runway only a short distance outside my window, in fact our plane shook slightly as it whizzed by.  Now we are rolling again . . . an unexpected ending to our trip.