Together again....

Well, after 6 days and 3363 miles in the Momster, and one day with unknown miles in in two airplanes, we both converged at San Franciso! We did it! Amazing..

I began my one day with a drive up to BWI with some awesome friends, and despite my apprehension (I always have apprehensions – expect the worst and you’re never disappointed) it was as if the airport was closed. There were NO lines at either the check in desk (with a real, live, breathing eye contacting person) or security so I was sitting at the gate a full hour before boarding time. Usual amount of people watching opportunities with the usual set of loonies. Bluetoothies talking and gesticulating to the air like madmen, others with hand covering ear and cell phone, many seated staring at laptops, and the requisite number of unsupervised little rug rats running here and there. The latter I don’t judge to harshly, travelling with little kids is harrowing regardless of the mode of transportation. I will say, however, some are more considerate than others..

Anyway, time passes, boarding time arrives and due to the (now dwindling) stock of frequent flier miles, I was able to be “up front”. I think there were as many crew riding there as paying passengers due to sorting out the difficulties arising from the recent storm, and I was sitting next to a very nice lady trying to get back to Dallas so she could go back to work and fly out (today) to London. What a life. 25 years she said. She’s looking to move on from the flight attendant world, and in fact spent a lot of the time studying some course notes. I suppose it’s due to their lifestyle, but I never saw so many devices with one person in my life. One played music, one looked suspiciously like a Blackberry, a net book with thumb drive, a portable DVD reader, and probably a couple I missed all with the spaghetti of wires.

It is nice that they come and ask you if you’d like something to drink before lunch, in this case a Mimosa was appropriate and was served with some warm mixed nuts. Said lunch was nothing to rave about (or expected) and I made the poorer choice of a beef and cheese quesadilla which turned out to be an orange pie shaped leaden coagulated lump with some beef like chunks embedded. I did eat more that I should have, and it remained with me most of the rest of the day. The little green salad was good enough and some pita chips with Rondele spread filled out the tray. Another poor choice was the Glass Mountain cab which turned out to be kind of thin. But, however, comma, whatever, it was much better than sitting in back and being asked to pay 4 bucks for a cookie, and oh, by the way we only take credit cards. The rest of the flight was above the clouds till we got closer to Dallas where it broke enough to see the snow covered ground. After the usual 10 mile taxi to the terminal I spent the next couple of hours in the Admirals club still regretting the encounter with the quesadilla..

Turned out that the last leg to SFO was aboard a 767. I am not sure I have ridden in one before, and for sure I have never been in first class. When they announced that first class could board, I expected the usual regal walk past all the envious teeming masses, but half the darn boarding area got up. First class in a 767 accommodates 6 rows of 6 seats!! Where’s the conceit in that? Behind every seat was some sort of plastic cowling affair, which on the side toward the passenger contains almost an office. A drop down table that couples with the one from the seat arm to make a rather expansive work space. But the most amazing thing was the seat itself. They have an entire panel with 15 (count ‘em 15) little buttons to control the darn thing. Each piece (back, sit upon, and leg rest) can be put in almost any position. It even will let you lie flat (hence the cowling affair). I did try that, but mostly just plain sat. Soon after we boarded, the first officer came over the speakers and told us the whining we heard was the carts outside the jet because the on-board APU was busted. Nice.. Jennies….And, due to crew travails we had a “volunteer” crew that accepted a last minute invite. Hmmm…., and, oh by the way, the second officer was en route and would be here “soon”. Without the gory details we pulled away from the gate almost an hour after schedule, and then we got out on the field, and he said that they were having trouble loading the weight and balance data into the computers (okay, pal, take your time there!! Get it right). So eventually after 1.5 hours we were airborne.

It was a pretty spiffy ride despite having to endure the “in-flight movie” which contained a million clips of guess who? Michael Jackson. And sadly, I confirmed what I had been experiencing lately, they have removed Classical Music from the audio channels. Hip Hop, Country, Classic Rock, New Wave, almost anything BUT Classical music. What a shame. I ended up listening to some Japanese sounding “mood” music to avoid the MJ. One of the great things about travel is meeting people and I had the good fortune to sit beside a lady who was coming to SFO for a conference on teaching math to elementary kids. She works for a consulting outfit that is contracted by school districts to help make things even better. We had a delightful conversation that made the 3 hours, 33 mintues and 9 seconds pass fairly well…After the movie thankfully departed the screen(s) they have a geographic overlay showing the location of the aircraft, toggling with screens of time left, over the ground speed, OAT, and time of arrival. The reason I don’t mention food again is because I only took “a tray” which means the salad and sidey stuff without the foil covered bit. Oh, speaking of which, it is nice to have real glass, ice, silver and plates. Yes, FOJTE, Living Well Is the Best Revenge (which I think from here on out will be LWITBR)

MFO had beaten me here by a few hours and was waiting at the San Franciso Airport Marriot, and it was with great relief that we again were a team. Whe shared stories at the bar with a dry manhattan on the rocks with a twist (failed first attempt) and a bombay sapphire gimlet. She had a wonderful drive, I had a typical airplane experience and now we can start to enjoy a more leisurely travel period. And, I think this is is the first time in two weeks (?) that I have not walked in or seen ground covered with snow.

Today we’ll deliver the raison d etre of the whole odyssey, the passing of the baby stuff. Then we head south to hopefully balmy, dry, sunny, San Diego. Start having fun NOW…and we will be

DFWhatever

PS happy valentines day daaaahlings!!