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a long, unhappy day in the air
May. 26th, 2022 09:34 amActually, everything went pretty smoothly until I got to Dulles, all things considered. Got up and got out of the Strat early enough to drop off the Kia at Pep Boys, catch an Uber to McCarran via the Dunkin on Paradise, and despite the masses of people at the airport, getting through TSA was reasonably quick.
The flight to Denver went through Reno, which caused me to joke to the crew that if I'd known that I would have just stayed in Tonopah and flagged them down as they went by. Unfortunately, I had only about 20 minutes to catch the connecting flight to Dulles at Denver, which was just barely enough time to fill my water bottle and ensure I was set up for pre-boarding. Both flights were packed to the gunwales, so despite having the window seat in the next-to-last row, it was pretty uncomfortable, but I managed to distract myself with the Lost Fleet series. There was a baby in the next seat but she was marvelously well-behaved all through the flight.
I ran out of oomph after picking up my bag at Dulles; the shuttle guy had to help me with it as I was struggling to board the minibus. Then followed an excruciating wait at the Dollar/Hertz lot before they finally issued me a Jeep Cherokee instead of the mid-size sedan I had expected, a short drive to the ESA in Chantilly - and I had no room, despite having called ahead to warn them I'd be showing up at 0200-0300. Well, nothing for it but to hop on Priceline again, book a room at the other ESA on Brookfield Corporate Drive south of 50, and crash there.
Got up, got breakfast at Anita's, got some of it on my shirt (I really should have had the burrito) and headed off for PenFed. Traffic on 66 was horrible, the directions to the credit union were misleading, but I finally found it, only to find they couldn't take the money off my NSB card and put it in my PFCU account. Bother. Well, I called NSB and got them to raise my ATM limit so I could take out sufficient cash (and deposit that in PFCU), and that was that. I had hoped to visit the Family Plot, but it was getting on toward 1500 so I bagged that plan. Instead I went back to the original ESA via 66 and Route 50, stopping en route at the Harris Teeter in Fair Oaks for a roast beef sub, some Arizona Green Diet Tea, and (fortuitously) some Barbasol 3-blade disposables. Checked in at the ESA on Thunderbolt, checked in with various local friends, and took a 2-hour nap, which helped a lot. Had originally thought about getting together with Toni for dinner, but she was tired and we agreed to do lunch today instead.
And so to bed, hoping today is a sight less hectic. I have lunch and wings planned; might get in some Dynasty League and blogging as well.
The flight to Denver went through Reno, which caused me to joke to the crew that if I'd known that I would have just stayed in Tonopah and flagged them down as they went by. Unfortunately, I had only about 20 minutes to catch the connecting flight to Dulles at Denver, which was just barely enough time to fill my water bottle and ensure I was set up for pre-boarding. Both flights were packed to the gunwales, so despite having the window seat in the next-to-last row, it was pretty uncomfortable, but I managed to distract myself with the Lost Fleet series. There was a baby in the next seat but she was marvelously well-behaved all through the flight.
I ran out of oomph after picking up my bag at Dulles; the shuttle guy had to help me with it as I was struggling to board the minibus. Then followed an excruciating wait at the Dollar/Hertz lot before they finally issued me a Jeep Cherokee instead of the mid-size sedan I had expected, a short drive to the ESA in Chantilly - and I had no room, despite having called ahead to warn them I'd be showing up at 0200-0300. Well, nothing for it but to hop on Priceline again, book a room at the other ESA on Brookfield Corporate Drive south of 50, and crash there.
Got up, got breakfast at Anita's, got some of it on my shirt (I really should have had the burrito) and headed off for PenFed. Traffic on 66 was horrible, the directions to the credit union were misleading, but I finally found it, only to find they couldn't take the money off my NSB card and put it in my PFCU account. Bother. Well, I called NSB and got them to raise my ATM limit so I could take out sufficient cash (and deposit that in PFCU), and that was that. I had hoped to visit the Family Plot, but it was getting on toward 1500 so I bagged that plan. Instead I went back to the original ESA via 66 and Route 50, stopping en route at the Harris Teeter in Fair Oaks for a roast beef sub, some Arizona Green Diet Tea, and (fortuitously) some Barbasol 3-blade disposables. Checked in at the ESA on Thunderbolt, checked in with various local friends, and took a 2-hour nap, which helped a lot. Had originally thought about getting together with Toni for dinner, but she was tired and we agreed to do lunch today instead.
And so to bed, hoping today is a sight less hectic. I have lunch and wings planned; might get in some Dynasty League and blogging as well.
