Spokane trip, day 1
Feb. 3rd, 2006 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missroseroseOn the horrific experience that is modern air travel: Air travel is not my favorite way to go places and hasn't been since the novelty (and decent meals) quit when I was about 14. However, today's trip stood out as a definite "measles" on the Rose scale of "Diseases I would rather contract than repeat this trip." The first flight was all ready to take off on time and actually had gotten to the end of the runway when they got a message saying they needed to come back for more fuel. So we taxi back, they start the refueling, and they get another message that the runway in Ketchikan (the one stop between Juneau and Seattle on this particular flight) was pretty slippery and probably not safe to land. So we had to wait for the de-icers there to do their job and give us the all clear report. By the time we actually got in the air, we had been sitting on the ground in the plane for something like two hours and certain parties who shall remain nameless were grumbling about the fact that they were up at 5 freaking 30 in the morning to catch said flight when they could've been getting more sleep.
Anyway.
We miss our connection (obviously), and the next flight wasn't for a couple more hours. Fortunately, SeaTac is one of the more interesting places to be stuck for a couple of hours, so the time was not entirely ill spent. Unfortunately, when we got to our new flight, we found out that not only had the seated us a row apart, the flight was overbooked and they were looking to bump more people off.
At this point, we were seriously considering renting a car and just driving to Spokane; if they'd tried to bump us again we probably would have done so. But we lucked out and were able to trade seats with a nice gentleman on a cell phone (yes, I realize I just described 45% of Seattle residents) and got to Spokane about three hours late.
On the 2006 Cadillac DeVille: I once more find myself thinking that I could really, really get used to being rich. Not only does this car have the smooooothest ride you can possibly imagine, it's surprisingly manueverable - Brian hasn't had any problems keeping it well within the relatively narrow lanes here in downtown. And it's quiet, too - there's almost no road noise, and a pleasant hum instead of any sort of engine rumble. Brian hasn't let me drive it yet (*grumble*), but riding in it alone is fun - you get to poke at all the various buttons and figure out what they do. (Several, apparently, call OnStar, the roadside assistance program. Maybe Hertz will have a few extra charges on the bill when we get back...oh well.)
On real, actual, live shopping malls: I really, really should not be let loose in one of these with a credit card. Especially one with a Mariposa store in it. If I hadn't already bought myself a dress...*sigh*
On Hoodwinked: This is actually a very cute film in the tradition of Shrek - taking fairytales (and fairy tale lands) and reinterpreting them with all sorts of wry parodies thrown in. Although the animation has been criticized as primitive (hardly the company's fault, since they were working on a shoestring), the script is very clever, and many of the scenes had me genuinely laughing. Recommended if you like clever films and aren't too worried about eye candy...
Alright, Brian's giving me dirty looks, so I suppose I should give him back his computer. Report on Day 2 coming tomorrow night...
Anyway.
We miss our connection (obviously), and the next flight wasn't for a couple more hours. Fortunately, SeaTac is one of the more interesting places to be stuck for a couple of hours, so the time was not entirely ill spent. Unfortunately, when we got to our new flight, we found out that not only had the seated us a row apart, the flight was overbooked and they were looking to bump more people off.
At this point, we were seriously considering renting a car and just driving to Spokane; if they'd tried to bump us again we probably would have done so. But we lucked out and were able to trade seats with a nice gentleman on a cell phone (yes, I realize I just described 45% of Seattle residents) and got to Spokane about three hours late.
On the 2006 Cadillac DeVille: I once more find myself thinking that I could really, really get used to being rich. Not only does this car have the smooooothest ride you can possibly imagine, it's surprisingly manueverable - Brian hasn't had any problems keeping it well within the relatively narrow lanes here in downtown. And it's quiet, too - there's almost no road noise, and a pleasant hum instead of any sort of engine rumble. Brian hasn't let me drive it yet (*grumble*), but riding in it alone is fun - you get to poke at all the various buttons and figure out what they do. (Several, apparently, call OnStar, the roadside assistance program. Maybe Hertz will have a few extra charges on the bill when we get back...oh well.)
On real, actual, live shopping malls: I really, really should not be let loose in one of these with a credit card. Especially one with a Mariposa store in it. If I hadn't already bought myself a dress...*sigh*
On Hoodwinked: This is actually a very cute film in the tradition of Shrek - taking fairytales (and fairy tale lands) and reinterpreting them with all sorts of wry parodies thrown in. Although the animation has been criticized as primitive (hardly the company's fault, since they were working on a shoestring), the script is very clever, and many of the scenes had me genuinely laughing. Recommended if you like clever films and aren't too worried about eye candy...
Alright, Brian's giving me dirty looks, so I suppose I should give him back his computer. Report on Day 2 coming tomorrow night...
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Date: 2006-02-04 07:58 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-02-06 01:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-04 11:35 pm (UTC)Now you know why I drive to Chicago from Austin every year instead of fly.
And actually, now that I've got a top-end radar detector I was able to do it this last time in about 16 hours of driving. By the time you add up all the time spent in airports, etc. when flying up there, I'm not spending that much more time.
Next time I hope to do it in the NSX... maybe I can get the drive time down closer to 12 hours... :>