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SMOFCon 40: The Journey Home
Dec. 5th, 2023 05:41 pmAs much as I love hanging around the con suite at SMOFCon, I turned in relatively early because I knew I had to be up too early to head home. Thanks to spending too much time reading mail and answering messages, I ended up with only around two hours of sleep before getting up, showering, and packing. Had I had a better idea of how much time it would actually take me to do that and to walk to the train station, and that the station wouldn't open until 4 AM, I could probably have had another 30 minutes of sleep, which would have been helpful.
( Providence to Boston )
Across the street from Back Bay station there was a Logan Express bus waiting. Again, you can't pay cash for the $3 fare, but they do take credit cards. At that hour of the morning, the trip between the train and airport was significantly quicker than the traffic-clogged drive from the airport last Thursday.
At Logan, it was pretty simple to drop my bag after putting my jacket into the luggage, as I didn't expect to need it again until I got to Reno. (I'd managed to check the bag via the United app and get the boarding pass up.) Terrorization was no more difficult than usual, and I got to the gate about an hour before boarding, so I could get breakfast.
( Kevin Needs Coffee Badly )
The flight boarded and departed on time. It was completely full, but I had an aisle seat at the back of the aircraft, which suited me fine as I have to use the lavatory a lot these days thanks to the medications I'm taking for blood pressure and diabetes.
It was a 6 1/2-hour flight to SFO, which gave me enough time to watch the second and third Hobbit movies. I'd never seen any of them before this trip, and I watched part 1 on the way out. Now I understand how much some people complained about padding, particularly part three, which seemed to be mostly a continuous set of fight scenes with a tiny bit of dialog.
At SFO, I used the last of my United Club passes for the roughly two hour layover I had before my flight to Reno. The Reno flight was on the E concourse, which is relatively small and the United Club there reflected that. I might have been better off using the on the F concourse on which I'd arrived, but it seemed more prudent to use a location closer to my gate. In any event, I got my money's worth out of the pass (I get two of them per year from the United credit card), once I found a bit of space where I could sit and eat the meatballs and other food on offer on the buffet.
As my flight time approached, I left the club and went to the gate, arriving at just the right time to be the first person in Boarding Group 2 before they called Group 1. The aircraft, an Embraer 175, was also full, but the 2 x 2 seating had wider seats with more legroom than what I suffered through on the B757 from Boston. on the 757, my knees were jammed into the seat in front of me even before the person in front of me reclined. On the E175, there must have been as much as 5 cm legroom between my knees and the seat ahead of me, and I felt like the seat was actually as wide as my shoulders, which is rare on anything short of business class.
We departed (that is, pushed back from the gate) on time, but sat on the taxiway for a long time. After takeoff, the pilot explained that the flight ahead of us had encountered birds, and the delay was for the airport maintenance team to come out and clean up the mess. The flight itself was quite short (around 40 minutes) and did not justify a beverage service.
Because of the issue with the birds at SFO and slight ground delay at RNO due to an outbound plane needed to clear the gate, and with my bag being apparently the last one off the belt, Lisa had to orbit the airport a few times before I got out to the curb. I saw here driving by just as I exited the terminal, but had to wait about ten minutes before she got back around to collect me and we headed for home.
( Amtrak Locomotive Dumped at Thisbe )
We got home late in the afternoon. I unpacked stuff, and something to eat, answered messages, and collapsed into bed. I decided to take today off as well (leaving me with only 17 hours of PTO remaining, my lowest balance in several years) and I needed it. I did not wake up this morning until around 11:30 AM, after over sixteen hours of sleep. While not completely recovered, I think tomorrow won't be quite as awful as today would have been had I had to work today.
( Providence to Boston )
Across the street from Back Bay station there was a Logan Express bus waiting. Again, you can't pay cash for the $3 fare, but they do take credit cards. At that hour of the morning, the trip between the train and airport was significantly quicker than the traffic-clogged drive from the airport last Thursday.
At Logan, it was pretty simple to drop my bag after putting my jacket into the luggage, as I didn't expect to need it again until I got to Reno. (I'd managed to check the bag via the United app and get the boarding pass up.) Terrorization was no more difficult than usual, and I got to the gate about an hour before boarding, so I could get breakfast.
( Kevin Needs Coffee Badly )
The flight boarded and departed on time. It was completely full, but I had an aisle seat at the back of the aircraft, which suited me fine as I have to use the lavatory a lot these days thanks to the medications I'm taking for blood pressure and diabetes.
It was a 6 1/2-hour flight to SFO, which gave me enough time to watch the second and third Hobbit movies. I'd never seen any of them before this trip, and I watched part 1 on the way out. Now I understand how much some people complained about padding, particularly part three, which seemed to be mostly a continuous set of fight scenes with a tiny bit of dialog.
At SFO, I used the last of my United Club passes for the roughly two hour layover I had before my flight to Reno. The Reno flight was on the E concourse, which is relatively small and the United Club there reflected that. I might have been better off using the on the F concourse on which I'd arrived, but it seemed more prudent to use a location closer to my gate. In any event, I got my money's worth out of the pass (I get two of them per year from the United credit card), once I found a bit of space where I could sit and eat the meatballs and other food on offer on the buffet.
As my flight time approached, I left the club and went to the gate, arriving at just the right time to be the first person in Boarding Group 2 before they called Group 1. The aircraft, an Embraer 175, was also full, but the 2 x 2 seating had wider seats with more legroom than what I suffered through on the B757 from Boston. on the 757, my knees were jammed into the seat in front of me even before the person in front of me reclined. On the E175, there must have been as much as 5 cm legroom between my knees and the seat ahead of me, and I felt like the seat was actually as wide as my shoulders, which is rare on anything short of business class.
We departed (that is, pushed back from the gate) on time, but sat on the taxiway for a long time. After takeoff, the pilot explained that the flight ahead of us had encountered birds, and the delay was for the airport maintenance team to come out and clean up the mess. The flight itself was quite short (around 40 minutes) and did not justify a beverage service.
Because of the issue with the birds at SFO and slight ground delay at RNO due to an outbound plane needed to clear the gate, and with my bag being apparently the last one off the belt, Lisa had to orbit the airport a few times before I got out to the curb. I saw here driving by just as I exited the terminal, but had to wait about ten minutes before she got back around to collect me and we headed for home.
( Amtrak Locomotive Dumped at Thisbe )
We got home late in the afternoon. I unpacked stuff, and something to eat, answered messages, and collapsed into bed. I decided to take today off as well (leaving me with only 17 hours of PTO remaining, my lowest balance in several years) and I needed it. I did not wake up this morning until around 11:30 AM, after over sixteen hours of sleep. While not completely recovered, I think tomorrow won't be quite as awful as today would have been had I had to work today.
