The Trip Home
Dec. 7th, 2022 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeIronically, to prepare for the final day of the SMOFCon trip meant turning on the alarm on my phone for ordinary working days, because I needed to be up at 4:30 to be ready to catch the 5:30 AM shuttle from the Holiday Inn to Montreal Airport. It was raining this morning, but both loading and unloading areas were under cover, so that wasn't a problem. What was a small problem was me forgetting that Air Canada has two separate check in areas, which are not "international" and "domestic" but "USA" and "not USA." The shuttle dropped all of us at the "not USA" end. I only realized I was at the wrong end after doing self check in and trying to put my luggage on the the belt, only to have it rejected. Fortunately, I'd gotten to the airport sufficiently early that walking from one end of the terminal to the other, where the USA pre-clearance luggage check in is located, didn't cause any problems. I had no problems after that point at the airport, and this time I did not leave my tote bag behind at Security the way I did at Reno coming the other way.
The Montreal-Denver flight was lightly loaded, and I had the seat next to me empty, which was pretty luxurious and comfortable. I'd expected to watch the in-flight entertainment I'd seen going the other way but not watched, but they changed the programming, probably on December 1, so I didn't get to watch the episode of Poirot that I'd never seen before. I tried watching a different Agatha Christie mystery, which I enjoyed, but to my annoyance, they only had the first two parts of the story, leaving me with a cliffhanger.
At Denver, I had intended to use the United Club, but they wouldn't let me in, although they had done so going the other way. Apparently being in first class isn't enough unless your destination (not origin) that day is outside the USA.
I hiked down to the gate, where my plane to Reno was already parked, and there were no issues boarding. I don't want to complain about having a first class seat, but row 1 is less good than the others because you don't get any storage space in front of you.
The United 737 to Reno was a little tired and worn, especially in contrast to the Air Canada A220 from Montreal. The in-flight entertainment system on the United flight didn't work at all. But it's only a roughly two hour flight to Reno, and it's still better than coach.
Thanks to my bag having been priority tagged and Reno airport being small enough that you can walk from the terminal to the parking lot, I was probably in my minivan and out of the airport before the last of the passengers on the flight from Denver got their bags. The nice weather helped. I got lucky on weather. Rain in Montreal wasn't too bad, and both Denver and Reno were sunny and clear.
I picked up some take-out food in Reno, headed home to Fernley, stopped by the post office (which is good because there were several parcels, one of which required me to go to the counter, so it was helpful that I was on such an early flight that they were still open), and went home. I restarted the fire (Lisa is isolating from me in her travel trailer for a few days) to try and heat the living room up from the 10°C where I found it when I got home, then ate dinner. I'll unpack sufficiently to get to bed tonight. The rest of the unpacking will have to wait, as sleep is more important right now.
The Montreal-Denver flight was lightly loaded, and I had the seat next to me empty, which was pretty luxurious and comfortable. I'd expected to watch the in-flight entertainment I'd seen going the other way but not watched, but they changed the programming, probably on December 1, so I didn't get to watch the episode of Poirot that I'd never seen before. I tried watching a different Agatha Christie mystery, which I enjoyed, but to my annoyance, they only had the first two parts of the story, leaving me with a cliffhanger.
At Denver, I had intended to use the United Club, but they wouldn't let me in, although they had done so going the other way. Apparently being in first class isn't enough unless your destination (not origin) that day is outside the USA.
I hiked down to the gate, where my plane to Reno was already parked, and there were no issues boarding. I don't want to complain about having a first class seat, but row 1 is less good than the others because you don't get any storage space in front of you.
The United 737 to Reno was a little tired and worn, especially in contrast to the Air Canada A220 from Montreal. The in-flight entertainment system on the United flight didn't work at all. But it's only a roughly two hour flight to Reno, and it's still better than coach.
Thanks to my bag having been priority tagged and Reno airport being small enough that you can walk from the terminal to the parking lot, I was probably in my minivan and out of the airport before the last of the passengers on the flight from Denver got their bags. The nice weather helped. I got lucky on weather. Rain in Montreal wasn't too bad, and both Denver and Reno were sunny and clear.
I picked up some take-out food in Reno, headed home to Fernley, stopped by the post office (which is good because there were several parcels, one of which required me to go to the counter, so it was helpful that I was on such an early flight that they were still open), and went home. I restarted the fire (Lisa is isolating from me in her travel trailer for a few days) to try and heat the living room up from the 10°C where I found it when I got home, then ate dinner. I'll unpack sufficiently to get to bed tonight. The rest of the unpacking will have to wait, as sleep is more important right now.
