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kevin_standleeThis morning, I was up at 2 AM to get showered and ready to head to Reno Airport to go to SMOFCon 40 in Providence, Rhode Island. Around 3:15 AM, Lisa and I headed toward Reno, where she dropped me at the curb at 4:00 AM. She headed for home, only to get stuck in commute-time traffic to the USA Parkway Industrial Park. My timing was just fine, as the security gates at RNO don't open until 4 AM anyway. I checked my bag with United, cleared Terrorization pretty quickly (they were even sanguine about my having forgotten to put my hat on the X-ray belt and told me to just hand it through to them before I went into the scanner, and I even had time to get a breakfast sandwich at Subway before boarding my flight to Denver for the first leg of the trip.
The Reno-Denver plane (an A320) was 100% full, but I did have an aisle seat in the last row, so I had easy access to the lavatory, which is important with my medication mix. It was a smooth flight, and we arrived about 20 minutes early. That was good because it meant I had just enough time to use one of the two United Club passes that I have from one of my credit cards. I've never remembered to use these passes, but I'm going to do so on this trip because they are going to expire before my next planned airline trip.
Fortunately for me, the United Club East at DEN was only two gates away from my connecting flight to Boston, and it wasn't too difficult to get the pass to work. I had about 40 minutes to get breakfast from their buffet, and I even managed to find a seat near the buffet so I did not have to leave my bags unattended and make people nervous. I do wish they hadn't "poisoned" the eggs and potatoes with red and green bell peppers, though. I got my fill of other things and all the coffee and Coke Zero Cream Soda I could drink, then walked to gate 39, where my flight was boarding.
I got lucky on this 3-hour flight, as I was still in the last row on the aisle, but the center seat did not fill. (Based on the seat map, I assume someone missed their flight.) That made for a much more comfortable trip. I watched the first of the Hobbit movies: yes, I've never seen them.
We arrived a little early in Boston. At all stages of this trip (Reno, Denver, Boston), the weather has been clear. Boston was about the same temperature (or slightly warmer) than Reno. My luggage came off the belt about a minute after I arrived, and then it was time to figure out how to get to Providence.
Using my mobile phone, I puzzled out that the suggested routing was the Logan Express bus from the airport to Back Bay Station (free), then an Amtrak Acela train to Providence ($51). While the bus labored its way through rush-hour Boston traffic, I used the Amtrak app to buy an Acela ticket.
While I'd been worried that I might miss the train at Back Bay due to the heavy traffic, in the end I had more than fifteen minutes to spare before the train arrived heading for New York via Providence.
I boarded and managed to find a place to pack my suitcase.
The Acela overhead compartments are much larger than those on the Amtrak Capitol Corridor trains, and there was lots of room to hold my computer bag.
This was my first trip aboard an Acela. Remember, my experience of Amtrak is extensive, but is mostly in the West, plus some long-distance trips to the central and eastern part of the country. I've never been on board Amtrak's primary high-speed service.
I had just enough time to get a hot dog and a soda from the cafe before it was time to get my luggage and prepare to disembark after the short trip from Boston to Providence.
In the Providence train station, I asked a security guard which was the Providence Marriott was. The directions he gave me didn't match what my phone was telling me, and a nice person followed me out and corrected the guard's directions. It's about an 800 m walk to the Marriott, albeit in the dark, but from my point of view, it was a nice cool (about +5°C) evening, offset by having to pull my bag up a hill on the way to the hotel.
I knew I was in the right place, not only by the sign, but by Lea and Bruce Farr checking in before me.
After checking in and moving in to my room, I called Lisa to let her know I'd arrived and to chat about the trip (especially the trains). But after that, I wanted to get something to eat. The hotel room has a refrigerator similar to the one at the LAX Marriott, but there are no grocery store all that close to the hotel that I could find, and of course I did not have a car. Studying the online maps, I decided to attempt a walk to a 7-Eleven about 1200 m from the hotel. There I bought a gallon of milk and on the way back I bought a couple of "New York System" hot dogs (which I'd never had before) and also a burrito (because I was hungry). I hoped the 2.4 km round trip would help offset all of the food a bit.
Back at the hotel, I managed to cause one of the hot dogs to shoot mustard and meat sauce onto my shirt, so I had to rinse that out right away and hang up the shirt to dry. After eating (and cleaning up), I made my way toward the pre-con con suite, where I spent the next several hours happily chatting away with my fellow SMOFs, some of whom were in Los Angeles last weekend.
I have a couple of panel items here, but I'm not doing recording, because SMOFCon 40 has very helpfully offered to let me have copies of the Worldcon bid/convention Q&A sessions, which I can upload to the Worldcon Events Channel, and also copies of the bid/convention questionnaires, which I can upload to worldcon.org. That way the documents/recordings won't go away when the convention's website does.
Now I need to wind down enough to get a few hours of sleep, because I got none on the plane.
The Reno-Denver plane (an A320) was 100% full, but I did have an aisle seat in the last row, so I had easy access to the lavatory, which is important with my medication mix. It was a smooth flight, and we arrived about 20 minutes early. That was good because it meant I had just enough time to use one of the two United Club passes that I have from one of my credit cards. I've never remembered to use these passes, but I'm going to do so on this trip because they are going to expire before my next planned airline trip.
Fortunately for me, the United Club East at DEN was only two gates away from my connecting flight to Boston, and it wasn't too difficult to get the pass to work. I had about 40 minutes to get breakfast from their buffet, and I even managed to find a seat near the buffet so I did not have to leave my bags unattended and make people nervous. I do wish they hadn't "poisoned" the eggs and potatoes with red and green bell peppers, though. I got my fill of other things and all the coffee and Coke Zero Cream Soda I could drink, then walked to gate 39, where my flight was boarding.
I got lucky on this 3-hour flight, as I was still in the last row on the aisle, but the center seat did not fill. (Based on the seat map, I assume someone missed their flight.) That made for a much more comfortable trip. I watched the first of the Hobbit movies: yes, I've never seen them.
We arrived a little early in Boston. At all stages of this trip (Reno, Denver, Boston), the weather has been clear. Boston was about the same temperature (or slightly warmer) than Reno. My luggage came off the belt about a minute after I arrived, and then it was time to figure out how to get to Providence.
Using my mobile phone, I puzzled out that the suggested routing was the Logan Express bus from the airport to Back Bay Station (free), then an Amtrak Acela train to Providence ($51). While the bus labored its way through rush-hour Boston traffic, I used the Amtrak app to buy an Acela ticket.
While I'd been worried that I might miss the train at Back Bay due to the heavy traffic, in the end I had more than fifteen minutes to spare before the train arrived heading for New York via Providence.
I boarded and managed to find a place to pack my suitcase.
The Acela overhead compartments are much larger than those on the Amtrak Capitol Corridor trains, and there was lots of room to hold my computer bag.
This was my first trip aboard an Acela. Remember, my experience of Amtrak is extensive, but is mostly in the West, plus some long-distance trips to the central and eastern part of the country. I've never been on board Amtrak's primary high-speed service.
I had just enough time to get a hot dog and a soda from the cafe before it was time to get my luggage and prepare to disembark after the short trip from Boston to Providence.
In the Providence train station, I asked a security guard which was the Providence Marriott was. The directions he gave me didn't match what my phone was telling me, and a nice person followed me out and corrected the guard's directions. It's about an 800 m walk to the Marriott, albeit in the dark, but from my point of view, it was a nice cool (about +5°C) evening, offset by having to pull my bag up a hill on the way to the hotel.
I knew I was in the right place, not only by the sign, but by Lea and Bruce Farr checking in before me.
After checking in and moving in to my room, I called Lisa to let her know I'd arrived and to chat about the trip (especially the trains). But after that, I wanted to get something to eat. The hotel room has a refrigerator similar to the one at the LAX Marriott, but there are no grocery store all that close to the hotel that I could find, and of course I did not have a car. Studying the online maps, I decided to attempt a walk to a 7-Eleven about 1200 m from the hotel. There I bought a gallon of milk and on the way back I bought a couple of "New York System" hot dogs (which I'd never had before) and also a burrito (because I was hungry). I hoped the 2.4 km round trip would help offset all of the food a bit.
Back at the hotel, I managed to cause one of the hot dogs to shoot mustard and meat sauce onto my shirt, so I had to rinse that out right away and hang up the shirt to dry. After eating (and cleaning up), I made my way toward the pre-con con suite, where I spent the next several hours happily chatting away with my fellow SMOFs, some of whom were in Los Angeles last weekend.
I have a couple of panel items here, but I'm not doing recording, because SMOFCon 40 has very helpfully offered to let me have copies of the Worldcon bid/convention Q&A sessions, which I can upload to the Worldcon Events Channel, and also copies of the bid/convention questionnaires, which I can upload to worldcon.org. That way the documents/recordings won't go away when the convention's website does.
Now I need to wind down enough to get a few hours of sleep, because I got none on the plane.
no subject
Date: 2023-12-01 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-12-02 05:12 am (UTC)The return trip is going to be worse.