Monday, November 3, 2014

Eastbound



Jet Blue Flt 278... near 11:00, pm... SFO...

Heading out again... this time with the lovely Tina...  heading east for Florida with a side trip to the Bahamas... the primary goal is a cruise and music festival... Grammy, Women Who Rock...  but there is family and friends and other stuff...

I have been home for a full 27 hours.... yet this does not seem rushed...  Off to the airport... the daughter drops us off at the curb... into the terminal... print boarding passes and check bags... we both get TSA "Pre"... we don't have to take our shoes off... for we are special... but at SFO at 11:00 at night there is no dedicated "Pre" inspection line... (there is a "Pre" check in line...) so you line up with the people who have to strip off shoes and belts and jackets and such... they look at us like we don't know what we are doing.... I leave the computer in the backpack... we are waved through the simple metal detector rather than the full body scanner... but my backpack is held for hand inspection because my laptop remains inside as it is supposed to, but there is only one baggage scanner line...

Once clear of security, we find seats for the short wait before boarding....  Boarding is chaotic... My fellow passengers rushed the gate at the first boarding announcement... The early announcement, for those who have special status brings everyone... there are follow up announcements but the folks continue to rush the gate...  They are only taking those in rows 20-25 but this does not deter those in row  14 from lining up...  Eventually and with surprisingly little drama all are aboard and seated, the doors closed and we push back...

This is a classic red-eye over night flight... go to the airport late in San Francisco (this works for LA or Seattle as well... but not the other way) find one of those thin plastic wrapped airline blankets, settle in, try to nap, and wake up on the East coast at sunrise...  

It turns out that Jet Blue now charges for blankets... but the cabin is warm and I have my jacket for Tina if she needs it... they do provide eye shades and ear plugs (right now I start to think about Tommy and Pinball which is not a good image while boarding a giant silver tube (much like a silver ball) with the intention of hurtling Eastbound at near 600 mph... with turbulence being the paddles in some big cosmic pin ball machine... )

The pilot (or a voice from the cockpit) tells us "Our flight today is about 4 hours, 45 minutes" . 10:50 pm Pacific time plus 4 hours and 4 hours and 45 minutes...  plus 3 hours worth of time zones plus the change to Daylight savings time which tonight is scheduled for 2:00 am while we are in the air... they say our flight lands at 6:01 am... which I can't make work but they do and eventually we arrive in Florida at almost exactly 6:01 am... Two points for Jet Blue...

Back onboard Flt 278... I turn on the Ipad, put the Emmylou Harris (She is on the cruise with us... we have special seats at her special show... we are special) catalog  (97 songs on 9 albums) on play, close my eyes for a successful is somewhat restless nap.

About 2:30 (according to the Ipad which is still on Pacific Time)  I wake, look out the window.... There is a faint band of color on the horizon ahead...  The first Lights of a city below ... Soon after the cabin lights come on, the cabin crew distributes hot towels, and the pilot announces we are on final approach... Seat backs and tray tables need to be up and locked... I look directly down... Into blackness... I assume it is the gulf, but a few minutes later it is obvious the it the Everglades...  The IPad says its 2:40...we cros over the Atlantic coast, loop back west for landing... Over the port the land....  5:50 local time time, 6:01 at the gate.... I have 19 songs to spare  (I had  more in reserve... plus 5+ duets, plus the songs on other albums (especially GP, and Knophler's All the Roadrunning which Itunes doesn't directly link her to...)

We make our way to the rental car center on the rental car shuttle bus... it is also the airport worker shuttle to the local bus stop so there are the two of us, two flight attendants, and 15 or so Haitian airport workers speaking a mix of english, french and creole...  

We claim our car... drive out in search of I75 west and the west coast of Florida... "Alligator alley" across the 'Glades'.... Now a 4 lane Interstate, Tina has stories about driving it with her father when it was a 2 lane with bridges rising over each little canal, and He (her father) passing as he approached bridges, blind to the oncoming traffic... she remembers the drive as stressful...

Today the road is now a freeway (with tolls that make me question "free" in "freeway")... two lanes each direction, center divider, off and on ramps... 

Once in Naples (aka far western Florida) we get breakfast... (its still early... not yet 9:00) then call the son, who meets us with his girl friend, Sienna... then we go off to explore old Naples and its pier, then off to her parent's beach house to meet her parents...  Brian and Yvonne... and sister and brother... This is the first time we have done the "met the girl friend's parents" thing...  They are both from the area, but spent time in Northern California (Sienna was born in Marin General) and we have things to talk about  and interests in common...   It was substantially less stressful than passing cars blind on old Alligator Alley...

Then we head off into the interior... for an airboat ride...  There is a family connection to the Lake Tafford Marina, where air boat rides are offered...  Its a small store, campground with boat ramp and airboat rides, and a small non-petting zoo with alligators and iguanas, and several species of poisonous snakes and a strange collection of old cast iron stoves...  Ski runs the place, when not playing Santa Claus... Ski is Sienna's Step Grandfather...  Sienna's aunt may be camped in the campground... there is family about...





Airboats are a kind of Everglades symbol... they may be found elsewhere but the belong here... a airplane propeller driven by a big (an loud) engine pushing a small flat bottom boat across pretty much anything wet... I suspect they work well on a recently watered lawn...   We go in search of alligators in the saw grass... we find alligators... big ones, smaller ones, and one baby... we see birds... including several San Hill cranes...  we get stuck in the saw grass... we get loose...  It turns out that when in an airboat there is a fuzzy definition of water and not water...  I got to sit in up high next to the captain...  







There is a dinner following... ribs and such, good conversation.  As the sun sets we say good by and set off in search of Tina's step Mom and step Dad... for snacks and drinks and time together... Tina gave Maureen a leaded glass window she had made... we stay in the complex's nearby  guest house...  Its been a long day.

To Be Continued... 

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