Back at the airport... Back at SFO eastbound... Back to Florida and Dad...

I spent three days at work... Hectic busy days, mostly productive... I did two bank deposits... Then discovered two more to do... Staff and fellow employees had the camps under control... I placed print orders… I tried to order pop tents… With a bit of luck I was successful.

Now, I am headed back... Back again... Back to Florida.

This time I am flying Delta... Delta is doing well... They have stationed an employee at the head of the line to greet passengers and direct you to the correct line... There was a two minute wait to check bags... At "bag drop"... Not the “Express Bag Drop” maybe the name does not tell all… maybe “Express” means “give up all hope” in a little known dead South American dialect… (or was it a Southwest dialect?)

TSA was quick... They have started to ask you your last name... I noticed last flight... The TSA agent said it goes back to last year. Her fellow agent said “there are two lines "chose well" a wonderful Star Wars reference…... I believe I chose well... Unlike Tampa, they did not appear to have a chair of shame... After all, San Francisco is a shameless place. I have signed on for my 45 minutes of free WiFi... Connected again... I am sitting at the bar... with an Anchor Steam… blogging and checking email... All is good… after a always hectic arrival, the 30 or so minutes before lining up for a flight can be strangely calming…

10:18pm... On board... Seat 25A... Just ahead of the exit row... (traveler’s hint…the seats ahead of the exit row don’t recline… be aware) Computer in the overhead... Settled in... Blanket on the seat (red, bright red)... I am not hearing hectic announcements about bags or finding seats... (but ground crew were trying to gate check over size carry-on’s... In the jet way... Politely… Thank you delta... Oversize bags don’t belong in the cabin…

I fell asleep… before takeoff… I stirred once or twice for a moment, but didn’t awake until we started our decent into Atlanta…

On the ground, I gathered my stuff, then made for the door… and the gate for my second flight… to Tampa… Again, boarding was easy… again, I slept, this time waking as the tires hit the tarmac…

My bag was the third off… I was out the door and recovered the truck in minutes… and home to Dad in less than an hour…

Side note… This is my 200^th blog post at Too Many Hats… I guess it’s a bit of a milestone…

Random Travel Thoughts…

On traveling… and complaining…

I find that too many of my travel posts, particularly when flying, are complaints… this begs the question… am I a whiner… I don’t think so… I fly… a lot… I find many airlines don’t provide the service they think they do… I fly enough to see it… Most of the time I find the experience humorous… I expect issues when traveling… I expect stupid human tricks from my fellow passengers…. Mostly I laugh and find something to blog about…

I was recently surprised when Southwest didn’t do well… I didn’t expect it… I wrote a letter to Southwest complaining… I got a personalized response, not a “Dear (fill in name here) We are sorry and here is a free pound of coffee” (The lovely Tina sent these out many years ago during a summer job for a San Francisco Coffee company… the same letter for any complaint…) No, instead the writer of the letter I got from SWA (someone, a human, not a computer) addressed each of my complaints… They heard my complaints… a good response… They didn’t say they would address any of them… (that might have been over-promising) but at least I was heard. My next (SWA) flight wasn’t great either… Is SWA losing it? I suspect not, but they are getting old (they turned 40 years old on Saturday…) and may be having a crisis of middle age… we all do… we mostly don’t admit it…

I will fly Southwest again… not next time… next time… 48 hours or so from now, I am flying on Delta….

I was not surprised about recent news reports of a United Airlines computer melt down and resulting chaos… Their computer system melted down… passengers were deleted… they couldn’t calculate load and balance… It was a big problem for about 2 hours… Their customer service was not up to the task… It made the news… people were angry…

I expect poor service and chaos on United… They have been known to break guitars… there is a song about it… no, three songs… As stated earlier, I will pay more NOT to fly United…

While writing this blog post I did a Google search (The lovely Tina works for Google) on “United meltdown”… I found some surprising results… my favorite was a blog… a tech blog… a professional blog on ZD.net by Paul Greenberg… complaining about United, complimenting Marriott… well thought out…

Travel tip of the day… Many airports provide free internet… some limit the amount of time on line… At SFO they give you 45 minutes… If you use up your minutes, log out… close your browser… you may want to clear out any cookies… then log in again… you get another 45 free minutes of internet bliss…

Finally… A fun story… from the SF Chronicle here via SF Gate… an article… an article on the front page of the Sunday travel section… on Traveling with toys… An “only in San Francisco” story… about flying with sex toys…”If you pack a vibrator, don't get shaken by TSA”

You can read it for yourself… It may be better that way… generally the lovely Tina and I leave the hand cuffs at home… it is better that way.

Good night…

8:30 am Tampa International Airport... Once again sitting on a big jet airplane... Headed back to San Mateo for a few days...

Dad is still alive, surprisingly so for a dead man... I expect him be there when I return in a few days... He tells visitors that his Dr told him he was dead, but his body didn't know it yet... I think I was there, and that isn't what the Dr. said, but in many ways it is an accurate description of his condition. In the mean time, he is at home in his own room... Watching his pigeons, greeting visitors, some of whom bring pigeons to show him, for him to handle...

Dan is taking care of dad... Giving him his meds, keeping him clean... Dan is has taken responsibility of one of the lofts, now his loft... He is thinking he might like to try racing pigeons... Dan would like to buy the house and live there.

Meanwhile we are working at selling some of the birds... This requires pedigrees, photos, and a history of races and awards won, and any notable offspring... and there records as well.

There is a pretty good computerized family tree... Racing records, since 1994 or so are mostly on line... And we have paper records, race reports, copies of racing pigeon Digests... It's a research project. I am a historian, a trained researcher this I understand... So I research and write the record of awards and progeny, track the other documents and send them off to IPigeon.com. A friend has set up a photo studio in the garage... Dan herds photos and runs the pedigrees. Friends bring birds from the loft... Then off to the garage to be photographed. Dad tells us which bird to do next...

There technology involved... There are three computers... Mom's old desk top... My lap top, Dan's laptop... A wireless network... Two IPads... We have the loft management database on the cloud... I set up a dropbox... We have a Gmail address for the project... We are connected. I believe that I can continue to write up histories while away...

Beyond the process it is a shared activity... Something to do when you are dead and waiting for your body to figure it out... We needed a project to pass the time... It is not simple to die... There is no instruction manual for the soon to be dead...

Back to the journey...

Southwest did a bit better today... But there was still a 19 minute wait for the now dreaded "express baggage check"... They have 4 "express baggage check" stations, but only 2 were turned on... until My turn came... Only then did they turn the third and fourth machine on...

On to security which was more crowded than usual... I was awarded the dubIous pleaser of the full body scan.... I wonder when TSA will start billing our medical insurance providers for the scan...

Leaving security, I found an "IT".... a lone chair... A very institutional lone chair... Lone chair surrender by 4 stations and 4 sections of that wonderful blue venal clad rope used to direct crowds in places like airports and such... There in the middle of the small square area sat said chair... All by itself... With permission of a TSA agent (after all this was still "Security" and photos are prohibited in the security area) a picture of the lone chair was taken... From said agent I learned that it was known as the "penalty box" and I can only assume you really didn't want to be given a chance to use it... I prefer to think of it as the “chair of shame”…

I found a "Departure Board" found my gate number, found my gate, or did I?... The sign at the gate desk said "Austin" while I was headed for San Diego, there to change planes for SFO and home. While I am quite sure Austin is a wonder place it was not where I was planning to go on thus fine day... A quick check of the flight number on my boarding pass (to San Diego) and that associated with the Austin flight showed them to be one and the same... I guess I am visiting The Republic of Texas on this fine June day. I confirmed I had found my flight, then found a seat, took out the computer, and checked my email... Eventually, they announced my flight to Austin would begin boarding (not "Flight 3495 for Austin, continuing to San Diego"... Just simply "Austin")... I lined up with my new best friends in the "A 40-45" group, surrendered my boarding pass and made my way down the jet-way to the airplane...

I found a window seat on the right (north side, west bound) and settled in... Book, IPad and neck pillow close at hand...

Once aboard, we took off southward, over Tampa bay, slowly turning westward, over Clearwater, over the Gulf of Mexico... Headed for Texas.. (and if I am lucky, on to San Diego)

Open note to anyone from Southwest Airlines who might read this... You really need to list both (all) of the cities that any given flight is visiting... It is confusing when I am holding a boarding pass that says San Diego, and the sign says Austin... I fly (too) often, and know to check my boarding pass… but many others don’t and are confused…

Now over the mouth of the Mississippi... Brown water meeting blue... The river is clearly high... Much of the land below is covered with water... New Orleans lies out of sight to the north... On the IPad, Shawn Mullins is singing "House of the Rising Sun" ... He recorded it 5 years ago in a studio in the 9th ward just before Katrina... Today when visiting New Orleans you can take a Katrina tour, to the 9th ward, and see the house, still derelict, and the vacant lots where houses used to sit...

Today much of Cajun country below is covered with muddy brown water... From 30,000' it is hard to say what is swamp, what is dry land, and what should be dry land, now inundated. Our flight path is taking us along the gulf coast... Where the muddy brown waters are mixing with the blue of the gulf in grey green swirls...

About the time we cross the coast near Lake Charles I take a nap, awaking over the Texas Hill country, on approach to Austin... We land, people get off, we, those who thought this was a San Diego flight are counted... Then more passenger join us... Passengers who presumably thought (presumably correctly) that this is a San Diego flight...

It turns out that today, June 18th is Southwest's 40th birthday.. This might explain the balloons I saw at Tampa while waiting in the "Express Baggage check" line. Happy Birthday SWA.

Back in the air, above 10,000'... IPad back on... Outside, below, the landscape is fast changing... We are headed fast into the arid west... Across West Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona... The land below is fast changing from green brown...

People are looking intently out the windows... Looking for smoke from the Arizona forest fire... It's been burning for more than a week and is still not controlled.. There is haze, getting heavier as we fly west... We are likely over New Mexico by now... Is it smoke, or just clouds? The now dirty yellow haze is making the desert landscape look even more dry and bleak... Now broken by a river valley and irrigated fields... Most likely the Rio Grande...

I nap awaking as we pass the Salton Sea... 15 minutes later we are on the ground... 10 minutes later I find myself in line for the connection to SFO... I make those quick phone calls, then power the phone down for the flight... We are now just off the coast, northward bound... Catalina island of 26 miles across the sea fame below...

I will arrive home in early afternoon... Giving me a bit of time to acclimate to home before work tomorrow... I will get in three days of work or so... then, again, back aboard a big jet airplane and head back, back east to Florida...

Southwest screwed the pooch

Now at the gate... At the gate, the flight status still is shown as "delayed"... Even as the web site, and the electronic flight status boards display 1:20… Our status remains “delayed”... No time promised, at least at the gate... On line we are leaving at 1:20... But at the gate we are simply "delayed"

Now, 1:04, on board... Fellow passengers are grumpy... The boarding was rushed... Gate staff and the cabin crew are defensive, agitated... "Please board as quickly as possible.... (We are late (maybe their problem?)) We don't what to lose out takeoff slot".... The employee's stress is transferring to the passengers... "we are already late... Take a seat as quickly as Possible" People continue to stream on... There is nothing glamorous or exciting about this big jet air plane... "Please grab a seat quickly folks"

1:17 they are closing the door. They are closing the overhead bins... We are getting ready to depart. Time to turn the IPad off... At least we are finally on the way...

1:48... Now above 10,000 feet, Ipad back on... Stanford and the linear accelerator below... Leaving SFO all traffic was limited to the two north south runways... So maybe Southwest wasn't lying about the reason for the delay... Still they didn't handle it well, or communicate well... We were into the fog, before we cleared the end of the runway... We had broken through into sun light while still over the airport...

I am reading "Lost in My Own Backyard" by Tom Cahill... About "A walk in Yellowstone National Park"... I recommend it... I am listening to Houston Jones on the IPad... All is good... Now below... I-5 and traffic southbound of LA and beyond... A different way to move about... I see a road trip coming on... Yellowstone or Utah's canyon lands... Somewhere remote, where I can camp... Fire blazing, away from where ever "here" is.

Now 2:04... Strangely, while traveling, time is linear once again... I am settled in, a sprite on my tray table... Houston Jones singing "Three Crow Town and a good book... Below the San Joaquin Valley is fading into the Sierra foothills... We are headed east...

There is still lots of snow in the Sierras... Rivers are running high, easily seen from 25,000 feet or so... This will be a good year to fish the Kern River...

We plan to scatter Mom's & Dad's (and Cleo's (the dog)) ashes along the Kern River. Merle Haggard has a song about the Kern River... Dad, and his dad, George homesteaded land and built a cabin near Lake Isabella, on the Kern River... We spent a lot of time there as kids...

Now 2:15...Below, a glimpse of the Owens Valley, the Alabama Hills... Before they disappear under clouds...

2:22... peanuts arrive... I like peanuts... Now desert below... Death Valley... Hot & dry.

We land about 3:00 in Las Vegas...

I have an our plus layover... I find a bar, and order a beer... Having consumed said beer, I find a restroom... I find the gate and after a short wait board... I am B-2... Not a bad boarding number... I get a window behind the wing... I like to look outside when flying... It is now 4:03... People continue to board... To look for seats and precious overhead bin space... I establish my camp... The IPad, a book, and my snacks... Time to shut the I pad down...

Now 5:43... More likely 6:43... By now we have likely crossed the border and are over west Texas, and Mountain Time... we have come less than half way... Half way from Nevada to Florida...

6:27... This flight is more subdued... We are flying towards darkness... Into night below us darkness is falling... Below it is 7:30, possibly 8:30... Below is world of green fields... Streams meandering.. Occasional lights... Likely east Texas... Here at 35,000 feet it is still light, the plane's wing glowing pink in the alpenglow.

By 7:05 (locally likely 9:05, maybe 10:05) all is dark save for the lights of the cities and towns below. We have an hour and a half or so to go...

At 7:49, hear the engines throttle back a bit and feel the plane pitch downward... We are nearing Tampa... We should be on the ground in 40 minutes or so... They should be making the "turn off all electronic devices" announcement soon.

Now Sunday morning… sometime after 9:00 am… The plane landed… I recovered my luggage which was so hard to check… I found the truck, drove home to Brooksville and went to bed…

This AM, Dad is doing well, stuck in bed, sick, but in good spirits… talking to people, looking forward to visitors…


One final thought... While I am not happy with Southwest and their communication, no employee was ever rude or lashed out... they were stressed... they had lost their sense of humor... but they were never rude...