0-Dark-30 to DC. Blogging at 37,001'.

20 Nov 2021, 8:40am MST - 37,001' over the Utah desert

I woke up this morning at 4am— almost three hours before the sun would rise— to fly to Washington DC to visit family in the area for Thanksgiving week. I hit the snooze button once on my alarm then rose, showered, dressed, ate a protein bar as a quick breakfast, and packed the last few small items in my suitcase.

One of our friends in the neighborhood graciously offered to drive us to the airport. "Our flight's early, 6:30am, so we'd need to leave at 5am," Hawk cautioned her the other day. But the neighbor insisted it was no problem. And this morning she quietly pulled her car up in front of our house at 4:54am.

The airport shuffle at SJC this morning was easy. The lines for bag check were long at 5:15am; we were glad we chose to go carry-on only. The length of the lines at security looked long, too, but TSA Pre-check was much faster. And new security teams were coming on as we joined the line, so even what looked like it would be a 10 minute process was quickly cut in half. We arrived at our gate with plenty of time to spare. We took our places in line and waited while reading from our handhelds.

Blogging at 37,001 Feet

Boarding was easy, especially with my A-01 boarding position. Hawk and I took seats in the bulkhead row. The flight took off on time, still 21 minutes before the sun would rise. This early in the day there literally isn't much time for operations to get all messed. Usually it takes several hours of problems occurring before systemic delays appear. As I write we're 90 minutes into the flight, at 37,001' elevation of the desert of western Utah.

And yes, it is specifically thirty-seven thousand and one feet:



The flight's been aloft for almost 90 minutes now. I've entertained myself the whole time (before opening my computer to write this blog) by browsing news on my phone. I get wifi access for free on Southwest. Normally an $8/day charge it's one of the benefits of my "A+" elite status. Having elite status, like having TSA Pre-check, makes air travel more pleasant in various ways.

What's on tap for the rest of the day? This flight lands at MDW (Chicago Midway airport) where we connect onward to IAD (Washington Dulles airport). We'll rent a car there and drive to Silver Spring, MD, to meet friends for dinner. After that we drive down to Dale City, VA, to check into our hotel for the next 4 nights.

As for how this plan will unfold... it's looking good right now. This flight should arrive early at MDW, giving us time to grab lunch comfortably before boarding our connecting flight. And our connecting flight is now showing on-time after show a minor delay earlier in the day.

Crossing State Lines for Dinner

Woodbridge, VA - Sat, 20 Nov 2021, 10pm.

Our flight to Virginia (just outside of Washington, DC) continued smoothly from this morning. Our connecting flight from Chicago was late arriving, but not too badly; only about 15 minutes. And picking up our rental car was much less painful than it could have been. Inside the rental depot the lines were full. Even the line for Avis Preferred members had at least 5 people in it, with only one agent serving the line. Fortunately I am not just Avis Preferred but also a member who knows how to use the app. I had selected my vehicle in advance, from my phone, and skipped the line entirely.

As if we hadn't already traveled far enough for the day, flying more than 2500 miles to get to Virginia, we crossed one more state line to meet friends for dinner in Silver Spring, Maryland. Our late arrival at the airport had set us back a bit, and traffic on the Beltway set us back more.

Dinner and catching up with old friends we haven't seen in... wow, at least 3 years. Damn you, Coronavirus... was fun. Hawk told them about my blog entry 30 Years of the Wheel of Time and how it made her realize how old she is. That started a discussion about how the years have crept up on us. ...Most of us, anyway. One of Hawk's friends married a husband 8 or 10 years younger. He enjoyed teasing us by responding to high school stories with, "And I was 4 then."

After dinner we crossed back across the state line to Virginia, traveling a little ways south to Woodbridge, near where my youngest sister and her family and our mom live. After checking in to the hotel we dashed back out to a Target store nearby to buy a few drinks and snacks for the room. We're here for 4 nights, after all, and if there's anything we don't eat here we can take it with us when we drive to my inlaws' for the following 4 nights.

One immediately obvious difference between Maryland and Virginia was masking. In Maryland, the restaurant required masks, and everyone wore them without fuss. In Virginia, neither our hotel nor the store require masks. Signs only state they're recommended. The mask wearing rate looks to be about 10%.