Busy Blogging in June, Busier in July

I keep an eye on statistics for my blogging. In June 2022 I posted 61 times, an average of just over 2 blogs/day. Two years ago that would've been my bloggiest month ever, but since then I've had two months over 2.5/day and a few others above 2. June only ranks as my 5th highest daily ratio. For the year I've posted 359 entries, nearly 2/day. That's well above my goal of averaging 1.5/day.

As bloggy as June was, July is likely to be bloggier. We're leaving— later today!— on an 8 day trip to Colorado with lots of hiking. I know I'll write lots of blogs about that. And I'm still backlogged on posting hiking notes & pictures from our trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada two weeks ago. There's probably another 5 entries just from that I hope to catch up on this month. Plus a few political entries in the backlog from all the crazy stuff that's been happening the past few weeks.

Don't Let Your Points Expire!

Don't let your points expire! That's a problem people who collect frequent flyer points (and hotel points) need to be worried about. Typically, in the past, points would expire after 12-18 months with no activity. Thus, for those of us who are genuinely frequent with our flying (and staying) it's not a huge challenge. We earn and spend points often enough not to have to worry about it. Still, though, even when we're flying and staying with our favorite programs there are other programs we're not as engaged with where points may expire.

I had an, "Oh, shit! Are points expiring soon?" moment two nights ago as I thought about my frequent flyer accounts with American Airlines and Delta Airlines. I haven't touched either account in just over 12 months now. What if they expire after 12 months? It's a lot of points... I have a whopping 750,000 AA miles!

Thankfully neither expiry is as short as 12 months. Through the pandemic period when travel was basically stopped most airlines and hotels lengthened their expiration limits or did away with them entirely. American points now expire after 24 months of inactivity, Delta's never expire. So at the moment I've got another 11½ months to figure out something to do with AA. Thankfully I don't have to do something with all three-quarters of a million points. I just have to earn a point, or spend a point, to keep the whole balance going.

Tonight, Denver. Tomorrow, All of Colorado!

Colorado Travelog #1
At 38,000' aboard WN 2342 - Friday, 1 Jul 2022, 8pm

This evening we're flying to Denver, Colorado. At the moment we're in the air, about halfway there. This isn't a "Friday Night Halfway" entry, though, because once we land in Denver we've still got a lot further to go. Tonight we'll rent a car and drive only as far as a hotel a few miles away. But over the next week we'll drive a big loop around the state of Colorado, stopping at many place for hiking along the way.

So far the trip is going... about par for the course. Crowds at the airport were mixed. TSA screening wasn't too bad overall since we have Pre-Check, but the line was unnecessarily slow because, as usual, the group in front of us included at least one person who was in the wrong line.

Once on the concourse we found long lines at all the restaurants. That's because half of them shut down during the depths of the pandemic travel slowdown and haven't reopened... even though travel is now back at pre-pandemic levels, according to many news reports.

Our flight left 30 minutest late. That's par for the course, too, especially with Southwest. They set their schedules very... optimistically. They're always running behind by at least 20 minutes late in the day.

Here on the flight it's a mostly full aircraft. I've got plenty of legroom in my exit row seat, though. Hooray, elite status that lets me get it.