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Headed Home... for about 10 Days
Nov. 12th, 2024 11:38 amInlaws' Anniversary Trip Journal #7
IAD Airport - Tue, 12 Nov 2024, 2:05pm
We're in the process of heading home from our impromptu 5 day trip to visit Hawk's parents in Pennsylvania. We've driven 110-ish miles to Dulles (IAD) airport outside Washington, DC. From here we're flying back to San Jose with a connection in Phoenix.
Here are Five Things about this day of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles:
1) Yes, it really is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; we're traveling via all 3 today. We've just driven two hours by car, we took a train at the airport to get from the terminal to our concourse— okay, it was more like a tram, but it still counts because it was on rails— and, of course, we're flying 2,500 miles.
2) We drove 110 miles to IAD airport instead of flying from a closer airport because it's still more convenient. Harrisburg's airport, MDT, has even less service than it used to. For example, United cut its flights between MDT and its worldwide hub in Chicago! Now one has to go through its other worldwide hub, IAH, or maybe EWR (Newark) to get there. At IAD we were able to get a Southwest flight with reasonable timings back to San Jose. And because it's Southwest, it's much cheaper for us. Yay, Companion Pass!
3) 250 miles at 94 cents per mile. That's what our rental car cost, $0.94/mile. That includes both the rental price and refilling the gas tank. We drove 250 miles this trip, almost all of that on getting to my inlaws' house and back. I'm always curious to compare what it costs to rent a car on a trip vs. Uber,/Lyft it. Those services run $1.50 ~ $2 a mile on shorter trips... and would likely be prohibitively expensive for longer trips such as the 110+ miles each way between their house and the DC-area airports.
4) We're got to our gate 1h40m before departure because planning. Yeah, it seems like wasted time to be here that early. It'd be more efficient to arrive 45 minutes earlier instead of 100. But this was a matter of planning. In planning our drive down from Harrisburg we allowed for:
5) We turn around and do it again in 10½ days. Yes, we considered the value of making this trip now given that we're going to be back out here in less than 2 weeks. We decided it was worth it. And Hawk's parents were beside themselves with joy that we came out just for their 60th anniversary.
IAD Airport - Tue, 12 Nov 2024, 2:05pm
We're in the process of heading home from our impromptu 5 day trip to visit Hawk's parents in Pennsylvania. We've driven 110-ish miles to Dulles (IAD) airport outside Washington, DC. From here we're flying back to San Jose with a connection in Phoenix.
Here are Five Things about this day of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles:
1) Yes, it really is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles; we're traveling via all 3 today. We've just driven two hours by car, we took a train at the airport to get from the terminal to our concourse— okay, it was more like a tram, but it still counts because it was on rails— and, of course, we're flying 2,500 miles.
2) We drove 110 miles to IAD airport instead of flying from a closer airport because it's still more convenient. Harrisburg's airport, MDT, has even less service than it used to. For example, United cut its flights between MDT and its worldwide hub in Chicago! Now one has to go through its other worldwide hub, IAH, or maybe EWR (Newark) to get there. At IAD we were able to get a Southwest flight with reasonable timings back to San Jose. And because it's Southwest, it's much cheaper for us. Yay, Companion Pass!
3) 250 miles at 94 cents per mile. That's what our rental car cost, $0.94/mile. That includes both the rental price and refilling the gas tank. We drove 250 miles this trip, almost all of that on getting to my inlaws' house and back. I'm always curious to compare what it costs to rent a car on a trip vs. Uber,/Lyft it. Those services run $1.50 ~ $2 a mile on shorter trips... and would likely be prohibitively expensive for longer trips such as the 110+ miles each way between their house and the DC-area airports.
4) We're got to our gate 1h40m before departure because planning. Yeah, it seems like wasted time to be here that early. It'd be more efficient to arrive 45 minutes earlier instead of 100. But this was a matter of planning. In planning our drive down from Harrisburg we allowed for:
- The possibility of bad traffic somewhere along the way.
- The possibility of stopping for lunch taking longer than expected.
- The possibility of airport security (or really anything else at the airport that can go wrong) taking longer than expected.
5) We turn around and do it again in 10½ days. Yes, we considered the value of making this trip now given that we're going to be back out here in less than 2 weeks. We decided it was worth it. And Hawk's parents were beside themselves with joy that we came out just for their 60th anniversary.
