canyonwalker: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Travel! (planes trains and automobiles)
[personal profile] canyonwalker
North Cascades Travelog #18
Back home - Tue, 5 Sep 2023, 9pm.

It's 9pm on Tuesday and we're back home from our trip to Spokane and the North Cascades. We walked through our front door just after 8; but now at 9 we've finished eaten a late supper and have mostly unpacked. It's time to wind down for the evening.

Yes, this blog is out of order. Like a few others on this trip I'm pulling it forward to try to keep up with at least the broad strokes of the trip in real time. There are 6-7 entries in the backlog. Update: it turned into 10 blogs once I split a few that got long.

Traveling home today was uneventful. We got up early from our hotel in Winthrop, WA and hit the road toward Spokane. We made a planned stop at the Grand Coulee Dam for a tour. That's one of the entries in the backlog. [Updateour visit to the dam spread to 2 entries.] We got to the airport, returned the car, cleared security, and walked to our gate by 3:10pm... two hours before our flight home. Being early like that wasn't exactly the plan... but at the same time it was. I don't like fooling around with trying to cut it too close on the day of our departure home.

The flight home was boring. Usually I remark that boring is good. This time it was... extra boring, in a bad way. The aircraft's wifi was busted so that meant far fewer things to do. I did touch up a few pictures to include in a blog I'll finish tomorrow morning.

Once on the ground at Oakland airport I set off on foot to get our car. That's the other main thing I wanted to write about in this blog. We drove to the airport instead of taking Uber/Lyft/etc. We drove and paid to park.

Driving and Parking FTW. Again!

Parking at the airport cost $82. Money down the drain! you might object. But like I figured out when I parked in hourly parking for a same-day business trip last week, the math works out favorably.

Hailing a ride with Uber this evening would have cost $58 plus tip. I opened the app to get a quote so I could make this comparison. Call it about $65 all-in. I didn't check prices Friday evening but I'll assume it would have been at least as much because of rush hour traffic. So that's at least $130 roundtrip. Driving and parking is a clear win in term of hard cost.

One nice thing about OAK airport is that long term parking is walkable to/from the terminal. I timed it at 10 minutes each way. Yeah, I was walking fast. Yeah, that's not ideal in all circumstances... though on the plus side it helps me get some exercise in and isn't too bad when I'm not hauling more than a light bag. (Hawk waited with our other roll-aboard bag in baggage claim for our checked bag to arrive.)

Driving and parking means we're in our own car. For some people that's a "dont' care" but it's important for Hawk who's sensitive to seat position and shape. She knows she'll be comfortable in our car. Most hailed cars are uncomfortable for her.

Finally, while the cost of parking was already cheaper than an Uber/Lyft roundtrip we could have lowered it even further if I'd remembered to make an advanced reservation. You know how I keep joking that every trip there's one thing I forget? This time it was to make a parking reservation. I tried doing it on the road Friday night, but reservations require 2 hour advanced booking.

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canyonwalker

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