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canyonwalker) wrote2021-06-11 12:24 pm
canyonwalker) wrote2021-06-11 12:24 pm
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles the Next 11 Days
SFO Airport - Friday, 11 Jun 2021, 12pm
It's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for the next 11 days. Hawk and I are leaving on a double trip. Tonight we're headed to New York, where we'll spend a few days celebrating the wedding of two of our friends. Monday we fly from New York City to Bangor, Maine. From there we'll spend a week in Maine, first with several days at Bar Harbor while visiting Arcadia National Park, then a few days driving around the state to visit other parks. A week from Monday we fly home.
Normally a vacation is a chance to relax. So why have I tagged this blog No Rest For The Wicked instead of Taking It Easy? Partly it's because all the activities and travel between places will keep us busy. Of course, that's par for our trips. We seldom travel to one location, plop down, and stay there a whole week. I'm not sure when's the last time we plopped down on a trip for even 48 hours.
The other part of why this trip is No Rest... is that I've planned and re-planned it literally dozens of times.
Okay, so that's planning it three times; how did I get to literally dozens? It's that within each of the three major times we've planned this trip, I've planned and re-planned specific portions of the trip numerous times. Here's what I've gone through just with this iteration of the trip:
Every single flight on this trip was cancelled by the airlines after we booked them. Our flight today was cancelled and we rebooked onto this flight a few hours earlier. Monday's flight was cancelled and we rebooked onto a flight a few hours later. And our homebound flight was cancelled, too, requiring multiple calls to the airline to re-accommodate us with a routing that didn't suck.
We've also made several changes voluntarily, improving on our own planning rather than merely rescuing it from near-ruin thrust upon it. I rebooked our travel home at the end of the trip, changing from flying out of Boston to flying out of Portland, ME. That was before the airline cancelled the Portland flight. I also booked the New York to Maine flight (before it, too, was cancelled), changing plans from driving from New York up to Maine. Along with these changes hotels and rental car bookings changed, too.
All in all, I've replanned this trip literally dozens of times up to this point. And like I said above, I fully expect I'll have to make at least one unplanned change before we're back home again.
As Hawk and I packed our bags last night I was appalled that we spread out to four suitcases. Our goal had been to get it done with three. The spread to four seems largely my fault. I might be bringing a few more items of clothes and gear than I need. But trips like this, where we're doing very different activities— attending a wedding in formal attire, while also going hiking for a week— are difficult to pack lightly for. And the fact that cooler weather is in the forecast means we need heavier clothes that take up more space.
The last time we carried four suitcases (note this is four in addition to small carry-ons) on a flying trip was... 2005. At least now, like then, we passed my "Miss Piggy" Rule: We can carry/tote all of our bags at once.
It's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles for the next 11 days. Hawk and I are leaving on a double trip. Tonight we're headed to New York, where we'll spend a few days celebrating the wedding of two of our friends. Monday we fly from New York City to Bangor, Maine. From there we'll spend a week in Maine, first with several days at Bar Harbor while visiting Arcadia National Park, then a few days driving around the state to visit other parks. A week from Monday we fly home.
Normally a vacation is a chance to relax. So why have I tagged this blog No Rest For The Wicked instead of Taking It Easy? Partly it's because all the activities and travel between places will keep us busy. Of course, that's par for our trips. We seldom travel to one location, plop down, and stay there a whole week. I'm not sure when's the last time we plopped down on a trip for even 48 hours.
The other part of why this trip is No Rest... is that I've planned and re-planned it literally dozens of times.
Planning, Re-planning, Re-re-planning, etc.
Planning woes start with the fact that this whole trip got cancelled, twice, and had to be re-planned from scratch each time. First it was supposed to happen May last year. We built the trip to Maine around attending our friends' wedding. But then Coronavirus happened, and May was cancelled in March. The wedding was moved to July, and we rebooked everything, including our trip to Maine, around it. But that was back when we all thought Coronavirus lockdowns for a month or two might beat down the infection rate so low we could get back to normal by summer. Oh, how naively optimistic that was! For months the wedding was left TBD until early this year when they decided to put it back on for June. Here we are.Okay, so that's planning it three times; how did I get to literally dozens? It's that within each of the three major times we've planned this trip, I've planned and re-planned specific portions of the trip numerous times. Here's what I've gone through just with this iteration of the trip:
Every single flight on this trip was cancelled by the airlines after we booked them. Our flight today was cancelled and we rebooked onto this flight a few hours earlier. Monday's flight was cancelled and we rebooked onto a flight a few hours later. And our homebound flight was cancelled, too, requiring multiple calls to the airline to re-accommodate us with a routing that didn't suck.
We've also made several changes voluntarily, improving on our own planning rather than merely rescuing it from near-ruin thrust upon it. I rebooked our travel home at the end of the trip, changing from flying out of Boston to flying out of Portland, ME. That was before the airline cancelled the Portland flight. I also booked the New York to Maine flight (before it, too, was cancelled), changing plans from driving from New York up to Maine. Along with these changes hotels and rental car bookings changed, too.
All in all, I've replanned this trip literally dozens of times up to this point. And like I said above, I fully expect I'll have to make at least one unplanned change before we're back home again.
Traveling Heavy. The "Miss Piggy" Rule.
The Muppets character Miss Piggy was famous years ago for quipping when asked about her diet, "Never eat more than you can lift." I adapted that as a rule for travel. To travel light and travel fast, Never pack more than you can lift.As Hawk and I packed our bags last night I was appalled that we spread out to four suitcases. Our goal had been to get it done with three. The spread to four seems largely my fault. I might be bringing a few more items of clothes and gear than I need. But trips like this, where we're doing very different activities— attending a wedding in formal attire, while also going hiking for a week— are difficult to pack lightly for. And the fact that cooler weather is in the forecast means we need heavier clothes that take up more space.
The last time we carried four suitcases (note this is four in addition to small carry-ons) on a flying trip was... 2005. At least now, like then, we passed my "Miss Piggy" Rule: We can carry/tote all of our bags at once.