Funny Bits on the Way Home from Phoenix
Sep. 24th, 2025 06:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerPhoenix Getaway travelog #13
Back home · Tue, 22 Sep 2025. 6:30pm
It's around 6:30pm on Tuesday and we're home now from our Phoenix 4-day getaway. Yeah, we left after a half day today; maybe not even. We bailed from the hotel pools at noon, checked out before 1pm, had plenty of time at the airport, landed just after 5pm, and were home before 6. Now I'm unpacked and have had a chance to relax. That's the short version of it, anyway. The long version? Yeah, there's some funny stories to tell.
First, no, we didn't bail right after a slow morning waiting for the sun to come out. That was Monday morning. I'm skipping over a few half-finished blogs in my backlog to push this one out to set the context in case I need to start writing about something else, like, I dunno, work, this week.
It's was 12 cents.
"Oh, 12 cents per kilowatt hour?" I asked when the attendant at the rental depot told me that. "That's a great rate. The commercial stations I found with your app were $0.48/kwh and higher without a big up-front subscription."
No, he meant it was 12 cents. Total.
That's what the bill showed, anyway. Fuel charge: $0.12.
I'm sure either the staffer punched something in wrong or the rental company has its POS systems programmed wrong. We'll see if they come back with a bigger charge later as a correction.
It's always kind of boring sitting around the airport. Once aboard the flight we were already pretty much at peak boredom so I pulled out our stuffed hawk, "Winter", for us to play with. Hawk buckled him in to the seat between us for takeoff.
Later I perched Winter on my knee. He didn't get quite as much attention there as Baldy did on our flight home from Toronto a few weeks ago. Maybe that's because Winter is smaller. Or maybe it's because I wasn't in seat 1D where everyone boarding could see him.
Late in the flight I noticed the lady sitting across the aisle and half a row up from me giving me a lot of side-eye. Then I noticed that she was holding in her hands a stuffed mouse toy. Haha, red tail hawks totally eat mice! I thought about telling her Winter wouldn't prey on her mouse without our permission but I wasn't sure how much she wanted to play along with the stuffed animal circle of life. 🤣
Well, when we landed this afternoon at SJC airport it was even more obvious how bad our parking spot was. The lot on Tuesday afternoon was only about 2/3 full, and only a scattering of cars were out in the nosebleed spaces. And BTW, in the photo above I've already walked across at least 4/5 of the lo before snapping the picture. That's our car out by the fence at the far end. And we paid $104 for that space.
Well, I guess if we average it with 12 cents for electrons it comes out to a reasonable price. 😂
Back home · Tue, 22 Sep 2025. 6:30pm
It's around 6:30pm on Tuesday and we're home now from our Phoenix 4-day getaway. Yeah, we left after a half day today; maybe not even. We bailed from the hotel pools at noon, checked out before 1pm, had plenty of time at the airport, landed just after 5pm, and were home before 6. Now I'm unpacked and have had a chance to relax. That's the short version of it, anyway. The long version? Yeah, there's some funny stories to tell.
First, no, we didn't bail right after a slow morning waiting for the sun to come out. That was Monday morning. I'm skipping over a few half-finished blogs in my backlog to push this one out to set the context in case I need to start writing about something else, like, I dunno, work, this week.
12¢ for Electrons
I posted as part of this trip that our rental car was an electric vechicle, a Hyundai Ioniq 5. In that blog I mostly complained about how cumbersome and expensive it is to recharge an EV if you don't own it. Well, I decided since we weren't doing too much driving around Phoenix, just a handful of short trips, I wouldn't need more electrons than the full charge it came with. I decided I'd pay whatever cost the rental company charges for a recharge. Yeah, I figured they'd charge me more for the convenience, but given how inconvenient it is to sign up for a single charge at a commercial charging station I figured it'd be worth it.It's was 12 cents.
"Oh, 12 cents per kilowatt hour?" I asked when the attendant at the rental depot told me that. "That's a great rate. The commercial stations I found with your app were $0.48/kwh and higher without a big up-front subscription."
No, he meant it was 12 cents. Total.
That's what the bill showed, anyway. Fuel charge: $0.12.
I'm sure either the staffer punched something in wrong or the rental company has its POS systems programmed wrong. We'll see if they come back with a bigger charge later as a correction.
An Easier Way to Fly. And the Lady in Seat 2D has a Mouse.
We reached the airport terminal with over an hour to pass before our flight would start boarding. Hawk went to the gate while I stopped for a late lunch outside security. We met up again at the gate, with plenty of time to spare.It's always kind of boring sitting around the airport. Once aboard the flight we were already pretty much at peak boredom so I pulled out our stuffed hawk, "Winter", for us to play with. Hawk buckled him in to the seat between us for takeoff.
Later I perched Winter on my knee. He didn't get quite as much attention there as Baldy did on our flight home from Toronto a few weeks ago. Maybe that's because Winter is smaller. Or maybe it's because I wasn't in seat 1D where everyone boarding could see him.
Late in the flight I noticed the lady sitting across the aisle and half a row up from me giving me a lot of side-eye. Then I noticed that she was holding in her hands a stuffed mouse toy. Haha, red tail hawks totally eat mice! I thought about telling her Winter wouldn't prey on her mouse without our permission but I wasn't sure how much she wanted to play along with the stuffed animal circle of life. 🤣
$104 to Park in the Nosebleed Section
I groused on the front end of this trip about the terrible parking spot I got at the airport. Understand, this isn't simply, "Wanh, airports are expensive!" or, "Wanh! I had a long walk!" This is a situation where it's like I paid for seats near home plate at the ball game then got stuck up in the nosebleed section.Well, when we landed this afternoon at SJC airport it was even more obvious how bad our parking spot was. The lot on Tuesday afternoon was only about 2/3 full, and only a scattering of cars were out in the nosebleed spaces. And BTW, in the photo above I've already walked across at least 4/5 of the lo before snapping the picture. That's our car out by the fence at the far end. And we paid $104 for that space.
Well, I guess if we average it with 12 cents for electrons it comes out to a reasonable price. 😂
