Day-43: Eastward Bound - The End of the Line

Thursday, November 7, 2013

TOO EARLY!!!!!

Alarms had been set for 2:30 and 3:00, that would be AM! As often happens we woke up before the alarms even had a chance. By 3:30 we were ready to go but the hotel van’s departure wasn’t until 4:10.

The van to the airport was loaded, why are so many people up so early? In any case, the ride over was easy and quick and by 4:40 we had checked our six bags and moved on to test out our nifty TSA PreScreen Trusted Traveler Cards. We approached the security checkpoint and were immediately separated, Sheila to the right line and me to the left. What’s up with that? Well the TSA PreScreen worked at least for me, I didn’t need to remove clothing, shoes, belts or anything and didn’t need to empty my pockets or remove my computer from its bag. With no wait at all I had breezed through the TSA security system. For Sheila, the process wasn’t quite as good. Seems that her United Airlines account hadn’t been annotated to reflect her “trusted traveler” status. In the end, she entered the usual fray and eventually exited security relatively unscathed. We’ve got to fix her account.

So by 4:50 we had completed all check-in functions, bought a cup of coffee and proceeded to our gate; as luck would have it, our gate was in the main terminal area with no need to walk out one of the long concourses. Though the day had begun very early, so far, it had been a very efficient morning.

We boarded our flight, a brand new Airbus-320 United jet, and proceeded to our exit row aisle seats 20C&D. As the aircraft doors were closed no one had taken the middle seats in our rows so you could say that our good fortune had continued.

Sheila looking like the obvious flight attendant helper for the day was tasked with holding the safety demo gear, e.g. belt, life vest, mask and various cards, etc. There was some thought that Sheila might be able to assist with the life vest donning and inflating process, at least for a photo ops or as the attendant suggested for a Facebook image.

Finally we settled in for the 5-hour flight to Washington. I’m sure I slept for several seconds, minutes but something less than an hour. Seemed like the crew was constantly passing through the aisles offering drinks and snack boxes of various sorts. Sheila requested a cheese tray snack but was told that such snacks were not boarded for the early AM flights. During one of the later services she again requested the cheese tray as perhaps we had experienced an in-flight replenishment, which included the cheese plates. In any case, the answer was still no.

The SFO-IAD flight actually arrived in Washington early so the day was still going well.

With two hours to wait for our Norfolk flight we set out for a terminal walk (terminal as in airport, not as in the end). We picked up sandwiches and had lunch while waiting at gate C28.

So our good fortune finally ran out, the Washington to Norfolk flight was delayed, first by about 15 minutes but in the end by about an hour. The first delay was due to a late arrival of the aircraft from Philadelphia, understandable at that time of day. The second cause of delay was a first for me; I’ve experienced delays for many reasons, e.g. weather, congestion, broken equipment, late arrival of flight crews, etc. but never before because of having “too much fuel” and therefore being overweight for takeoff. So what is the remedy for an overweight aircraft you might ask. Well let me tell you because you probably think it involves taking someone off of the plane or leaving baggage at the gate or a tank truck pulling up to the plane and pumping off a few gallons of fuel to meet the weight allowance but you would be wrong. Here is the step-by-step remedy to an overweight aircraft:

• Step 1: Depart gate and taxi to hold position adjacent to runway
• Step 2: Set the brakes
• Step 3: Recheck that the brakes are set
• Step 4: Notify passengers of intentions
• Step 5: Rev engines as if in a maximum power climb
• Step 6: Recheck fuel load
• Step 7: If weight compliant proceed to runway
• Step 8: If still overweight resume process at Step 5

In any case by 4:30 we were southbound for Norfolk where Carrie waited having already arrived from Kitty Hawk. We arrived in Norfolk around 5:45 and before the door was open, a fuel truck pulled up to the right wing; perhaps they didn’t have quite as much fuel as suspected.

By 6:00 we had recovered our bags, including the one (our big one) that had been routed via Chicago and wasn’t even on the overweight flight from Washington.

The drive to Kitty Hawk was uneventful and we arrived around 8 PM. For our first dinner at home in 43 days, Carrie had made a new Mac & Cheese (with bacon) recipe that we supped on - VERY GOOD.

And so the West Coast Odyssey was complete with an elapsed time of:

• 42 days
• 14 hours
• 30 minutes

We had traveled 11,450 miles.

• Airplane: 5,152 miles
• Airport Shuttles: 8 miles
• Car: 6,094 miles
• Train: 36 miles
• Boat: 75 miles
• Golf Cart: 5 miles
• Walking: 80 miles

For me, in that my body clock was still thinking it was three hours earlier in the day, I had plenty of time to unpack and start working through the piles of mail. At some point in time, without realizing it was already tomorrow, 1:30 AM Friday, even I said it was time to be done.

So ended our West Coast adventure, another successful travel experience in the books.