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.

Day-42: Danville & Preparations to Fly

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

There was no hurry this morning as we had little to do other than pack for tomorrow’s trip and tour our old homestead in Danville.

Our first task was to empty all of our bags and repack with the goal of everything fitting into our six pieces of checked luggage. Other than a couple bottles of wine, some candy, a coffee mug and two wine glasses we had nothing more than had flown west with us 42 days before. In the end with a push here and a cram there everything was in, the bags proved to be zippable so we were over the baggage hurdle.

We departed the hotel and headed north through San Francisco taking the northern approach to Danville via the Bay Bridge and Caldecott Tunnel. We experienced the newest bridge in the area and the oldest tunnel, a dark and dreary tube.

Caldecott Tunnel

San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge

Mt. Diablo

From CA-24 we turned to I-680 toward Danville taking the Diablo Road exit. Once on Diablo and the surrounding streets we drove by the various schools attended by the kids, including Green Valley Elementary, Vista Grade Elementary, Los Cerros Middle School and Monte Vista High School.

Our next venture was to ride by our old house at 2131 Deer Oak Way in Hidden Oaks of Blackhawk. Seems that the security guard had a different idea. How do you spell PRIVATE? Even with Sheila’s long expired California ID we were not getting into Hidden Oaks. Well since that didn’t work we decided to head for the Plaza and have lunch. Still open after so many years was the Blackhawk Grille, so without needing any special credentials we stopped in for lunch.

As it was a relatively warm and sunny day we selected an outside table, a choice that would give new meaning to Sheila’s “outdoor girl” title. Almost immediately the staff brought a bowl of freshly made potato chips (must be a California things, similar to the Ritz at Dana Point). This is where the “outdoor girl” part begins. Seems that of the 10-20 ducks swimming in an adjacent pond, one duck of mottled hues betook Sheila as it’s newest best friend with full expectation of sharing in the bowl of chips. The duck moved from one side of the table to the other, it stood atop Sheila’s rather large purse to better access the tabletop; all the while I was hoping that the duck would not leave a post-chip deposit atop said purse. The chip dance continued until the bowl was empty at which point the duck confirmed that the attraction had been totally about the food.

"The Duck"

Anyway, back to the grill. Our selections for the day were a Reuben for Sheila and for me a Beef Short Rib Infused Meat Loaf with a side of Mac & Cheese paired with a Gauthier 2011 Sauvignon Blanc. Now that’s comfort food.

 

After lunch we returned to Diablo Road driving into the Town of Danville, home to the iconic giant oak tree (reported to be over 350 years old) and the town center “clock tower”.

Danville Clock Tower

In summary, as one would expect, the Danville area is much busier today that 25 years ago, the trees are much more mature (obviously) but in general it still looks like a pretty nice place to call home.

By 3 PM we were en-route back to the west side of the bay via the San Mateo Bridge. Rather than return to the hotel we went directly to the airport and after gassing up for the last time turned the car in to National and took the shuttle back to the hotel.

For the balance of the evening we hung out in the room and didn’t go to the hotel’s wine & cheese party. Alarms were set for 2:30 AM and 3:00 AM for our 4:10 AM departure from the hotel and 6:00 AM departure from SFO. By 10 PM we were both asleep.

Day-41: Morro Bay to San Francisco

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Morro Bay in the Morning

Sheila was up at 4:30 with the shower running and hair dryer blowing, so, I was up too. Out of the hotel by 6 AM we made our first stop two minutes later at Sun-N-Buns bakery for a healthy breakfast to go, hot chocolate and pastries.

We needed gas before beginning the Big Sur trek so we stopped before leaving Morro Bay. The price today was $3.999/gallon, ouch! By 6:20 we were officially headed north on CA-1

Piedras Blancas Light Station

Along the way north we stopped at various overlooks including Piedras Blancas a beach just north of San Simeon. The beach is noted as a home for Elephant Seals with as many as 17,000 hauling out for a little R&R throughout the year (www.elephantseal.org). Also in the area is the Piedras Blancas Light Station currently owned and operated by the Bureau of Land Management. This might raise the question; did the light operate during the government shutdown? Further up the road we came upon the Point Sur Light Station.

Point Sur Light Station

Arriving in the community of Big Sur we came upon Nepenthe Restaurant and Café Kevah. This is notable as in our early planning for the Monterey portion of this trip there had been some discussion of driving down the coast for lunch at the restaurant. As for today, it was 9 AM and the café was just opening but with our tight schedule we opted to move on up the coast.

As anyone that has driven this part of the California coast knows, the vistas are dramatic and beautiful, clearly one of the best drives in the country and perhaps the world. Someday, perhaps we’ll have a couple of days to repeat the drive and make stops along the way at light stations, outlooks and even famous restaurants and inns.

From Santa Cruz we turned onto CA-17 north toward the San Jose area taking CA-85 passing Cupertino en-route to Los Altos. Appropriately we paid homage as we passed by the home of Apple, the company. Even though we were still a few miles away, the iPhones, iPads and MacBook were showing symptoms of being homesick.

Arlene & Dick
Sheila & Nick

Our purpose in going to Los Altos was to meet up with long-time Navy friends, Arlene and Dick. We had initially met them in 1972 in Newport, RI. Arriving at their home, we quickly caught-up on families and our lives of the past twenty-five years. We had last seen Arlene and Dick while we were living in Danville in the late 80’s. For lunch they took us into downtown Los Altos where we had lunch at Pompeii Ristorante. The Italian salads and entrees were great, mine being the basic spaghetti and meatballs; mighty good. Around 2 PM we had to part ways with Dick and Arlene but were appreciative of the opportunity to meet up again. All agreed that it wouldn’t be prudent to wait for another 25 years for our next reunion, sooner might be better.

Pompeii Ristorante
(Our Table at the Center)

Los Altos, CA

Moving on toward San Francisco, Sheila began the search for the night’s lodging. Actually it would be for two nights, hopefully near the airport. Within a few minutes it was clear that San Francisco was a popular place to be, no rooms were to be had for what we considered to be reasonable rates, though the downtown hotels had rooms if we were willing to pay $400+/night. After having no success at our usual list of hotels, e.g. Hilton, Marriott and Best Western, etc. she found a room at the airport (SFO) Holiday Inn for an unreasonable rate but one that would offer a few dollars savings for an early turn-in of our rental car. So after 40+ days on the road, we would be staying at one of the priciest lodges of the trip with a not-so spectacular view of another building from our window, no fireplace, so-so Internet, paper-thin walls and the sound of heavy-jets climbing for all they’re worth at about a thousand feet having departed on SFO’s Runway 28R less than a mile from our room. On the plus side, the hotel van would get us to the airport early on Thursday and during our stay there would be a wine & cheese reception each night.

SFO
(Hotel room about 1/2" to the left of the center-left edge of picture)

After settling in, to maximize our hotel value, we went down for the wine and cheese tasting. The cheese and fruit were fairly typical and the wine was good but didn’t stand a chance when compared to that consumed over the past 6-weeks. The staff hospitality was nice and we enjoyed the moment as well as the opportunity to meet a few more strangers, aka hotel guests.

By 7 we were back upstairs in the room, it would be a night offering the chance for clearing some of my Helium & family admin backlog. Though it was a good plan, the execution was poor as by 8:00 I had moved over to the bed and within minutes was asleep, just for a nap of course as it was still early.