Getting There is Half The Fun

Posted on October 20, 2019October 14, 2019 by Dusty Roads

Getting there is half the fun

When you travel you have to keep in mind that getting there is half the fun. Day 1 of any of my vacations is always a travel day. So I remind myself that the journey is as important as the destination. Since I was only going to Florida you’d think this one would be easy. Just a hop, skip and jump down the east coast. Well, not quite. I never do anything the easy way. My flight is out of Logan (Boston) at 8:30 am. That’s a late flight for me but getting to Logan is an adventure in itself.

Park ‘n Fly

Turns out the easiest part of my journey was the Park ‘n Fly. It’s much more expensive than the Logan Express but my car will be better located for my dash to Lynn when I return. Yes, I got a ticket to hear Josh Gates speak and it’s the same evening I come back from Florida. My car needs to be handy or I’ll never get to Lynn on time. So Park ‘n Fly it is and they were great. Easy to get to and the shuttle to the airport picked me up right at the car.

Check in

Getting through security with my new hip was anti climatic. My Doctor said I’d light up the metal detectors so be sure to tell the TSA. Although I did let them know nothing happened when I walked through the metal detector. Not a peep out of those machines. The TSA operator asked me if my new hip was made of plastic because it didn’t set anything off. Wait til I see my Doctor again!

First Class Travel

As has become my habit I was flying first class. You get treated so much better that I’m willing to pay the extra if it isn’t too much. Today Delta really out did themselves. They made me feel like I was visiting royalty from the first person I saw in the terminal to the flight attendants in first class. Thank you Delta. Another fine job.

The planes.

I had a layover at JFK in New York. What a huge airport. We landed in one terminal and had to take a shuttle to another one to board a different plane. That was fine with me. The first plane was a little plane with only 3 seats in each row. Very cramped even in First Class. One seat was in the left with a window the other two were on the other side of the aisle. I had the left window seat. So I got to sit alone. When we changed planes we had a bigger plane with 4 seats per row, 2 on each side of the aisle and the seats were bigger.

Getting there is half the fun

The flight attendants on this plane were great. They were attentive, funny and always smiling even when a child passenger had a major meltdown.

MIA

MIA does not mean Missing in Action although the Miami airport does look like it went through a war. The People Movers are moving walkways that are meant to make it easier and faster to get through the airport. I’ve used them elsewhere and they do help but not in Miami. Very few of the walkways were working so I took off trudging with my luggage trailing behind me for what seemed like miles to find the car rental section of the airport. After a ride on a tram and more trudging I final spotted the Hertz counter.

Fly the Friendly Skies with Delta? NOT!

Posted on October 28, 2015October 28, 2015 by Dusty Roads

On Monday 10/19 I drove off to a little town in upstate New York to meet up with my sister and traveling companion. Bright and early on Tuesday morning we headed to the airport for our date with Delta airlines. I fly quite often and for a long time Delta was my airline of choice but that is starting to change. Delta is being edged out by Southwest and on this trip I had a chance to really compare the 2 airlines. We were flying Delta to San Antonio and Southwest on our return from New Orleans.

Our flight was a two parter with a layover and change of planes in Detroit. I say that only because I’ve had the misfortune to witness first hand extreme rudeness from Delta attendants. One time the flight attendant lost her temper with an elderly couple who just wanted to sit together. She screamed and yelled at them and threatened to have them “removed from the airplane”.

Another time the attendant was upset over something unknown and threw the hand set to the intercom across the cabin. Whew! I sat very quietly all through that flight!

But I digress. I don’t go into these flights expecting a bad experience. In fact it has always surprised me when there’s an outburst like that. So back to our situation.

I paid extra for us to have more legroom on the 1st half of the trip from Albany to Detroit and I had specifically selected aisle seating. As we were getting ready to board Sandy mentioned that our seats had been changed. She’d been moved from an aisle to a window and so had I. To make it even worse I was in row 1 so there is no seat in front of me for my carry on. My carry on had to go in the overhead bin or get checked.

Since I had a laptop and about $2400 worth of camera equipment in my carry on you can imagine I did not want to be separated from my luggage. It was at that point that I realized that our “friendly” attendant was not a morning person. Maybe she hadn’t had her coffee yet because she was not fooling around. Of course she wouldn’t help me try to make it fit in the overhead either. You’d think if you have a customer that will pay extra for a seat upgrade that you’d treat them a little nicer but noooo, she just stood at the front of the plane telling me to get a move on because I was holding everyone up. I finally gave in and let her check the bag. (Against my better judgement, I might add.)

I told her if there was any damage I would hold Delta responsible to which she said I was out of luck because she had given me a verbal warning about checking a fragile item.

The laptop did not make it unscathed but the damage was minor and can be worked around. Thankfully the camera and lens were fine. I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad. The poor trainee flight attendant was being growled at the whole flight. She was just one of those “not nice” people.

The 2nd half of the trip was uneventful. My carry on went into the overhead with no problem but it seems every trip on Delta there’s at least one unhappy flight attendant.

It was good to arrive in San Antonio and leave the unfriendly skies behind.

How about an Amtrak Vacation

Posted on October 27, 2015October 27, 2015 by Dusty Roads

My fall vacation finally got here. After a crazy spring, summer and even fall at work I was more than ready for some R & R.

This vacation was something a little different. It was billed as an Amtrak Rail Vacation but I have to admit we did a lot of flying too. So before I break things down into specific adventures let me give you an overview.

The trip name is Riverwalk to the French Quarter (Don’t worry, we’re not walking)

As you may have guessed by the title, this is San Antonio to New Orleans.

Our trip began in San Antonio Texas where day one was basically our first travel day arriving around 5:30 in San Antonio via Delta Airlines.

Day 2 was a Grand Tour of the city starting with the Alamo. It was a full day.

Day 3 was also in San Antonio but it was a free day where we could explore at our leisure.

It Rained!

Included in the package for San Antonio was 1 dinner voucher. (Hard Rock Cafe)

Day 4 was the train trip arriving in New Orleans around 10 pm. (They sure like their pharmacies in New Orleans)

Day 5 was in New Orleans starting with a 1/2 day tour of the city. The afternoon was ours to explore on our own.

Day 6 was also a free day but dinner was at the Court of the Two Sisters with a voucher.

Day 7 was our travel day back to New York this time with Southwest Airlines.

We arrived in Albany, NY at about 5:30 pm. I spent the night at my sister’s and drove back to Massachusetts in the morning. I really wasn’t ready for the vacation to end but my fuzzy little fur-babies were glad I was home.