I am posting this entry from Los Angeles. It was written before we left Baltimore. More on the screaming baby flight from Hell tomorrow.
If we would have stuck to our original reservations, our flight would have gotten to Baltimore 36 minutes after the Los Angeles plane left!
Now the entry:
No need to rush. I’m writing this from Gate B17 at Baltimore – Washington Airport. It’s nearly 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. Our flight doesn’t leave until well after 6:00 PM.
Our night at the Holiday Inn – BWI was fine, but I have an admission to make. If you work at that hotel, you probably scrambled around, looking for one of those huge baggage carts on wheels.
It was in our room.
It was a conscious decision. We didn’t want to inconvenience anyone else… and we didn’t want to load and unload. OK, it was a selfish decision. Shoot me.
Actually, our night at the Holiday Inn was just fine, punctuated by Helaine’s discovery that ‘shadow puppets’ could be projected on the wall. She does the world’s best AFLAC duck. Steffie attempted a worm.
We are currently like a band on the run with a series of one night stands. Hartford yesterday, Baltimore today, Los Angeles tomorrow, our cruise ship in the days beyond that. Each city-to-city move is a series of intertwined coordinated actions. We’re getting pretty good at this.
The same driver who brought us to the hotel last night took us to the airport today. He said he remembered us. Tipping works.
At the terminal’s curb I went and got two luggage carts to move our stuff inside. The Skycaps looked with envy. A potentially big customer was rolling by and they weren’t getting any.
We moved into the rat’s maze that leads to the ticket counter and scanned the agents. Who would we get? Who did we want?
We lose.
It didn’t take more than 15 seconds to see Jnacei¹ didn’t have the normal Southwest spirit. Maybe she was having a bad day? Maybe she wasn’t feeling well. I would pay.
Our three reservations were considered separate. The bags would have to be split among the three tickets.
One of our bags weight 54.4 pounds. Too much. Unbelievably, Helaine and Stef removed exactly 4.4 pounds. It hit the scale at 50.0.
If it would have been 50.1 pounds, I sense we would have been forced to pull more out! This was not a rule bender we were dealing with.
Signatures were needed to ship our soft sided garment bags. That’s a first.
I’m not saying she did anything wrong – because she probably didn’t. It was just a tooth pulling experience all the way around.
Jnacei did lighten up as our time together was drawing to a close. Or maybe she was just taking pleasure in explaining how far it was to our gate and how much additional time we needed to set aside for that journey.
Did I mention – our flight wasn’t for another four plus hours?
Steffie and Helaine were hungry, so we headed to a ‘real’ restaurant, Phillips Seafood. I must admit, though it cost nearly as much as Steffie bat mitzvah, it was very good.
I had lobster bisque and the premium crab cake as a sandwich. When my food was finished, the girls offered me their leftovers. I’m like Mikey in the cereal commercial. Give it to daddy – he’ll eat anything.
So that brings us to B17. Our flight is on the board as delayed, but Victor at the counter across the hall said it was only delayed by eight minutes. It is coming in from Islip, on Long Island, where it rained all day.
Our original flight from Hartford is also on the board as delayed. I will watch with interest to see if it is in early enough to allow passengers and baggage to move to the Los Angeles flight.
Blogger’s note. Though there is no Internet access, a few moments ago a little balloon popped up on the bottom of the screen saying a wireless access point had been found. When I tried to connect – no Internet. On further inspection, it was someone else’s computer, “Carolyn.” Luckily for Carolyn, I’m not a hacker.
¹ – I was going to use her real name, and then I realized she might sue me.
Some parts of the car, like the XM Satellite Radio, were interesting. Peter and I agree the XM ‘decade channels’ play too many marginal songs (not hits) – probably an effort to avoid repetition and there’s no real ‘oldies’ channel as such. I did find the comedy channels interesting and am envious of his ability to hear every baseball game… though as a non-sports fan he will listen to none.
Though sunny, today was blustery and cool. Still, we decided to take a walk down the boardwalk. The water was rough with spray coming off each breaking wave. The beach, as you might expect for April, was empty.
There is no outward sign of communications between these birds, but they must know what the others are going to do. They change direction on a dime and never bump into each other!
After dinner we went to the Tropicana to see a comedy show. The Comedy Stop at the Trop has been there for at least 25 years. Recently it moved to nicer quarters in the hotel’s new wing called The Quarter. In fact the whole addition is very nice, somewhat reiniscent of the shops at some Vegas casinos.