Here I sit in Santa Clara wondering why my recent trips
to the west coast have been a little more difficult than normal. If you don’t understand review my blog about
the trip to Tacoma and the flight to Seattle to go to Portland. Enough said on those two trips.
Today is Tuesday and I left Sunday morning from Milwaukee
5:50 early morning flight on a United flight to Houston. To do that I need to be up at 2 o’clock to
leave at 3 o’clock to check in and go through the TSA check in. Which in itself is not too bad but I did not
get to sleep until midnight and then overslept and woke at 3 AM. So now I am tired and late and if I hurry I
can still make it because I built in a little extra time.
Check in at General Mitchell Airport went well I was even
Pre checked in by TSA even though I have never applied for it. I guess they
mixed me up with another Jim Simons (the really rich one). So much for government efficiency, it’s a good
thing I am not a bad guy. We took off
for Bush International on time, arrived on time and called to tell everyone on
the west coast we were leaving on time.
The calls were probably the big mistake.
We did grab a breakfast sandwich and eat it while we were waiting to
taxi out for takeoff. Everything is
going just great, but…… 500 feet out from the terminal we stop and the Captain
announces a medical emergency and we have to go back.
By the time they got the gentleman off and restocked the
medical supplies used we had used up an hour.
Ok I had still built in a little extra time and we would still arrive in
Sacramento in time for dinner.
The flight went great, I got to watch two movies I have
been waiting to see and they only cost a $110 each, but that made the flight
free. We arrived in San Francisco and
the plane is late and they have been telling nervous passengers that some
flights had been held but they would have to hurry. The plane pulls up to the jet way but they
can’t find anyone to move the jet way against the plane. That simple task takes almost 15 minutes.
We are finally off the plane in the International
Terminal and we have to walk over to Terminal 3 to get our checked bags then
walk back to the International Terminal to catch the BART Train to
Richmond. We are going to miss the last
train I had hoped to catch to Sacramento.
Oh well there is another train about anhour later but I need to call and
tell everyone I will be late.
We get to Richmond and we have to wait for the next
train. About half way through the wait
they announce the train is delayed. OK
this is getting serious. We have not eaten since 8:30 in the morning, there is
nothing to eat at the station and the train is late. Five minutes before the delayed train is
supposed to arrive it is cancelled and we are told to wait for the next train. Another hour and 45 minutes. We are going to be seriously late. More calls. I am really hungry since it is now
4pm in a time zone 2 hours later than the one I started in. I have slept only 3
hours in the last 36. So I am looking
down every street I can see from the train depot and I spot a deli. I am out of there and get a sandwich, chips
and cookies to split with Patricia.
Four hours after I had planned to arrive in Sacramento we
arrived, and my brother and his granddaughter were waiting for us. Finally things are coming together. Dinner is waiting, but one of my nephews had
to leave to be at his job early Monday morning.
The good news is we finally caught up with him today and he was able to
have lunch with us.
And here we are in Santa Clara ready to set up early
tomorrow. Maybe things will get better. I
would say they can’t get worse but they might if I do. It will be a good show.
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