After waking up fairly early, I went for a short walk around the neighborhood I was staying in. For those of you that are hashers, I saw some good places to lay trail! See photo below!
The night before, I set up a pre-arranged Uber ride to get me to the airport. I hadn’t done this before so didn’t know who was picking me up, or if they would even show up. So, close to the appointed time, I opened the Uber app and saw that my driver, Carlton, was on his way. Whew! I gathered my things and waited outside. The car came around the curve and pulled up. Carlton was probably around 65 years old, skinny, very weathered face, black pleather driving gloves, long straggly grey hair. Hmm. As it turns out, we had a great conversation, even though he said, “my previous ride told me I’m a bit of an aggressive driver.” (I didn’t think he was that bad). He grew up in Washington DC, moved around quite a bit but has been in Reno for the past 30 years. He left DC because he “doesn’t like being around people.” (I mentioned how ironic it was that he was a Lyft/Uber driver, to which he replied “well, a guy has to eat!”) He told me about his past cars Datsun (remember those) 260Z, Jaguar, Rolls Royce. What a character!
So, I got to the airport in plenty of time, and finally got my first cup of coffee of the day (actually it was the only cup). Flight from RNO to PHX started off with a Bloody Mary (yum) and was uneventful.
Oddly, my flights from RNO to PHX, and PHX to PHL had the same flight number, so I thought I wouldn’t have to change planes. But, I was incorrect – future travelers take note!
We boarded our plane in PHX on time and all was good … until we found out we had to wait to leave the gate until Air Force Two, and then Air Force One, landed. I didn’t even know Trump was coming to Phoenix! The delay was a harbinger of things to come.
We took off about a half hour late. I settled in and watched the movie I had downloaded – “Hot Fuzz” – it was directed by the same guy who did “Shaun of the Dead” – it will be a good movie night movie!
I took a few naps and then the pilot announced we would be landing in PHL in about a half hour – around 11pm, about a half hour later than our scheduled time. A few minutes later he announced that there were thunderstorms in the area and we would be circling PHL until the storms cleared out. About a half hour later the pilot announced that PHL was closed, and we would be heading to Dulles Airport to refuel. What?!???
So, off we went to Dulles. We landed uneventfully and did not approach a gate. Luckily they did open the door for fresh air and a bunch of us stood around yakking for the half hour it took to refuel. And luckily PHL reopened so we were allowed to take off and return to PHL.
So, about 40 minutes after taking off from Dulles, we landed back in PHL. We headed to one gate and were then redirected to a different one. I got off the plane, walked towards the baggage claim area and called Park n Jet for pickup. Waited about 5 minutes – not too bad. There were a lot of other people delayed and we ended up with a really full shuttle. But everyone was in good spirits, even in spite of all of our delays.
Got back to the car around 315am – Kenn was overjoyed :-). We got home around 415am and I celebrated my return with a nightcap.
Stayed tuned for the next adventure!
Potential hash trail
Is this a message to me?
Pre-boarding in RNO
Kenn – overjoyed at getting back to the car!