ON THE ROAD AGAIN ~ 106,000 Miles etc. The Final Installment
Jun 7, 2003, 12:44 am
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
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ON THE ROAD AGAIN ~ 106,000 Miles etc. The Final Installment
PART 9: MILE 80540 - 106960
By Air: 24850
By Car: 1570 Miles
Photos of airline food from Part 9 may be viewed Here
Photos of my drive around the desert may be viewed Here
Address: [email protected]
Password: highflyer
Upon returning to Alaska, I got right to work getting re-certified to drive the Denali Park Road. This is a seven day process that involves everything from classroom time to Behind The Wheel training to mock emergency accident drills and bus evacuations. I have sat through numerous talks from NPS and company officials about everything from updated animal counts and new studies on park noise, air quality and weather to customer service, mechanical orientation and job specifics. I’ve zipped forwards and backwards through offset alleys, diminishing right hand turns and blindside back-ins on the cone course and, amongst other things displayed my ability to safely back a bus uphill around a corner while staying within one foot of the road’s edge at all times. I have signed or co-signed forty three documents attesting to my understanding of certain regulations and my proficiency in certain skills. Finally, I got to celebrate the completion of this year’s training session over beer and chicken stir fry while encouraging my boss to allow me to give four shifts away to coworkers so I could finish off the remainder of this 100000 mile journey. I even devised a color coded graph indicating available drivers vs. overtime vs. trainers possibly ruled out for CDL training during the four days I needed off. I didn’t get the final OK to go until 7:00pm on the night before my first scheduled flight out of Fairbanks. So, if you enjoy this portion of the trip report, you can thank Matt G., the boss of all VTS operations in the park. I gave him an MVP Gold First Class upgrade for his next Alaska flight and, although he doesn’t know it yet, since he’s a Red Sox fan he’s also getting a Red Sox pennant for his “office”, a small room in the end of our dispatch trailer.
This portion of the trip report involves award travel to Boston for a Saturday afternoon date with the Red Sox at Fenway Park, followed by a fourteen flight mileage run from Seattle out to Nashville and back a couple of times. Upon completion of that, I’ll be flying down to Las Vegas, picking up a large car with a good stereo and speeding off across the Mojave desert and Great American Basin to Arizona, Utah and Colorado. So, if you’re still up for it, come along for the ride.
May 23, 2003
FAI-ANC-SEA 834a-244p Alaska DC-9-83 N943AS Coach Class * Lunch
SEA-BOS 1050p-610a Alaska 737-790 N611AS Coach Class * Snack
As I arrived at the airport in Fairbanks, I noticed the bright red tail of a Northwest 757 gracing the tarmac. After an absence of several years, Northwest returned to Fairbanks two years ago with a summer only nonstop to Minneapolis. Just as the return of Sandhill cranes to Creamer’s Field marks the beginning of spring here in the Fairbanks area, the return of Northwest’s red tails signals that the summer tourism season is once again upon us. It is my understanding that the primary factor motivating NW’s return was their contract with Princess Cruises to transport cruise ship passengers to or from Alaska. Though Fairbanks is five hundred miles from the nearest port at Seward, there are plenty of things to see and do between here and there.
The scene at the Fairbanks airport was chaotic. Not only was a full load of elderly Princess cruisers trying to get out of town, so too was the normal crowd associated with the Memorial Day holiday departures. I heaved a big sigh of relief as our MD-80 climbed out over the Tanana Flats and headed south towards Anchorage.
Flight time between Anchorage and Seattle was three hours and twelve minutes, cruising at 29000 feet. I thought this seemed a rather low cruising altitude until the captain explained that the air was much rougher at the higher elevations. As such, we spent the majority of the flight completely ensconced in clouds and didn’t see land until about ten minutes before touching down in Seattle.
I had a two hour layover scheduled at SeaTac and headed right down to Alaska’s Boardroom. One of my favorite Boardroom hostesses, Debbie, was working today and we chatted briefly – about five seconds – before the crowd behind me dictated that we keep it real brief. SeaTac was also packed with holiday vacationers and the Boardroom was quite busy.
It had occurred to me earlier in the week that given the holiday weekend loads, I might try for a bump on some of my flights today. Unlike some airlines, Alaska doesn’t fiddle around offering dollar value travel credit for future travel. If you volunteer and they need your seat, you get a free ticket good anywhere systemwide. After verifying that my flight down to LAX wasn’t just full but indeed overbooked by something like twelve passengers, I made sure to present myself at the gate about an hour before departure and try my luck. Sure enough, a sign was up asking if any of us were interested in a free ticket. I informed the gate agent that Alaska would not have to worry about trying to find me a seat on the next two flights down to LA which were also overbooked but instead might consider placing me on their nonstop to my final destination at Boston. That flight did have seats available and I was told that my chances for a bump were excellent. Just check back about fifteen minutes before departure.
An hour later I was cashing in my certificate for a free ticket at Alaska’s Service Center and collecting my voucher for a $12.00 dinner. My new flight into Boston didn’t depart until 10:50pm and with six hours to spare, I went first to C.J. Borgs for some dinner. Borg’s serves up many of the local microbrews and offers otherwise basic sandwiches and appetizers. One exception was the beef stew, served in a bread bowl with an accompanying Caesar salad. That’s what I had, along with a glass of Red Hook ESB.
I know a few people in and around the Seattle area and it was tempting to hop on a bus and head into town. Still, I’ve been through here often in the past couple of months and I really needed to get the finishing touches completed on this trip report. I had originally hoped to put it out on my own web site but to do so with the number of pictures I had in mind was cost and time prohibitive. Additionally, I know next to nothing about computers and website construction. Although years ago I used to train agents on Sabre and Apollo systems, computers have come a long way since then and I find the non-airline stuff somewhat difficult to assimilate.
Editing this trip report and adding the proper html stuff for its inclusion in the Flyertalk Trip Report forum has been a week long process. Believe me when I tell you that I never took an English course beyond high school. I never enjoyed it as a subject and hated writing reports of any kind. Thankfully I had enough basic intelligence to get through English with a B average but it was never fun. If I’ve learned anything about writing, it’s gleaned from all those cheap tawdry paperback novels I tear through between trip reports. Writing about travel and flying is fun however and I thank you all for the many comments I have received on my writing style.
There’s not much to write about a five hour flight across the country in the middle of the night. I slept through most of it, awaking in time to accept a delicious preheated raspberry scone and a cup of coffee from our beautiful flight attendant. Though her eyes and hands suggested she was in her forties, hers was a timeless beauty. She’ll still be turning heads when she’s sixty, I’ll bet.
We descended through twenty minutes of clouds and turbulence before setting down at Boston’s Logan International Airport on a gray and rainy morning. I had a baseball game to get to and a rain out looked imminent.
BOSTON
The primary reason for this visit to Boston is to go and see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park. I am more of a baseball fan than a Red Sox fan, but I also feel like any true baseball fan (except for perhaps a Yankee fan) would also have to be at least a bit of a Red Sox fan, given the team’s history and tradition. I was rooting for the Sox big time in the 1975 and 1986 World Series and I’ll be one of their more ardent supporters next time they play for the championship as well. It’s high time the ghost of The Bambino showed a little forgiveness.
Fenway is now the oldest baseball park in America and it has been a part of some of baseball’s richest history. Add to that what are arguably the most loyal and passionate fans in baseball and visit to Fenway at least once in my life is imperative! Fenway is a baseball shrine, the closest thing baseball has to a Dead concert. I felt most fortunate to take my seat amongst thousands of Red Sox Fans and help cheer the Sox on to another victory. As of game time, they led the Yankees by one game in the AL East.
Now I could fill the next three pages waxing eloquent on the many things I saw and experienced this afternoon at Fenway and outside the park afterwards but this is a trip report, not a game report. Suffice to say that despite the miserable conditions – light mist and 40 degree temperatures – I had a wonderful time and thoroughly look forward to doing this again sometime. The Sox beat the Indians 12-3 and despite the cold, drizzly conditions and the fact that the Indians aren’t a very good team this season, 32643 people showed up to watch the game. Fenway holds 33991. How’s that for fan loyalty?!
While I’m not enough of a baseball fanatic to want to see games in each and every stadium out there, I would like to visit Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field and maybe catch a Grapefruit League game at one of those old Florida stadiums. Otherwise, for the rest of the year, I’m an A’s fan.
My original plan had been to rent a car and drive out to Acadia National Park or down to Watch Hill, Rhode Island – home to the oldest working carousel in America. I was going to find a state or forest service campground and crash there for the night. Unfortunately, a not very nice day proceeded to get worse soon after the game. Wind and rain were the order of the evening. I’d seen a Kinko’s Copy outlet on my way into Fenway and headed over there to use their internet connection to book myself a night in a local hotel via Priceline. There was no point traveling around in such miserable weather. Unfortunately, this being the Memorial Day weekend, many of Boston’s affordable downtown hotels were completely booked and I ended up settling for a $42.00 room at the Hyatt Harborview out at Logan Field. I had to go back out to the airport anyway to claim my baggage so this worked out OK.
May 25, 2003
BOS-SFO 510p-844p American 757-223 N190AA Coach Class * Dinner
What sleep I hadn’t gotten over the past couple of days I more than made up for at the Hyatt. This despite the fact that the rooms were poorly sound proofed and I could hear every conversation in the hallways in addition to the large Asian family and their infant daughter in the room next door. While this was an otherwise nice hotel, on the poorly soundproofed rooms alone I would recommend against staying at this establishment.
I didn’t wake up until 11:30am Boston time and the front desk was kind enough to allow me a late checkout of 1:00pm. By the time I got checked in for my 5:10pm flight over at Logan’s Terminal B, it was approaching 2:00pm. I’d heard that Continental operated a landside Presidents Club over at Terminal C so I headed over there straight away.
I’ve never been in a Presidents Club I didn’t like. They are all attractive and well appointed clubs that make almost any airport layover a pleasant diversion. The Boston facility was no exception and I spent the next couple of hours fine tuning this report, the bulk of which I submitted to Flyertalk last night.
I left Terminal C at 4:15pm, intending to walk back to Terminal B. It was right next door on the airport map and I’d been told it was only a five minute walk. As I exited the building however, I came immediately upon the inter-terminal airport shuttle bus and decided what the heck – I’ll take it. Bad decision. Driving around Boston’s airport is no different than driving around Boston’s streets. A winding and convoluted miasma of old cow paths. It took us eleven minutes to get from Terminal C to Terminal B despite making only one stop at Terminal E.
American’s 757-223 N190AA was doing the honors for tonight’s flight into San Francisco. When I originally reserved these seats, this flight was scheduled to operate with a 767-200. I like the short 767s and was somewhat disappointed to learn of the switch, especially since I’ve not yet flown on American’s –200 and they’re bound to be retired fairly soon. Alas.
Tonight’s flight was only about half full and our take off out of Boston was surprisingly short – 24 seconds by my watch. I’d managed to score a reclining exit row window seat and had the entire row to myself. As I reclined my seat and spread out my gear, the captain announced that our flight into SFO would be particularly expeditious, arriving at the gate at about 8:00pm, almost forty minutes early! For a westbound flight of 2700 miles, that borders on spectacular!
Drinks were followed by dinner, with the choices being Barbecued Chicken Strips or Penne Pasta with Marinara Sauce. I opted for the chicken and received a decent portion of chicken strips accompanied by green beans and potatoes au gratin. Also on the tray were a green head lettuce salad that a couple of shavings of carrot must have fallen into by accident, a white bread dinner roll and a tiny portion of cake that I swallowed whole.
Thank God for American’s laptop power ports! I started writing Part 9 here right after dinner and now, somewhere over northern Nevada, I am back up to date. Tonight, I have a room booked at the Sheraton SFO for the ridiculously low rate of $33.00 plus tax and Priceline’s $5.95 service charge. There is a wonderful hostel just over the hill from SFO – the Montara Point Lighthouse Hostel – that I would prefer to stay at. If renting a car at SFO weren’t such a trying experience compared to most airports, I’d probably be out there. Still, I’m sure the Sheraton will be just fine and I’m already looking forward to my Eggs Benedict breakfast tomorrow morning at Leann’s, the little café I discovered two weeks ago just up Airport Blvd. from the Sheraton.
May 26, 2003
SFO-SEA 1255p-305p AS 737-990 N307AS Coach Class * Snack
SEA-LAX 607p-844p AS DC-9-83 N961AS First Class Dinner
LAX-DTW 1035p-552a NW 757-351 N582NW Coach Class
Total Miles Flown: 3610 Total Miles Earned: 6830
I awoke to an absolutely gorgeous day in the Bay Area and I really didn’t want to leave. Still, plans have been made that will result in substantial rebooking penalties should I alter them so I hoisted my backpack and headed off to SFO. This was also a good day to try for a bump as everyone was returning from their Memorial Day weekend travels. Ten minutes before departure I was called to the podium and informed that it certainly looked like they were going to need my seat so hang loose and they’d start the paperwork momentarily. Awright!! I was in the middle of a wonderful daydream that had me flying down to Cancun and visiting Mayan ruins or maybe flying into Cabo and taking the ferry across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan, when the gate agents discovered that they’d inadvertently boarded a stand-by passenger by mistake and thank you but they wouldn’t be needing my seat after all. * Poof! *
As I trudged down the jetway, I took some consolation in the fact that today’s aircraft, 737-990 N307AS, was yet another Alaska jet I could now cross off as having flown. Out of the entire fleet, I’ve only twenty one more aircraft to go. The bulk of these are MD-80s that may well be retired anyway before I ever get a chance to fly them.
Flight time was a speedy 1:28 up to Seattle and clear skies throughout northern California and Oregon treated those passengers on the right hand side to spectacular views of the Cascade volcanoes, starting with Mts. Lassen and Shasta and continuing on up the range with Jefferson, Hood, St. Helens, Adams and Rainier just to name a few. Unfortunately, I was sat on the left side of the aircraft. It’s gotta be a real treat to be a pilot flying for Alaska and Horizon considering the scenic lands they work in.
Up in First Class passengers were dining on fancy salads and not so fancy sandwiches while back in steerage we were tossed a bag of tortilla chips and some salsa. I passed on the chips and went with a can of Coke, comfortable in the knowledge that I’d be back in First in just a few hours. Thirty minutes later, we were taxiing into Gate D-5 at SeaTac and I was headed off to the Boardroom for a little R & R.
Tonight’s flight down to LA was totally full and the lady working the First Class cabin seemed a bit disoriented right from the start. Despite being on the far side of forty, she said she had just started with Alaska. Coats were on a hang ‘em yourself arrangement, water bottles were passed out after takeoff and packets of EcoSnax nuts were available only by request. First my seatmate asked for some. Then, when my drink was delivered, I also had to ask. Is this a new Alaska policy or was this woman just scatterbrained? Salads were served and cleared, followed by entrée requests. Here’s dinner choices in menu format:
Seattle to Los Angeles
DINNER
To Begin
A packet of EcoSnax Cashews to accompany the beverage of your choice
Salad
A selection of mixed spring greens complimented with tomatoes, jicama and olives. Offered with Caesar Dressing
Entrees
Marinated Turkey Tenderloin
Topped with braised red onions and chili BBQ sauce.
Served with steamed rice with green onions and roasted sweet potatoes with herbs
Ginger Pork Tenderloin
Presented atop Asian noodles with shiitake mushrooms in a soy ginger sauce
** ** **
Dessert
Apple Cobbler
All of us in row one went for the Ginger Pork Tenderloin. The word must be out: That chili sauce on the turkey tenderloin is gnarly! Be that as it may, the Ginger Pork was just superb, with a flavorful sauce and plenty of shiitake mushrooms. I polished off my apple cobbler dessert with coffee and Baileys and exited the plane in Los Angeles as yet another satisfied and well fed Alaska passenger.
I am no fan of these late night red-eye flights. Still, time was a consideration in my planning for these two Mileage Runs and so it was that at the inglorious hour of 10:25pm I found myself boarding Northwest’s 757-351 N582NW, a.k.a. “The Bernie Epple” OK now, how many of you are wondering who Bernie Epple is? Whaaat?! Only fourteen of you? Well, I did a little research and here’s what it turned up.
For starters, N582NW is the very first 757-300 received by Northwest from Boeing. Bernie Epple was a former flight attendant with fifty five years of service to Northwest. She passed away just a few months ago and Northwest decided to honor her posthumously by naming this aircraft in her honor. According to Northwest’s president, Richard Anderson: "She was fantastic at customer service, and she was a loyal and dedicated employee. So both for her personal contribution and what she stood for for this airline, it was appropriate that the airplane be named after her." This represents the very first time Northwest has ever named an aircraft in memory of an employee. Here’s to you, Bernie!
Flight time into Detroit this evening was 4:09. I’d popped a Melatonin about 10:00pm in hopes of sleeping through as much of the flight as possible. Assisting this cause was my choice seat assignment of 40F, an exit row window already stocked with pillow and blanket when I arrived. I was out soon after take off and didn’t come to until about twenty minutes out of Detroit. That Melatonin is good stuff and perhaps a little easier on the system than some of the stronger over the counter medications out there. One really neat thing as we descended into Detroit was the low wispy clouds that had descended over the suburbs. They weren’t thick enough to obscure the view from above or below, but they did add a nice dreamy ambience to the neighborhoods.
By the time we’d parked at Gate A24, it was almost 6:00am. Normally, I wouldn’t bother to note this but the reason I do is because my flight on to Memphis was scheduled to depart at 6:35am. It never occurred to me to mention to the FA that I had a tight connection because at the time I didn’t consider it tight. Well lemme tell you, by the time I got off that 757-300 and discovered my Memphis flight was departing from A76, way down on the other side of the terminal, it was 6:15am. It seemed to take forever from back in row 40 to get off the airplane. Having recently flown in Australia and Europe in economy class, I couldn’t help but notice how comparatively long it takes Americans to get on and off aircraft. That’s because they’re hauling around all those huge carry on bags. Anyway, remember that old Van McCoy tune “Do The Hustle”? I did the hustle, breathlessly arriving at A76 just as they were paging my name and preparing to close up the flight.
May 27, 2003
DTW-MEM 635a-731a NW 757-200 N539US Coach Class
MEM-BNA 905a-1004a NW Avro RJ-85 N533XJ Coach Class
BNA-MSP 1126a-126p NW DC-9-31 N956N First Class
MSP-LAX 221p-458p NW 757-200 N537US First Class Snack
LAX-SEA 600p-840p AS 737-990 N315AS First Class * Dinner
Total Miles Flown: 3980 Total Miles Earned: 17530
The captain was just telling us how it’d be a nice smooth flight down to Memphis, only an hour and twenty three, cruisin’ at 39000 feezzzzzzzzZZZzzzzzzzzz. Snort!
Huh?! Wha- We’re in Memphis already? Awright!!
The Memphis WorldClub was packed – I mean every desk was taken in the work area and as I walked out to get a coffee, I saw only a few open seats available in the lounge areas. Lots of people were walking around. Well good. It’s nice to see Northwest doing apparently brisk business with its business travelers during these economically sluggish times.
My flight across to Nashville was leaving from the C Concourse and soon after arriving in the gate area I heard my name called to approach the podium. Alas, my recently acquired upgrade was invalid, as Seat 3D was occupied by a Mr. Green. I considered locating him and asking if he’d like to arm wrestle for the seat but my better half won out when I considered that it was only a 200 mile, 30 minute flight. Yes of course, 8A would be fine, I replied.
Northwest/Mesaba’s Avro RJ-85s offer spacious 3-2 coach seating that is about as comfortable as you’ll find behind the curtain on any airliner flying in America today. The seats are wide and the legroom is quite adequate for a hair under six footer like me. Nobody, and I mean nobody operates an ERJ or CRJ anywhere near as nice! As for the flight, I and my seatmate wondered if we may well have spent more time taxiing than we actually did flying. In Memphis, we taxied way out to some distant runway out in the suburbs and in Nashville, they weren’t quite ready for our arrival so all in all, we may well have spent more time in the plane on the ground than we did in the air.
Ex-North Central DC-9-31 N956N awaited Minneapolis bound passengers at Gate B-2 this morning. Although I never asked, I just assumed that this 695 mile flight would be a beverage only service and so bought myself a big salad at the kiosk just down the concourse. Imagine my surprise when the flight attendant noticed my salad and said she’d be serving us lunch on this flight. Really? Well, I’ll save that salad for another day.
Lunch was a choice between a Turkey and Monterrey Jack Cheese Hoagie or an Antipasto Plate. The sandwich was served with a fruit bowl and chocolate cake while the Antipasto plate came with a chopped tomato, onion and pepper salsa cruda and the cake. I opted for the smaller antipasto plate, figuring I could cut up and toss some of that meat into my veggie salad. So I did just that and had a most enjoyable lunch.
My flight between Minneapolis and Los Angeles was, from a food standpoint, no different. We were offered the exact same entrees. I went with the sandwich this time. Those hoagies rolls are a lot of bread but if you take your knife and hollow out each side of the roll, you end up with a more manageable meal. The highlight of this flight was flying right over the middle of the Grand Canyon. Spectacular views! We also flew over Conifer, Colorado – just south of my old haunt in Evergreen, then over Blue Mesa Reservoir with great views of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I could’ve given a running commentary because I know all this area. I’ve driven, hitchhiked, ridden horses and even backpacked through much of it. It’s always neat to know exactly where you are from 30 some odd thousand feet.
In Los Angeles, another small bit of good fortune awaited me in the form of N315AS, yet another Alaska 737-900 that I’d not yet flown. Only two to go. I really like Alaska’s –900s. Their First Class cabin is much nicer than that offered on the –400 or –700s. For one thing, there are sixteen rather than twelve seats, and I’m pretty certain that there are also a couple more inches of seat pitch in First Class compared to Alaska’s other 737s. Finally, the fully carpeted bulkhead – on both sides of the cabin – coupled with the blue leather seats, makes for one of the more attractive First Class cabins in the industry.
Dinner tonight was as follows:
Seattle to Los Angeles
DINNER
To Begin
A packet of EcoSnax Cashews to accompany the beverage of your choice
Salad
A selection of mixed spring greens complimented with tomatoes, jicama and olives. Offered with Caesar Dressing
Entrees
Marinated Turkey Tenderloin
Topped with braised red onions and chili BBQ sauce.
Served with steamed rice with green onions and roasted sweet potatoes with herbs
Spicy Chicken Stir Fry
** ** **
Dessert
Almond Pear Tart
Of course, I went with the Stir Fry and it was delicious! Thankfully, it was decently spicy, too. So often, these flight kitchens wimp out on the spice claiming that they can’t make it too spicy because yada yada yada. Well hey – what’s too spicy, anyway? I mean, it’s not like on Alaska’s western routes they’re flying a bunch of meat and potatoes Irishmen around or your average Midwesterners for whom salt is a major culinary adventure! Let that spice come alive! Just stock a little extra beer for the complainers.
Once again, we were treated to beautiful scenery from above, this time in the form of Yosemite National Park. We could clearly see the valley, the falls and the Half Dome. It was a beautiful evening and I sure would have liked to be camped down there right now!
On a final note, while we were boarding in LA, the guy in 1B didn’t ask but rather pleaded with the fellow sitting next to him to switch one row back so that his girlfriend could come up and sit with him. Two things stood out for me about this. One – the almost urgent nature of his request. Two – right after dinner, she read a book while he read a magazine and they basically ignored each other for the last hour of the flight. Go figure…
May 28, 2003
SEA-LAX 607p-844p AS 737-490 N776AS First Class Dinner
LAX-DTW 1035p-552a NW 757-351 N581NW First Class
Total Miles Flown: 2930 Total Miles Earned: 6830
May 29, 2003
DTW-MEM 635a-731a NW 757-251 N522NW First Class
MEM-BNA 905a-1004a NW Avro RJ-85 N533XJ First Class
BNA-MSP 1126a-126p NW DC-9-31 N959N First Class * Lunch
MSP-LAX 221p-458p NW 757-251 N521US First Class Snack
LAX-SEA 600p-840p AS 737-990 N302AS First Class * Dinner
Total Miles Flown: 3980 Total Miles Earned: 9530
Listed above are the flights with corresponding aircraft registrations for those of you that care about such things. (Hey! I flew that same plane that 2A was on twenty seven years ago!! Well I’ll be…) As you can see, the routing is exactly the same and the meals were also exactly the same. As such, there’s hardly any need in trip reporting these particular flights as you could get the same information from reading the previous five pages starting at May 26th. I would however like to take a moment to applaud Jan, the Alaska flight attendant working the forward cabin on my Los Angeles to Seattle flight this evening. Her service was gracious and professional, from warmly introducing herself and greeting each of us individually to preheating the cashews and serving them in wine glasses. Whatever Alaska may lack in onboard amenities such as appetizers and IFEs, it more than makes up for with personnel of Jan’s caliber.
Tonight I am getting a hotel out at the airport rather than stay with friends in Seattle since I’ve an early start tomorrow trying to stand by for 6:40am departure to Las Vegas.
May 30, 2003
SEA-LAS 640a-901a AS 737-490 N763AS Coach Class
There’s nothing pleasant about getting up at 5:00am. Still, if I was going to have a decent chance of getting down to Las Vegas any earlier today, this is how it would have to be. Once I’m up however, I love the early morning hours – the day is calm and innocent, the air cool and clean.
Today was Friday and as might be expected, Alaska was doing a brisk business on all of its services into Las Vegas. I was booked for a 9:00am departure via Portland that would have me landing in Las Vegas at 12:36pm. Since I was looking at a 500 mile drive to get me into Durango later tonight, an earlier arrival in Vegas would facilitate matters greatly. Checking Ben Edelman’s etour site, I saw a couple of seats were still available on the early morning departure, thus the early start to this day. Well lucky me - according to Alaska’s counter agent, there was one last seat on the 6:40am flight and it was mine! I was assigned 24A and headed off down the concourse in search of breakfast. No protein shakes for me – no, I wanted a can of coke and a pack of Ding Dongs but had to settle for a yogurt, banana and a bagel in the Boardroom. My old buddy Toni was working the morning shift – not her usual shift plus she had to be up at 2:45am! – and we chatted for a bit before I headed down to the gate. All those gals that work Alaska’s SEA Boardroom are great – always cheerful and efficient.
We must have had a few no-shows because this flight had at least five empty seats, including 13F, the non-reclining exit row. As usual I was one of the last to board so once those doors closed I grabbed that seat! There was nobody in 13E either. Is this my lucky day or what?! Maybe I should just stay in Las Vegas and hit the casinos. Then again, maybe not. Flying time was looking like two hours and fourteen minutes, cruising at 33,000 feet. Current temperature in Las Vegas was 85 degrees. At 6:40am! Yesterday’s high was 108 and today wasn’t expected to be much different.
The flight itself was uneventful, especially since I slept through half of it. When we landed at Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport, the temperature had climbed to 92 degrees. It was 9:00am.
My car rental company of choice in Las Vegas is Alamo. They treat me like royalty and provide me with big beautiful cars to zoom around those vast desert expanses in. My favorite is the Buick LeSabre, a premium car that my Quicksilver status has often netted me for the price of a fullsize. Unfortunately, no premium cars were available at the time I made my booking nor when I checked in. Alamo has merged with National Car Rental and in Las Vegas at least, cars are no longer assigned. You just go out into the lot and pick the one you like. As I wandered out to the fullsize stall to look for a steed, all I saw were Chevy Malibus and one Buick Century. Alamo also offers Dodge Intrepids, Chevy Impalas and Pontiac Grand Prixs. Where were they? As I pondered this situation, into the lot drove a shiny, new Dodge Intrepid. It had been freshly cleaned, washed and fueled and was ready to go. I once again thanked the powers that be for my good fortune and quickly claimed the car. After throwing my gear in the back, I pulled out my CDs, threw on a T-shirt and drove out of the lot towards the next leg of this adventure.
DESERT AND MOUNTAINS
The Dodge Intrepid, though a little under powered, is a decently sized, comfortable car that has a pretty decent factory sound system – very important for those long, cross country drives. As for the lack of power, it was remedied somewhat upon my first refill with 91 octane gas. Most renters, and I’m sure the car rental company also, refuel the car with the cheapest grade of gasoline out there. If you’re only driving around the city, you might not notice it so much as you would when driving out on the open road. In any event, both power and fuel economy improved markedly with the better gas as I headed eastward across the desert towards the mountains and Durango, Colorado.
This being Flyertalk as opposed to Car and Driver, I won’t go into extensive detail about my drive as I hope my pictures will tell the story once I get them posted next week. Suffice to say there’s an attractive desolation to the desert that I find both beautiful and calming, especially at 70 mph. I also love the excitement and beauty of driving along steep, winding mountain highways. I’d get to do both this trip.
Over the next three days, I drove 1570 miles. My route took me east from Las Vegas through Zion National Park, Page, Arizona and the northern Navajo reservation before entering Colorado on US 160 near Four Corners National Monument and continuing through Cortez and on into Durango for the night. The next day, I headed north up US 550 through the San Juan Mountains into Silverton and Ouray before turning west towards Utah. Highway 191 took me north through Moab and the beautiful canyon country near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks before I met Interstate 70 and called it a day in Green River, Utah. I spent the night in one of my all time favorite motels, the Sleepy Hollow Motel. It’s a classic 1960s style auto court with large, well appointed rooms and a friendly owner. I’ll take a place like this any day over a luxury suite at one of the larger corporate chains. It feels as comfortable as an old pair of jeans and is just as unpretentious.
The next day, I headed out onto I-70 westbound all the way to its terminus at Richfield, Utah. There, it meets I-15 which I took south to Cedar City, Utah before heading west along Utah 56 to Panaca, Nevada and US 93. I spent twenty hours stuck in Panaca while hitch hiking once. It was nice to drive through there in my own car today. Especially since the temperature had climbed into the triple digits bu the time I came through in the early afternoon. From Panaca, I headed south down US 93 to Las Vegas where I switched over to US 95 on down to Needles, California. This was my longest day – 620 miles. In Needles, my hotel of choice is the River Valley Motor Lodge, at $25.99 a night one of the best lodging deals in California. The rooms are huge and offer 27 inch TVs, a fridge and a microwave. There’s also a pool with a covered seating area. One of my favorite parts of a stay at this motel is sitting around the pool with my fellow desert rats drinking beer and trading stories of the day’s or life’s adventures and/or misadventures. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived the pool area was quiet so I turned on my room’s air conditioner and put in some time on this report.
June 02, 2003
LAS-SEA 1115a-151p AS DC-9-83 N973AS First Class * Lunch
SEA-ANC-FAI 455p-906p AS 737-490 N784AS First Class * Dinner
I took a slightly different route back to Las Vegas from Needles that unbeknownst to me was under construction. Of course it was too late to turn back by the time I’d gotten into that mess. At Alamo, I thanked my lucky stars that their shuttle bus awaited me with open doors and departed as soon as I boarded. Unfortunately, it stopped at the charter terminal first and then was unable to stop on the Alaska side of Terminal One due to all the traffic. I was thankful I had a backpack instead of a suitcase as I trotted back through people, trolleys and 90 degree heat to the far side of the terminal. By the time I arrived at Alaska’s counter, it was 10:35am and although there were only two people ahead of me, getting them checked in seemed an arduous process. Finally, it was my turn and I asked the agent about the possibility of catching an earlier flight from Seattle to Fairbanks. I was traveling on an award ticket between those cities and W Class space had been limited when I’d originally booked. Well, not only did she rebook me on the earlier flight between Seattle and Fairbanks, she also upgraded me to First Class all the way through from Las Vegas!
I was feeling pretty good about life in general as I strolled down the terminal towards the escalators up to the concourse level. As I neared the top of the escalator, I could see a huge crowd of people in line for security. They appeared to extend all the way back to the escalator. Uh oh… Once I reached the top, the situation became far more dire. The line extended all the way back past the Starbucks kiosk. It was like something out of a Stephen King movie! It was 10:45am – only half an hour until departure. I was tempted to wave a fifty dollar bill around to see if I might buy a spot farther up in line. Not that it mattered since I didn’t have one anyway. This being Las Vegas, I might have been able to buy my way in with a roll of quarters. But no – I trudged back, back and back some more until finally I had reached the end of this incredible line. I kid you not when I say I was over a football field’s distance away from the security checkpoint. All I could do for now was hope that Alaska Airlines was aware of the situation.
By the time I cleared security, it was 11:16am, one minute past my departure time. I dashed down the concourse and arrived breathless and disheveled at the gate. The gate lounge was empty and the jetway door was closed but the jetway was still attached to the aircraft. There was still a chance! Sure enough, the gate agent made a call, there were affirmative nods all around and I was escorted onto the MD-80 where my First Class seat still awaited me. After all the ups and downs I’d gone through today, I felt like a manic-depressive on an upswing. Thankfully, the rest of my day went very nicely.
As we taxied out, we passed America West’s Arizona Diamondbacks airplane. What an absolute work of art! My favorite is their Arizona plane. We also taxied past the Southwest Airlines terminal where I noticed only one aircraft wearing the new blue livery amongst the fifteen or so aircraft parked there. Southwest sure is taking its time in repainting its fleet.
I set my stopwatch on take off for two reasons. The main one is to get an accurate time of the flight for my log. Although the captain may say we’ve an hour and thirty eight minute flight ahead of us, unexpectedly strong winds or holding patterns can change things quickly. Secondly, I can get a better idea as to our whereabouts over the continent. If I know we’ve been inflight westbound from IAD for say – three and a half hours, those mountains down below us should be in Colorado. East Central Colorado, most likely. Normally I just set my watch once we begin our take off roll and forget about it but today’s take off went on and on and on some more. I looked at my watch. Wow! A 48 second take-off roll!
Climbing out of Las Vegas in the summer heat is never a smooth event. The hot desert air merges unevenly with the cooler air above and makes for a bumpy ascent. Still, it is a pretty trip out of McCarran, climbing up over the desert mountains before turning to the north over Pahrump. Passengers on the left side of the airplane are treated to neat views of Death Valley and the distant Sierra Nevadas. Beneath us were numerous ancient lake beds and colorful mineral deposits. It was over 100 degrees down there, too. I adjusted my air vent and accepted my first beer of the day.
Luncheon was served in First Class while a snack was offered in economy. Here are the First Class offerings:
Sliced Turkey on Baguette
Served with basil walnut cream cheese and accompanied by
Tomato basil pasta salad with capers
Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast
Presented on wild rice salad with pears
I’d had that sandwich just a few weeks earlier between Seattle and San Francisco. At the time I found it to be more bread than meat so this time I went with the grilled chicken breast. The chicken was okay but the real attraction was the rice salad. It consisted of a saffron rice flavored with cumin and cilantro blended with corn and diced red onion. It was superb!
By the time I’d finished lunch, we were flying past Nevada’s Pyramid Lake. To the northwest of us, Mounts Lassen and Shasta were clearly visible. It was a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest as well and as we approached Seattle we got some nice views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains to the west.
My flight on to Fairbanks was scheduled to leave from C-11 and as I approached the gate I saw – could it be? – YES! N784AS, the Disneyland airplane! Although I’ve flown this aircraft on three previous occasions, it wasn’t painted up in the Disney colors at the time. I wasted no time in boarding and was slightly disappointed though not overly surprised to find that the interior was no different from any other Alaska 737-400. Nor were the flight attendants dressed as Mickey or Goofey, which was probably a plus.
Once the doors were shut, I still had an empty seat beside me. This is almost unheard of on the early evening Seattle to Anchorage flights and I was aghast at my good fortune. Alas, it didn’t last long. First, a big, burly Alaska First Officer took the seat, then switched with an MVP they’d found back in an exit row. He wanted the exit row space more than the First Class seat so it was a lucky day for the MVP. We exchanged greetings and then she pulled out her new copy of People magazine and ignored me for the rest of the flight. I perused the new Alaska Airlines magazine, then delved into the sports sections of USA Today and the Seattle PI. Those darned Mariners won again!
Although the beverage section in the Alaska Magazine lists MacTarnahan’s as one of the beer offerings, I haven’t seen it for some time now. The current selections seem to be Tecate, Heineken or Amstel Light. This is still a much better selection than any other US carrier and I’m guessing that serving Tecate this month may have something to do with Mexico’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations, just as Alaska served Becks Beer back in November to honor Germany’s Oktoberfest. Freshly cut limes and cashews were also provided.
While I was downing my first Tecate, dinner selections for the economy cabin were being announced. They were:
Calzone with sausage and peppers
or
Turkey with Havarti Cheese on a French Roll
The First Class selections were as follows:
Seattle to Los Angeles
DINNER
To Begin
A packet of Eco-Snax Cashews to accompany the beverage of your choice
Salad
Endive lettuce is complimented by tomatoes with green and yellow peppers. Offered with Creamy Cilantro Dressing
Entrees
Mediterranean Chicken
Accented with a tomato and olive compote
Accompanied by confetti rice and snow peas
Pork Tenderloin in Mushroom Gravy
Served with Basmati rice and a medley of braised red, green and yellow peppers
** ** **
Dessert
Toffee Pecan Pumpkin Cheesecake
I’ve had the pork tenderloin before and always found it excellent. Still, as I’d never had the Mediterranean Chicken before, I decided to be adventurous. Well, some adventures are good, some aren’t so good. For my tastes, the sauce on this dish was a little too strong on the olive flavor and I’m not that big of an olive fan. Otherwise the rice and snow peas were quite nice. In the future, provided there’s a choice, I’ll pass on the Mediterranean chicken. As for the dessert, the name alone says it all. What a treat!
We landed in Fairbanks right on time. It was a nice, sunny evening. That’s right – sunny. At these northern latitudes, the sun doesn’t set until well after 11:00pm. Come June 21st here in Fairbanks, sunset will be 12:55am. I love it! I was scheduled to drive the 10:30am Eielson run the next morning so I hopped in my truck and drove the final 122 miles of this trip down to Denali, arriving in the park just after midnight.
So there you have it – the story of my travels over two months and 106,000 miles. This was a great trip and I had a wonderful time of it all! If I had the time and money, I’d happily do it all over again starting right now! I love to travel!
On the road again
Just can’t wait to get on the road again…
Willie Nelson
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere
But to go.
The great affair is to move.
Robert Lewis Stevenson
** ** ** ** **
This report begins HERE
I will have further pictures related to this and Parts 1-3 available for viewing in about one week. As always, I welcome any comments and questions you may have.
Again, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read this lonnnnnnnng report. As to it being my final report, well, what was I thinking?!! After all the positive responses from readers, I can only say thanks again and I'll endeavor to keep up the good effort.
[This message has been edited by Seat 2A (edited Jan 08, 2004).]
By Air: 24850
By Car: 1570 Miles
Photos of airline food from Part 9 may be viewed Here
Photos of my drive around the desert may be viewed Here
Address: [email protected]
Password: highflyer
Upon returning to Alaska, I got right to work getting re-certified to drive the Denali Park Road. This is a seven day process that involves everything from classroom time to Behind The Wheel training to mock emergency accident drills and bus evacuations. I have sat through numerous talks from NPS and company officials about everything from updated animal counts and new studies on park noise, air quality and weather to customer service, mechanical orientation and job specifics. I’ve zipped forwards and backwards through offset alleys, diminishing right hand turns and blindside back-ins on the cone course and, amongst other things displayed my ability to safely back a bus uphill around a corner while staying within one foot of the road’s edge at all times. I have signed or co-signed forty three documents attesting to my understanding of certain regulations and my proficiency in certain skills. Finally, I got to celebrate the completion of this year’s training session over beer and chicken stir fry while encouraging my boss to allow me to give four shifts away to coworkers so I could finish off the remainder of this 100000 mile journey. I even devised a color coded graph indicating available drivers vs. overtime vs. trainers possibly ruled out for CDL training during the four days I needed off. I didn’t get the final OK to go until 7:00pm on the night before my first scheduled flight out of Fairbanks. So, if you enjoy this portion of the trip report, you can thank Matt G., the boss of all VTS operations in the park. I gave him an MVP Gold First Class upgrade for his next Alaska flight and, although he doesn’t know it yet, since he’s a Red Sox fan he’s also getting a Red Sox pennant for his “office”, a small room in the end of our dispatch trailer.
This portion of the trip report involves award travel to Boston for a Saturday afternoon date with the Red Sox at Fenway Park, followed by a fourteen flight mileage run from Seattle out to Nashville and back a couple of times. Upon completion of that, I’ll be flying down to Las Vegas, picking up a large car with a good stereo and speeding off across the Mojave desert and Great American Basin to Arizona, Utah and Colorado. So, if you’re still up for it, come along for the ride.
May 23, 2003
FAI-ANC-SEA 834a-244p Alaska DC-9-83 N943AS Coach Class * Lunch
SEA-BOS 1050p-610a Alaska 737-790 N611AS Coach Class * Snack
As I arrived at the airport in Fairbanks, I noticed the bright red tail of a Northwest 757 gracing the tarmac. After an absence of several years, Northwest returned to Fairbanks two years ago with a summer only nonstop to Minneapolis. Just as the return of Sandhill cranes to Creamer’s Field marks the beginning of spring here in the Fairbanks area, the return of Northwest’s red tails signals that the summer tourism season is once again upon us. It is my understanding that the primary factor motivating NW’s return was their contract with Princess Cruises to transport cruise ship passengers to or from Alaska. Though Fairbanks is five hundred miles from the nearest port at Seward, there are plenty of things to see and do between here and there.
The scene at the Fairbanks airport was chaotic. Not only was a full load of elderly Princess cruisers trying to get out of town, so too was the normal crowd associated with the Memorial Day holiday departures. I heaved a big sigh of relief as our MD-80 climbed out over the Tanana Flats and headed south towards Anchorage.
Flight time between Anchorage and Seattle was three hours and twelve minutes, cruising at 29000 feet. I thought this seemed a rather low cruising altitude until the captain explained that the air was much rougher at the higher elevations. As such, we spent the majority of the flight completely ensconced in clouds and didn’t see land until about ten minutes before touching down in Seattle.
I had a two hour layover scheduled at SeaTac and headed right down to Alaska’s Boardroom. One of my favorite Boardroom hostesses, Debbie, was working today and we chatted briefly – about five seconds – before the crowd behind me dictated that we keep it real brief. SeaTac was also packed with holiday vacationers and the Boardroom was quite busy.
It had occurred to me earlier in the week that given the holiday weekend loads, I might try for a bump on some of my flights today. Unlike some airlines, Alaska doesn’t fiddle around offering dollar value travel credit for future travel. If you volunteer and they need your seat, you get a free ticket good anywhere systemwide. After verifying that my flight down to LAX wasn’t just full but indeed overbooked by something like twelve passengers, I made sure to present myself at the gate about an hour before departure and try my luck. Sure enough, a sign was up asking if any of us were interested in a free ticket. I informed the gate agent that Alaska would not have to worry about trying to find me a seat on the next two flights down to LA which were also overbooked but instead might consider placing me on their nonstop to my final destination at Boston. That flight did have seats available and I was told that my chances for a bump were excellent. Just check back about fifteen minutes before departure.
An hour later I was cashing in my certificate for a free ticket at Alaska’s Service Center and collecting my voucher for a $12.00 dinner. My new flight into Boston didn’t depart until 10:50pm and with six hours to spare, I went first to C.J. Borgs for some dinner. Borg’s serves up many of the local microbrews and offers otherwise basic sandwiches and appetizers. One exception was the beef stew, served in a bread bowl with an accompanying Caesar salad. That’s what I had, along with a glass of Red Hook ESB.
I know a few people in and around the Seattle area and it was tempting to hop on a bus and head into town. Still, I’ve been through here often in the past couple of months and I really needed to get the finishing touches completed on this trip report. I had originally hoped to put it out on my own web site but to do so with the number of pictures I had in mind was cost and time prohibitive. Additionally, I know next to nothing about computers and website construction. Although years ago I used to train agents on Sabre and Apollo systems, computers have come a long way since then and I find the non-airline stuff somewhat difficult to assimilate.
Editing this trip report and adding the proper html stuff for its inclusion in the Flyertalk Trip Report forum has been a week long process. Believe me when I tell you that I never took an English course beyond high school. I never enjoyed it as a subject and hated writing reports of any kind. Thankfully I had enough basic intelligence to get through English with a B average but it was never fun. If I’ve learned anything about writing, it’s gleaned from all those cheap tawdry paperback novels I tear through between trip reports. Writing about travel and flying is fun however and I thank you all for the many comments I have received on my writing style.
There’s not much to write about a five hour flight across the country in the middle of the night. I slept through most of it, awaking in time to accept a delicious preheated raspberry scone and a cup of coffee from our beautiful flight attendant. Though her eyes and hands suggested she was in her forties, hers was a timeless beauty. She’ll still be turning heads when she’s sixty, I’ll bet.
We descended through twenty minutes of clouds and turbulence before setting down at Boston’s Logan International Airport on a gray and rainy morning. I had a baseball game to get to and a rain out looked imminent.
BOSTON
The primary reason for this visit to Boston is to go and see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park. I am more of a baseball fan than a Red Sox fan, but I also feel like any true baseball fan (except for perhaps a Yankee fan) would also have to be at least a bit of a Red Sox fan, given the team’s history and tradition. I was rooting for the Sox big time in the 1975 and 1986 World Series and I’ll be one of their more ardent supporters next time they play for the championship as well. It’s high time the ghost of The Bambino showed a little forgiveness.
Fenway is now the oldest baseball park in America and it has been a part of some of baseball’s richest history. Add to that what are arguably the most loyal and passionate fans in baseball and visit to Fenway at least once in my life is imperative! Fenway is a baseball shrine, the closest thing baseball has to a Dead concert. I felt most fortunate to take my seat amongst thousands of Red Sox Fans and help cheer the Sox on to another victory. As of game time, they led the Yankees by one game in the AL East.
Now I could fill the next three pages waxing eloquent on the many things I saw and experienced this afternoon at Fenway and outside the park afterwards but this is a trip report, not a game report. Suffice to say that despite the miserable conditions – light mist and 40 degree temperatures – I had a wonderful time and thoroughly look forward to doing this again sometime. The Sox beat the Indians 12-3 and despite the cold, drizzly conditions and the fact that the Indians aren’t a very good team this season, 32643 people showed up to watch the game. Fenway holds 33991. How’s that for fan loyalty?!
While I’m not enough of a baseball fanatic to want to see games in each and every stadium out there, I would like to visit Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field and maybe catch a Grapefruit League game at one of those old Florida stadiums. Otherwise, for the rest of the year, I’m an A’s fan.
My original plan had been to rent a car and drive out to Acadia National Park or down to Watch Hill, Rhode Island – home to the oldest working carousel in America. I was going to find a state or forest service campground and crash there for the night. Unfortunately, a not very nice day proceeded to get worse soon after the game. Wind and rain were the order of the evening. I’d seen a Kinko’s Copy outlet on my way into Fenway and headed over there to use their internet connection to book myself a night in a local hotel via Priceline. There was no point traveling around in such miserable weather. Unfortunately, this being the Memorial Day weekend, many of Boston’s affordable downtown hotels were completely booked and I ended up settling for a $42.00 room at the Hyatt Harborview out at Logan Field. I had to go back out to the airport anyway to claim my baggage so this worked out OK.
May 25, 2003
BOS-SFO 510p-844p American 757-223 N190AA Coach Class * Dinner
What sleep I hadn’t gotten over the past couple of days I more than made up for at the Hyatt. This despite the fact that the rooms were poorly sound proofed and I could hear every conversation in the hallways in addition to the large Asian family and their infant daughter in the room next door. While this was an otherwise nice hotel, on the poorly soundproofed rooms alone I would recommend against staying at this establishment.
I didn’t wake up until 11:30am Boston time and the front desk was kind enough to allow me a late checkout of 1:00pm. By the time I got checked in for my 5:10pm flight over at Logan’s Terminal B, it was approaching 2:00pm. I’d heard that Continental operated a landside Presidents Club over at Terminal C so I headed over there straight away.
I’ve never been in a Presidents Club I didn’t like. They are all attractive and well appointed clubs that make almost any airport layover a pleasant diversion. The Boston facility was no exception and I spent the next couple of hours fine tuning this report, the bulk of which I submitted to Flyertalk last night.
I left Terminal C at 4:15pm, intending to walk back to Terminal B. It was right next door on the airport map and I’d been told it was only a five minute walk. As I exited the building however, I came immediately upon the inter-terminal airport shuttle bus and decided what the heck – I’ll take it. Bad decision. Driving around Boston’s airport is no different than driving around Boston’s streets. A winding and convoluted miasma of old cow paths. It took us eleven minutes to get from Terminal C to Terminal B despite making only one stop at Terminal E.
American’s 757-223 N190AA was doing the honors for tonight’s flight into San Francisco. When I originally reserved these seats, this flight was scheduled to operate with a 767-200. I like the short 767s and was somewhat disappointed to learn of the switch, especially since I’ve not yet flown on American’s –200 and they’re bound to be retired fairly soon. Alas.
Tonight’s flight was only about half full and our take off out of Boston was surprisingly short – 24 seconds by my watch. I’d managed to score a reclining exit row window seat and had the entire row to myself. As I reclined my seat and spread out my gear, the captain announced that our flight into SFO would be particularly expeditious, arriving at the gate at about 8:00pm, almost forty minutes early! For a westbound flight of 2700 miles, that borders on spectacular!
Drinks were followed by dinner, with the choices being Barbecued Chicken Strips or Penne Pasta with Marinara Sauce. I opted for the chicken and received a decent portion of chicken strips accompanied by green beans and potatoes au gratin. Also on the tray were a green head lettuce salad that a couple of shavings of carrot must have fallen into by accident, a white bread dinner roll and a tiny portion of cake that I swallowed whole.
Thank God for American’s laptop power ports! I started writing Part 9 here right after dinner and now, somewhere over northern Nevada, I am back up to date. Tonight, I have a room booked at the Sheraton SFO for the ridiculously low rate of $33.00 plus tax and Priceline’s $5.95 service charge. There is a wonderful hostel just over the hill from SFO – the Montara Point Lighthouse Hostel – that I would prefer to stay at. If renting a car at SFO weren’t such a trying experience compared to most airports, I’d probably be out there. Still, I’m sure the Sheraton will be just fine and I’m already looking forward to my Eggs Benedict breakfast tomorrow morning at Leann’s, the little café I discovered two weeks ago just up Airport Blvd. from the Sheraton.
May 26, 2003
SFO-SEA 1255p-305p AS 737-990 N307AS Coach Class * Snack
SEA-LAX 607p-844p AS DC-9-83 N961AS First Class Dinner
LAX-DTW 1035p-552a NW 757-351 N582NW Coach Class
Total Miles Flown: 3610 Total Miles Earned: 6830
I awoke to an absolutely gorgeous day in the Bay Area and I really didn’t want to leave. Still, plans have been made that will result in substantial rebooking penalties should I alter them so I hoisted my backpack and headed off to SFO. This was also a good day to try for a bump as everyone was returning from their Memorial Day weekend travels. Ten minutes before departure I was called to the podium and informed that it certainly looked like they were going to need my seat so hang loose and they’d start the paperwork momentarily. Awright!! I was in the middle of a wonderful daydream that had me flying down to Cancun and visiting Mayan ruins or maybe flying into Cabo and taking the ferry across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan, when the gate agents discovered that they’d inadvertently boarded a stand-by passenger by mistake and thank you but they wouldn’t be needing my seat after all. * Poof! *
As I trudged down the jetway, I took some consolation in the fact that today’s aircraft, 737-990 N307AS, was yet another Alaska jet I could now cross off as having flown. Out of the entire fleet, I’ve only twenty one more aircraft to go. The bulk of these are MD-80s that may well be retired anyway before I ever get a chance to fly them.
Flight time was a speedy 1:28 up to Seattle and clear skies throughout northern California and Oregon treated those passengers on the right hand side to spectacular views of the Cascade volcanoes, starting with Mts. Lassen and Shasta and continuing on up the range with Jefferson, Hood, St. Helens, Adams and Rainier just to name a few. Unfortunately, I was sat on the left side of the aircraft. It’s gotta be a real treat to be a pilot flying for Alaska and Horizon considering the scenic lands they work in.
Up in First Class passengers were dining on fancy salads and not so fancy sandwiches while back in steerage we were tossed a bag of tortilla chips and some salsa. I passed on the chips and went with a can of Coke, comfortable in the knowledge that I’d be back in First in just a few hours. Thirty minutes later, we were taxiing into Gate D-5 at SeaTac and I was headed off to the Boardroom for a little R & R.
Tonight’s flight down to LA was totally full and the lady working the First Class cabin seemed a bit disoriented right from the start. Despite being on the far side of forty, she said she had just started with Alaska. Coats were on a hang ‘em yourself arrangement, water bottles were passed out after takeoff and packets of EcoSnax nuts were available only by request. First my seatmate asked for some. Then, when my drink was delivered, I also had to ask. Is this a new Alaska policy or was this woman just scatterbrained? Salads were served and cleared, followed by entrée requests. Here’s dinner choices in menu format:
Seattle to Los Angeles
DINNER
To Begin
A packet of EcoSnax Cashews to accompany the beverage of your choice
Salad
A selection of mixed spring greens complimented with tomatoes, jicama and olives. Offered with Caesar Dressing
Entrees
Marinated Turkey Tenderloin
Topped with braised red onions and chili BBQ sauce.
Served with steamed rice with green onions and roasted sweet potatoes with herbs
Ginger Pork Tenderloin
Presented atop Asian noodles with shiitake mushrooms in a soy ginger sauce
** ** **
Dessert
Apple Cobbler
All of us in row one went for the Ginger Pork Tenderloin. The word must be out: That chili sauce on the turkey tenderloin is gnarly! Be that as it may, the Ginger Pork was just superb, with a flavorful sauce and plenty of shiitake mushrooms. I polished off my apple cobbler dessert with coffee and Baileys and exited the plane in Los Angeles as yet another satisfied and well fed Alaska passenger.
I am no fan of these late night red-eye flights. Still, time was a consideration in my planning for these two Mileage Runs and so it was that at the inglorious hour of 10:25pm I found myself boarding Northwest’s 757-351 N582NW, a.k.a. “The Bernie Epple” OK now, how many of you are wondering who Bernie Epple is? Whaaat?! Only fourteen of you? Well, I did a little research and here’s what it turned up.
For starters, N582NW is the very first 757-300 received by Northwest from Boeing. Bernie Epple was a former flight attendant with fifty five years of service to Northwest. She passed away just a few months ago and Northwest decided to honor her posthumously by naming this aircraft in her honor. According to Northwest’s president, Richard Anderson: "She was fantastic at customer service, and she was a loyal and dedicated employee. So both for her personal contribution and what she stood for for this airline, it was appropriate that the airplane be named after her." This represents the very first time Northwest has ever named an aircraft in memory of an employee. Here’s to you, Bernie!
Flight time into Detroit this evening was 4:09. I’d popped a Melatonin about 10:00pm in hopes of sleeping through as much of the flight as possible. Assisting this cause was my choice seat assignment of 40F, an exit row window already stocked with pillow and blanket when I arrived. I was out soon after take off and didn’t come to until about twenty minutes out of Detroit. That Melatonin is good stuff and perhaps a little easier on the system than some of the stronger over the counter medications out there. One really neat thing as we descended into Detroit was the low wispy clouds that had descended over the suburbs. They weren’t thick enough to obscure the view from above or below, but they did add a nice dreamy ambience to the neighborhoods.
By the time we’d parked at Gate A24, it was almost 6:00am. Normally, I wouldn’t bother to note this but the reason I do is because my flight on to Memphis was scheduled to depart at 6:35am. It never occurred to me to mention to the FA that I had a tight connection because at the time I didn’t consider it tight. Well lemme tell you, by the time I got off that 757-300 and discovered my Memphis flight was departing from A76, way down on the other side of the terminal, it was 6:15am. It seemed to take forever from back in row 40 to get off the airplane. Having recently flown in Australia and Europe in economy class, I couldn’t help but notice how comparatively long it takes Americans to get on and off aircraft. That’s because they’re hauling around all those huge carry on bags. Anyway, remember that old Van McCoy tune “Do The Hustle”? I did the hustle, breathlessly arriving at A76 just as they were paging my name and preparing to close up the flight.
May 27, 2003
DTW-MEM 635a-731a NW 757-200 N539US Coach Class
MEM-BNA 905a-1004a NW Avro RJ-85 N533XJ Coach Class
BNA-MSP 1126a-126p NW DC-9-31 N956N First Class
MSP-LAX 221p-458p NW 757-200 N537US First Class Snack
LAX-SEA 600p-840p AS 737-990 N315AS First Class * Dinner
Total Miles Flown: 3980 Total Miles Earned: 17530
The captain was just telling us how it’d be a nice smooth flight down to Memphis, only an hour and twenty three, cruisin’ at 39000 feezzzzzzzzZZZzzzzzzzzz. Snort!
Huh?! Wha- We’re in Memphis already? Awright!!
The Memphis WorldClub was packed – I mean every desk was taken in the work area and as I walked out to get a coffee, I saw only a few open seats available in the lounge areas. Lots of people were walking around. Well good. It’s nice to see Northwest doing apparently brisk business with its business travelers during these economically sluggish times.
My flight across to Nashville was leaving from the C Concourse and soon after arriving in the gate area I heard my name called to approach the podium. Alas, my recently acquired upgrade was invalid, as Seat 3D was occupied by a Mr. Green. I considered locating him and asking if he’d like to arm wrestle for the seat but my better half won out when I considered that it was only a 200 mile, 30 minute flight. Yes of course, 8A would be fine, I replied.
Northwest/Mesaba’s Avro RJ-85s offer spacious 3-2 coach seating that is about as comfortable as you’ll find behind the curtain on any airliner flying in America today. The seats are wide and the legroom is quite adequate for a hair under six footer like me. Nobody, and I mean nobody operates an ERJ or CRJ anywhere near as nice! As for the flight, I and my seatmate wondered if we may well have spent more time taxiing than we actually did flying. In Memphis, we taxied way out to some distant runway out in the suburbs and in Nashville, they weren’t quite ready for our arrival so all in all, we may well have spent more time in the plane on the ground than we did in the air.
Ex-North Central DC-9-31 N956N awaited Minneapolis bound passengers at Gate B-2 this morning. Although I never asked, I just assumed that this 695 mile flight would be a beverage only service and so bought myself a big salad at the kiosk just down the concourse. Imagine my surprise when the flight attendant noticed my salad and said she’d be serving us lunch on this flight. Really? Well, I’ll save that salad for another day.
Lunch was a choice between a Turkey and Monterrey Jack Cheese Hoagie or an Antipasto Plate. The sandwich was served with a fruit bowl and chocolate cake while the Antipasto plate came with a chopped tomato, onion and pepper salsa cruda and the cake. I opted for the smaller antipasto plate, figuring I could cut up and toss some of that meat into my veggie salad. So I did just that and had a most enjoyable lunch.
My flight between Minneapolis and Los Angeles was, from a food standpoint, no different. We were offered the exact same entrees. I went with the sandwich this time. Those hoagies rolls are a lot of bread but if you take your knife and hollow out each side of the roll, you end up with a more manageable meal. The highlight of this flight was flying right over the middle of the Grand Canyon. Spectacular views! We also flew over Conifer, Colorado – just south of my old haunt in Evergreen, then over Blue Mesa Reservoir with great views of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I could’ve given a running commentary because I know all this area. I’ve driven, hitchhiked, ridden horses and even backpacked through much of it. It’s always neat to know exactly where you are from 30 some odd thousand feet.
In Los Angeles, another small bit of good fortune awaited me in the form of N315AS, yet another Alaska 737-900 that I’d not yet flown. Only two to go. I really like Alaska’s –900s. Their First Class cabin is much nicer than that offered on the –400 or –700s. For one thing, there are sixteen rather than twelve seats, and I’m pretty certain that there are also a couple more inches of seat pitch in First Class compared to Alaska’s other 737s. Finally, the fully carpeted bulkhead – on both sides of the cabin – coupled with the blue leather seats, makes for one of the more attractive First Class cabins in the industry.
Dinner tonight was as follows:
Seattle to Los Angeles
DINNER
To Begin
A packet of EcoSnax Cashews to accompany the beverage of your choice
Salad
A selection of mixed spring greens complimented with tomatoes, jicama and olives. Offered with Caesar Dressing
Entrees
Marinated Turkey Tenderloin
Topped with braised red onions and chili BBQ sauce.
Served with steamed rice with green onions and roasted sweet potatoes with herbs
Spicy Chicken Stir Fry
** ** **
Dessert
Almond Pear Tart
Of course, I went with the Stir Fry and it was delicious! Thankfully, it was decently spicy, too. So often, these flight kitchens wimp out on the spice claiming that they can’t make it too spicy because yada yada yada. Well hey – what’s too spicy, anyway? I mean, it’s not like on Alaska’s western routes they’re flying a bunch of meat and potatoes Irishmen around or your average Midwesterners for whom salt is a major culinary adventure! Let that spice come alive! Just stock a little extra beer for the complainers.
Once again, we were treated to beautiful scenery from above, this time in the form of Yosemite National Park. We could clearly see the valley, the falls and the Half Dome. It was a beautiful evening and I sure would have liked to be camped down there right now!
On a final note, while we were boarding in LA, the guy in 1B didn’t ask but rather pleaded with the fellow sitting next to him to switch one row back so that his girlfriend could come up and sit with him. Two things stood out for me about this. One – the almost urgent nature of his request. Two – right after dinner, she read a book while he read a magazine and they basically ignored each other for the last hour of the flight. Go figure…
May 28, 2003
SEA-LAX 607p-844p AS 737-490 N776AS First Class Dinner
LAX-DTW 1035p-552a NW 757-351 N581NW First Class
Total Miles Flown: 2930 Total Miles Earned: 6830
May 29, 2003
DTW-MEM 635a-731a NW 757-251 N522NW First Class
MEM-BNA 905a-1004a NW Avro RJ-85 N533XJ First Class
BNA-MSP 1126a-126p NW DC-9-31 N959N First Class * Lunch
MSP-LAX 221p-458p NW 757-251 N521US First Class Snack
LAX-SEA 600p-840p AS 737-990 N302AS First Class * Dinner
Total Miles Flown: 3980 Total Miles Earned: 9530
Listed above are the flights with corresponding aircraft registrations for those of you that care about such things. (Hey! I flew that same plane that 2A was on twenty seven years ago!! Well I’ll be…) As you can see, the routing is exactly the same and the meals were also exactly the same. As such, there’s hardly any need in trip reporting these particular flights as you could get the same information from reading the previous five pages starting at May 26th. I would however like to take a moment to applaud Jan, the Alaska flight attendant working the forward cabin on my Los Angeles to Seattle flight this evening. Her service was gracious and professional, from warmly introducing herself and greeting each of us individually to preheating the cashews and serving them in wine glasses. Whatever Alaska may lack in onboard amenities such as appetizers and IFEs, it more than makes up for with personnel of Jan’s caliber.
Tonight I am getting a hotel out at the airport rather than stay with friends in Seattle since I’ve an early start tomorrow trying to stand by for 6:40am departure to Las Vegas.
May 30, 2003
SEA-LAS 640a-901a AS 737-490 N763AS Coach Class
There’s nothing pleasant about getting up at 5:00am. Still, if I was going to have a decent chance of getting down to Las Vegas any earlier today, this is how it would have to be. Once I’m up however, I love the early morning hours – the day is calm and innocent, the air cool and clean.
Today was Friday and as might be expected, Alaska was doing a brisk business on all of its services into Las Vegas. I was booked for a 9:00am departure via Portland that would have me landing in Las Vegas at 12:36pm. Since I was looking at a 500 mile drive to get me into Durango later tonight, an earlier arrival in Vegas would facilitate matters greatly. Checking Ben Edelman’s etour site, I saw a couple of seats were still available on the early morning departure, thus the early start to this day. Well lucky me - according to Alaska’s counter agent, there was one last seat on the 6:40am flight and it was mine! I was assigned 24A and headed off down the concourse in search of breakfast. No protein shakes for me – no, I wanted a can of coke and a pack of Ding Dongs but had to settle for a yogurt, banana and a bagel in the Boardroom. My old buddy Toni was working the morning shift – not her usual shift plus she had to be up at 2:45am! – and we chatted for a bit before I headed down to the gate. All those gals that work Alaska’s SEA Boardroom are great – always cheerful and efficient.
We must have had a few no-shows because this flight had at least five empty seats, including 13F, the non-reclining exit row. As usual I was one of the last to board so once those doors closed I grabbed that seat! There was nobody in 13E either. Is this my lucky day or what?! Maybe I should just stay in Las Vegas and hit the casinos. Then again, maybe not. Flying time was looking like two hours and fourteen minutes, cruising at 33,000 feet. Current temperature in Las Vegas was 85 degrees. At 6:40am! Yesterday’s high was 108 and today wasn’t expected to be much different.
The flight itself was uneventful, especially since I slept through half of it. When we landed at Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport, the temperature had climbed to 92 degrees. It was 9:00am.
My car rental company of choice in Las Vegas is Alamo. They treat me like royalty and provide me with big beautiful cars to zoom around those vast desert expanses in. My favorite is the Buick LeSabre, a premium car that my Quicksilver status has often netted me for the price of a fullsize. Unfortunately, no premium cars were available at the time I made my booking nor when I checked in. Alamo has merged with National Car Rental and in Las Vegas at least, cars are no longer assigned. You just go out into the lot and pick the one you like. As I wandered out to the fullsize stall to look for a steed, all I saw were Chevy Malibus and one Buick Century. Alamo also offers Dodge Intrepids, Chevy Impalas and Pontiac Grand Prixs. Where were they? As I pondered this situation, into the lot drove a shiny, new Dodge Intrepid. It had been freshly cleaned, washed and fueled and was ready to go. I once again thanked the powers that be for my good fortune and quickly claimed the car. After throwing my gear in the back, I pulled out my CDs, threw on a T-shirt and drove out of the lot towards the next leg of this adventure.
DESERT AND MOUNTAINS
The Dodge Intrepid, though a little under powered, is a decently sized, comfortable car that has a pretty decent factory sound system – very important for those long, cross country drives. As for the lack of power, it was remedied somewhat upon my first refill with 91 octane gas. Most renters, and I’m sure the car rental company also, refuel the car with the cheapest grade of gasoline out there. If you’re only driving around the city, you might not notice it so much as you would when driving out on the open road. In any event, both power and fuel economy improved markedly with the better gas as I headed eastward across the desert towards the mountains and Durango, Colorado.
This being Flyertalk as opposed to Car and Driver, I won’t go into extensive detail about my drive as I hope my pictures will tell the story once I get them posted next week. Suffice to say there’s an attractive desolation to the desert that I find both beautiful and calming, especially at 70 mph. I also love the excitement and beauty of driving along steep, winding mountain highways. I’d get to do both this trip.
Over the next three days, I drove 1570 miles. My route took me east from Las Vegas through Zion National Park, Page, Arizona and the northern Navajo reservation before entering Colorado on US 160 near Four Corners National Monument and continuing through Cortez and on into Durango for the night. The next day, I headed north up US 550 through the San Juan Mountains into Silverton and Ouray before turning west towards Utah. Highway 191 took me north through Moab and the beautiful canyon country near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks before I met Interstate 70 and called it a day in Green River, Utah. I spent the night in one of my all time favorite motels, the Sleepy Hollow Motel. It’s a classic 1960s style auto court with large, well appointed rooms and a friendly owner. I’ll take a place like this any day over a luxury suite at one of the larger corporate chains. It feels as comfortable as an old pair of jeans and is just as unpretentious.
The next day, I headed out onto I-70 westbound all the way to its terminus at Richfield, Utah. There, it meets I-15 which I took south to Cedar City, Utah before heading west along Utah 56 to Panaca, Nevada and US 93. I spent twenty hours stuck in Panaca while hitch hiking once. It was nice to drive through there in my own car today. Especially since the temperature had climbed into the triple digits bu the time I came through in the early afternoon. From Panaca, I headed south down US 93 to Las Vegas where I switched over to US 95 on down to Needles, California. This was my longest day – 620 miles. In Needles, my hotel of choice is the River Valley Motor Lodge, at $25.99 a night one of the best lodging deals in California. The rooms are huge and offer 27 inch TVs, a fridge and a microwave. There’s also a pool with a covered seating area. One of my favorite parts of a stay at this motel is sitting around the pool with my fellow desert rats drinking beer and trading stories of the day’s or life’s adventures and/or misadventures. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived the pool area was quiet so I turned on my room’s air conditioner and put in some time on this report.
June 02, 2003
LAS-SEA 1115a-151p AS DC-9-83 N973AS First Class * Lunch
SEA-ANC-FAI 455p-906p AS 737-490 N784AS First Class * Dinner
I took a slightly different route back to Las Vegas from Needles that unbeknownst to me was under construction. Of course it was too late to turn back by the time I’d gotten into that mess. At Alamo, I thanked my lucky stars that their shuttle bus awaited me with open doors and departed as soon as I boarded. Unfortunately, it stopped at the charter terminal first and then was unable to stop on the Alaska side of Terminal One due to all the traffic. I was thankful I had a backpack instead of a suitcase as I trotted back through people, trolleys and 90 degree heat to the far side of the terminal. By the time I arrived at Alaska’s counter, it was 10:35am and although there were only two people ahead of me, getting them checked in seemed an arduous process. Finally, it was my turn and I asked the agent about the possibility of catching an earlier flight from Seattle to Fairbanks. I was traveling on an award ticket between those cities and W Class space had been limited when I’d originally booked. Well, not only did she rebook me on the earlier flight between Seattle and Fairbanks, she also upgraded me to First Class all the way through from Las Vegas!
I was feeling pretty good about life in general as I strolled down the terminal towards the escalators up to the concourse level. As I neared the top of the escalator, I could see a huge crowd of people in line for security. They appeared to extend all the way back to the escalator. Uh oh… Once I reached the top, the situation became far more dire. The line extended all the way back past the Starbucks kiosk. It was like something out of a Stephen King movie! It was 10:45am – only half an hour until departure. I was tempted to wave a fifty dollar bill around to see if I might buy a spot farther up in line. Not that it mattered since I didn’t have one anyway. This being Las Vegas, I might have been able to buy my way in with a roll of quarters. But no – I trudged back, back and back some more until finally I had reached the end of this incredible line. I kid you not when I say I was over a football field’s distance away from the security checkpoint. All I could do for now was hope that Alaska Airlines was aware of the situation.
By the time I cleared security, it was 11:16am, one minute past my departure time. I dashed down the concourse and arrived breathless and disheveled at the gate. The gate lounge was empty and the jetway door was closed but the jetway was still attached to the aircraft. There was still a chance! Sure enough, the gate agent made a call, there were affirmative nods all around and I was escorted onto the MD-80 where my First Class seat still awaited me. After all the ups and downs I’d gone through today, I felt like a manic-depressive on an upswing. Thankfully, the rest of my day went very nicely.
As we taxied out, we passed America West’s Arizona Diamondbacks airplane. What an absolute work of art! My favorite is their Arizona plane. We also taxied past the Southwest Airlines terminal where I noticed only one aircraft wearing the new blue livery amongst the fifteen or so aircraft parked there. Southwest sure is taking its time in repainting its fleet.
I set my stopwatch on take off for two reasons. The main one is to get an accurate time of the flight for my log. Although the captain may say we’ve an hour and thirty eight minute flight ahead of us, unexpectedly strong winds or holding patterns can change things quickly. Secondly, I can get a better idea as to our whereabouts over the continent. If I know we’ve been inflight westbound from IAD for say – three and a half hours, those mountains down below us should be in Colorado. East Central Colorado, most likely. Normally I just set my watch once we begin our take off roll and forget about it but today’s take off went on and on and on some more. I looked at my watch. Wow! A 48 second take-off roll!
Climbing out of Las Vegas in the summer heat is never a smooth event. The hot desert air merges unevenly with the cooler air above and makes for a bumpy ascent. Still, it is a pretty trip out of McCarran, climbing up over the desert mountains before turning to the north over Pahrump. Passengers on the left side of the airplane are treated to neat views of Death Valley and the distant Sierra Nevadas. Beneath us were numerous ancient lake beds and colorful mineral deposits. It was over 100 degrees down there, too. I adjusted my air vent and accepted my first beer of the day.
Luncheon was served in First Class while a snack was offered in economy. Here are the First Class offerings:
Sliced Turkey on Baguette
Served with basil walnut cream cheese and accompanied by
Tomato basil pasta salad with capers
Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast
Presented on wild rice salad with pears
I’d had that sandwich just a few weeks earlier between Seattle and San Francisco. At the time I found it to be more bread than meat so this time I went with the grilled chicken breast. The chicken was okay but the real attraction was the rice salad. It consisted of a saffron rice flavored with cumin and cilantro blended with corn and diced red onion. It was superb!
By the time I’d finished lunch, we were flying past Nevada’s Pyramid Lake. To the northwest of us, Mounts Lassen and Shasta were clearly visible. It was a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest as well and as we approached Seattle we got some nice views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains to the west.
My flight on to Fairbanks was scheduled to leave from C-11 and as I approached the gate I saw – could it be? – YES! N784AS, the Disneyland airplane! Although I’ve flown this aircraft on three previous occasions, it wasn’t painted up in the Disney colors at the time. I wasted no time in boarding and was slightly disappointed though not overly surprised to find that the interior was no different from any other Alaska 737-400. Nor were the flight attendants dressed as Mickey or Goofey, which was probably a plus.
Once the doors were shut, I still had an empty seat beside me. This is almost unheard of on the early evening Seattle to Anchorage flights and I was aghast at my good fortune. Alas, it didn’t last long. First, a big, burly Alaska First Officer took the seat, then switched with an MVP they’d found back in an exit row. He wanted the exit row space more than the First Class seat so it was a lucky day for the MVP. We exchanged greetings and then she pulled out her new copy of People magazine and ignored me for the rest of the flight. I perused the new Alaska Airlines magazine, then delved into the sports sections of USA Today and the Seattle PI. Those darned Mariners won again!
Although the beverage section in the Alaska Magazine lists MacTarnahan’s as one of the beer offerings, I haven’t seen it for some time now. The current selections seem to be Tecate, Heineken or Amstel Light. This is still a much better selection than any other US carrier and I’m guessing that serving Tecate this month may have something to do with Mexico’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations, just as Alaska served Becks Beer back in November to honor Germany’s Oktoberfest. Freshly cut limes and cashews were also provided.
While I was downing my first Tecate, dinner selections for the economy cabin were being announced. They were:
Calzone with sausage and peppers
or
Turkey with Havarti Cheese on a French Roll
The First Class selections were as follows:
Seattle to Los Angeles
DINNER
To Begin
A packet of Eco-Snax Cashews to accompany the beverage of your choice
Salad
Endive lettuce is complimented by tomatoes with green and yellow peppers. Offered with Creamy Cilantro Dressing
Entrees
Mediterranean Chicken
Accented with a tomato and olive compote
Accompanied by confetti rice and snow peas
Pork Tenderloin in Mushroom Gravy
Served with Basmati rice and a medley of braised red, green and yellow peppers
** ** **
Dessert
Toffee Pecan Pumpkin Cheesecake
I’ve had the pork tenderloin before and always found it excellent. Still, as I’d never had the Mediterranean Chicken before, I decided to be adventurous. Well, some adventures are good, some aren’t so good. For my tastes, the sauce on this dish was a little too strong on the olive flavor and I’m not that big of an olive fan. Otherwise the rice and snow peas were quite nice. In the future, provided there’s a choice, I’ll pass on the Mediterranean chicken. As for the dessert, the name alone says it all. What a treat!
We landed in Fairbanks right on time. It was a nice, sunny evening. That’s right – sunny. At these northern latitudes, the sun doesn’t set until well after 11:00pm. Come June 21st here in Fairbanks, sunset will be 12:55am. I love it! I was scheduled to drive the 10:30am Eielson run the next morning so I hopped in my truck and drove the final 122 miles of this trip down to Denali, arriving in the park just after midnight.
So there you have it – the story of my travels over two months and 106,000 miles. This was a great trip and I had a wonderful time of it all! If I had the time and money, I’d happily do it all over again starting right now! I love to travel!
On the road again
Just can’t wait to get on the road again…
Willie Nelson
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere
But to go.
The great affair is to move.
Robert Lewis Stevenson
** ** ** ** **
This report begins HERE
I will have further pictures related to this and Parts 1-3 available for viewing in about one week. As always, I welcome any comments and questions you may have.
Again, thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read this lonnnnnnnng report. As to it being my final report, well, what was I thinking?!! After all the positive responses from readers, I can only say thanks again and I'll endeavor to keep up the good effort.
[This message has been edited by Seat 2A (edited Jan 08, 2004).]
Jun 8, 2003, 11:06 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
Programs: Alaska Million Miler, United Million Miler, Wyndham Rewards Diamond, Choice Hotels Diamond
Posts: 12,148
Here's the travel breakdown:
This journey began on March 19th. Over the course of the trip, I drove 5910 miles, rode the rails for 3690 more, and flew seventy seven flights aboard eleven airlines for a total of 96,350 miles. Forty four of the flights were in First or Business Class and I was served thirty eight meals enroute. Total flight time was 206 hours 40 minutes, or about 8 1/2 days. I rode busses for a further 890 mi9les and hitched only 110 miles. Not including my Maria island trip, I boated only 10 miles.
This journey began on March 19th. Over the course of the trip, I drove 5910 miles, rode the rails for 3690 more, and flew seventy seven flights aboard eleven airlines for a total of 96,350 miles. Forty four of the flights were in First or Business Class and I was served thirty eight meals enroute. Total flight time was 206 hours 40 minutes, or about 8 1/2 days. I rode busses for a further 890 mi9les and hitched only 110 miles. Not including my Maria island trip, I boated only 10 miles.
Jun 8, 2003, 11:40 pm
#7
Join Date: Jan 2000
Posts: 3,208
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Seat 2A:
Here's the travel breakdown:
This journey began on March 19th. Over the course of the trip, I drove 5910 miles, rode the rails for 3690 more, and flew seventy seven flights aboard eleven airlines for a total of 96,350 miles. Forty four of the flights were in First or Business Class and I was served thirty eight meals enroute. Total flight time was 206 hours 40 minutes, or about 8 1/2 days. I rode busses for a further 890 mi9les and hitched only 110 miles. Not including my Maria island trip, I boated only 10 miles.</font>
Here's the travel breakdown:
This journey began on March 19th. Over the course of the trip, I drove 5910 miles, rode the rails for 3690 more, and flew seventy seven flights aboard eleven airlines for a total of 96,350 miles. Forty four of the flights were in First or Business Class and I was served thirty eight meals enroute. Total flight time was 206 hours 40 minutes, or about 8 1/2 days. I rode busses for a further 890 mi9les and hitched only 110 miles. Not including my Maria island trip, I boated only 10 miles.</font>
If you ever decide to try out Alaska's SEA-EWR service, I (and I'm sure many other FTers) would be happy to take you out to Yankee Stadium.
Jun 19, 2003, 12:14 am
#12
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: East Ester, Alaska
Programs: Alaska Million Miler, United Million Miler, Wyndham Rewards Diamond, Choice Hotels Diamond
Posts: 12,148
Finally, I have developed and posted photos of the AIRLINE MEALS and of my DESERT DRIVE from this report. Everything you need to see them is at the beginning of the report. Enjoy.
Jun 21, 2003, 10:21 am
#13
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: MUC
Programs: LH Sen // HH Dia; Bonvoy LTTE
Posts: 3,205
Great that you changed your mind to continue writing reports in future. Others awaited eagerly the newest edition of Harry Potter today. And I can look forward to your next superb report(s) with pictures. Thanks, Seat 2A.