I was wrong about this not being a report-worthy part of the
trip. Some amusing and/or atmospheric stuff, despite the
fact I slept most of the day.

The Sheraton Herndon Dulles was okay as always, except that
somehow housekeeping had managed to leave a puddle of grease
on my night table, which fact I didn't tumble to until I
woke in the middle of the night and groped for my glasses.
Ugh. So I turned on the light, and it didn't turn on, and so
I staggered to the corner and turned on the standing lamp,
but it too didn't turn on. But my laptop in the corner was
glowing green, so what was up with that. I went to the front
and turned the vestibule light on and investigated the dark
far corner: it turned out that both the lamps I had tried to
use had been unplugged. Fie. In the morning the pleasant but
noncommittal desk person was pleasant but noncommittal.

US4506 BWI LGA 0855 1003 DH8 2C
was
4532 BWI LGA 1225 1335 DH8 4A

Yes: it is hard to get from Dulles to BWI. But using public
trans I managed to show up bizarrely early (my plan);
security took maybe 5 minutes, so I got the earlier flight,
which was perfectly okay. Oddity. AirTran had told some of
its pax to board a CLT flight at gate 32, but there is no
gate 32 any more, so people were milling about where gate 32
used to be until a US agent took them in hand. Odder still,
a plane pulled in to where gate 32 used to be, so pax had to
de- and emplane through US's gate 36, a little bit of a
hike. At the US Club in New York Jacquie got me on a flight
3 hours early.

US2124 LGA BOS 1100 1214 E90 2A
was
2130 LGA BOS 1400 1513 E90 2A

Glenlivet. The FA didn't know the difference between on the
rocks and straight, so I got a cold one. Though the service
was fine and the seats reasonably comfortable, I still
prefer the Airbuses to the jungle jets.

The Sheraton Colonial Wakefield is a zillion miles from
nowhere, but it's a reasonably pleasant facility anyhow,
with an on-premises sort-of restaurant and a good golf
course. Despite this being a Priceline or something stay,
I was given Internet access as an SPG amenity.

A French dip was an ample serving of very gray rib roast
meat on a baguette, sided by a cup of horrendously salty
"au jus." Beer was the order of the day.

Comfy bed but the a/c had two settings, on and off.

US4773 BOS PBG 0920 1057 SF3 2D
was 0800 0910

Okay, here's hopping, skipping, and jumping in earnest.
The plane was sitting there saying "come fly me," but its
crew was delayed by thunderstorms on the way in from Albany.
There were five of us on the flight - one, Brian, a decade
younger than I but still old enough to know better, was
doing the same thing. He couldn't get the turnaround either
(note: if you need to book the turnaround, do it on Expedia
or Orbitz or someone; the US site won't sell an under-hour
connection) either, so both of us were going to throw
ourselves on the mercy of the gate agent to get moved up.
Brian, had booked PHL-BOS-PBG-return to get his leg up on
the other Golds out of PHL. I'd booked BOS-PBG-BOS-PHL-BWI-
CLT-MLB-CLT-BWI. We compared notes - same outbound, same
return with the same plan, same flight to Philly afterward.

At 7:30, no crew; we feared that things were going to get
difficult if they didn't get us out at 8. So we sat there
and watched lightning at 8 for a good long storm. The front
left around 9, and we loaded up some time later. Once we
took off, it was an easy flight except for some hefty bumps
over Lake Champlain. We got in around 11.
======
I asked the girl "are you the gate agent for the next
flight?" and breathed a sigh of relief when the answer was
yes. Unfortunately, she was new, and didn't know how to deal
with such peculiarities as we. We had to wait for her super,
who was off dealing with a wheelchair pax. At length he
was apprised of the situation and eventually came up with
BPs for us on this flight.

US4774 PBG BOS 1125 1219 SF3 4D
was
4777 PBG BOS 1600 1710 SF3

We were last to board. Our FA, a very pretty Ukrainianish
girl named Olga, expressed no surprise, no emotion whatever
on seeing us again but later volunteered the information
that she had had two similar on yesterday's flights. (She's
one of those FAs who runsherwordstogether so even though all
the words are said, you can't understand them.) Again, a
nothing flight (the Saab sounds and feels pretty much the
same as the DH8s, only it's 1-2 rather than 2-2, and I think
the legroom is an inch or so worse).

Brian said he might go in Boston for lunch, and I bade him
bon appetit and good luck. I checked loads, and the 1330
was F5, and the 1430 F0. What to do? Duh. Tim (or Tom?)
the GA got me 3A.

US1605 BOS PHL 1330 1510 E90 3A
was
US1825 BOS PHL 1830 2009 E90 2F

I was settling into my fairly comfy seat, when who came up
to say hello but Brian - he too had found out the loads and
come to the same conclusion. They gave him 4A, and we
carried on a front-and-back conversation for a while - we
had a good talk about documentation in the pharmaceutical
industry and other pressing topics of the day. The FA was
very good and kept me in Glenlivet.

There was room in F on the 1815, so I thought of taking it,
but Hotwire hotels were running 80+. and PL rejected my $55
bid; I decided to just pull an all-nighter in the airport,
so who cares about getting there early.

I decided to get me some protein at Chickie and Pete's. The
gorgeous waitress was agreeable but had the voice of a crow,
sad to relate. The draft Yuengling was slightly off - dirty
pipes, I'd guess. A burger ordered rare was about 6 oz of
(as advertised) ground prime rib done medium-rare. Pretty
decent, but for me this day not enough food, as I hadn't
eaten since the previous day. So I splurged on a pound of
snow crab legs, which were enormously salty but pretty
good-tasting - came in a puddle of something that tasted
like Italian dressing, easily washed off by the cup of
drawn butter. I still had two hours to kill, which I did
first at the RCC (free bottled Yuengling) and then at the
USAC (Dove hot chocolate from Flavia; $1 Bud/Bud Light).

US2045 PHL BWI 2045 2140 319 3A

Sat next to an entertaining 60-ish ex-hippieoid from
Escondido or someplace come to visit his daughter in
Severna Park.

We got in 15 or 20 early, the flight proper having taken
something like 15 minutes.