What a weekend!
I don’t know of any other place that packs so much relaxation and refreshment into a weekend as Ashland. After a last night in the tractor-beam bed, we check out. Astonishingly. In the time since I put down the deposit on the room, the Peerless Hotel has stopped taking American Express! I use the Mileage Plus First Card MasterCard to pay the balance and ask what happened. Same story: Amex charges them too much and keeps their money too long. I’m torn, as I too am becoming more and more disenchanted with Amex, but I do like to build up those Starpoints.
We climb into the gold convertible in the sunny chill and head back to MFR. On the way we stop at the Starbucks that planted itself right in the middle of Ashland a few years ago. It arrives amid protests, but did a good job fitting in with the Main Street architecture in Ashland and now thrives. I’d rather see a Tully’s, of course, but we get the consistent Starbucks burnt-tasting passable coffee—we both order watered-down Americanos—and sigh as we take them back into the leather seats and start the engine.
I’m looking forward to refilling the car with gas. Oregon is one of the only states in which self-serve gas is illegal. So for a mere $1.539/gal, we get a professional fill-up job. I tell the attendant, “Just put you’re cheapest stuff in—it’s a rental car! And don’t top it off or anything, just do a cursory fill-up.” He thinks this is incredibly amusing and chuckles, grinning broadly. I see him start the pump then go inside and continue laughing with an unseen companion, perhaps passing on my witty comment. Lots of mileage out of that one.
Driving the 15 miles back on I-5 to the airport is a wonderful cap to the trip. The airport is tiny. The rental car drop-off is right beside the terminal building, on the side of the ticket counters. The pick-up lot is on the other side, next to the baggage claim and car-rental counters. Nice setup. As we pull up, we see a United Shuttle 737 and wonder where it flies. It has a different logo—simply “United Shuttle” rather than “Shuttle by United”—and we wonder if it is a new logo or an old one. I peruse the departures board for United as we enter. The only flights are to Portland, on United Express (6000-series flight numbers), and San Francisco, on the Shuttle (2000 series). So that is how to fly first class from Seattle to Medford: take the United Shuttle 800 miles out of the way on the 200-mile trip and connect in San Francisco. If both legs of the upgrade get confirmed, it’s only one 500-mile coupon for my hunnybear! Of course the first-class service on United Shuttle is nonexistent and it’s hell if the upgrade doesn’t come through, but it’s something to think about.
The Dash-8 Alaska/Horizon flight back to Seattle is nice. We get the good Magic Fingers vibration in the exit row, 4, which I called last night and got us switched to by throwing my MVP weight around. Once again we use the A La Cart service and are out of the Airport in record time. MasterPark is great as before and they take the 20%-off coupon and give me yet another one. I fill out the form for my 100 Alaska Miles (yeah, baby) and drive Hunnybear over the Southcenter Hill to Applebee’s for a yummy Applebee Burger as we are both quite hungry by this time. We go pick up her car at her office in Kirkland and head home in light Labor Day traffic, both thinking, “Very Nice 5-Star Trip!”
The End