Seat 2A

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


I love to travel. More specifically, I love to go places. For me, getting there is every bit as fun as being there. Plane, train, boat, bus or thumb ~ the great affair is to move! I haven’t undertaken any significant travels since December when I combined a week in Alaska with two consecutive weekends in Helsinki, Finland. Normally, I take my big trips during the winter months and return home in the spring. This year I’ve reversed that trend with one of my most ambitious efforts yet. I’ve had all winter to dream and scheme – three months to mold a winter’s worth of daydreams into a single springtime reality: 106,000 miles of travel through four continents via plane, train, boat, bus, truck and thumb.

Although I’ll be visiting or passing through eighteen states and ten countries, this trip is really more about going there than being there. Certainly, I’m looking forward to spending time in Tasmania, Finland and Russia but what I’ve really been planning for and especially looking forward to is sixty more hours up in the nose of a British Airways 747. Flights on twelve different airlines. First ever flights with Virgin Blue and Maersk Air. First Class travel aboard four national railroads. My 3000th flight.

This is a long report. In fact, it's not two or three but four separate postings long. So often, I've seen with other reports how someone will post a portion of their report, and the usual response comes back "I can't wait for the next installment!" Well, now you won't have to. Of course, it may take you a couple of visits to the Trip Reports forum to get through this particular trip report, though certainly it's no longer than the average short story in a Stephen King collection.

Just as some people find a jazz composition too long as opposed to shorter, radio friendly songs, I've no doubt that for some of you, despite the practically irresistable reports herein on BA's First Class, eye popping descriptions of services aboard Maersk Air and Virgin Blue along with potentially tempting tales of First Class travel on all railroads involved, plus some writing about the destinations (something I've generally avoided in the past), this report will nonetheless be too long. Still, this isn't a weekend in Paris - it's 106,000 miles of travel! In any event, here's hoping you'll enjoy what you do read.

Finally, for those of you out there who take the time and patience to actually read all of this report, I thank you in advance and I hope you find the report and the photos worthy of your time and attention. Lemme know what you think, if you're so inclined.

Here now is the story of my 2003 spring travels. It sure is good to be back on the road again!


PART I: DRIVE TO SEATTLE AND AMTRAK TO CALIFORNIA
MILE 0 – 3350
By Road: 1530 Miles
By Rail: 1820 Miles

After weeks of planning and anticipation, THE BIG DAY had finally arrived. My truck was packed, fueled and ready to go. And, after two days of going away dinners, beers, shots and other assorted parting gifts, I too was ready to go. Unfortunately, Colorado had been and still was in the grips of a major winter storm. In Dillon, where I’d spent the winter, almost two feet of new snow had fallen. All roads into and out of town were closed. In the foothills just west of Denver, over four feet of snow had fallen. Down in Denver, DIA was also closed. The sheer weight of all the snow even tore a hole in the fabric roof covering the main terminal. By the time it was over, this late winter storm would be remembered as the largest to hit Colorado since 1906.

At 11:00am, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation decided to open Interstate 70 at Silverthorne to westbound traffic only. The eastbound lanes up over the Continental Divide and down into Denver would remain closed for many more hours. I said my final good byes to my friends and housemates of the past five months and headed out onto a snowy and icy I-70. Thankfully, the bulk of this storm had been to the east of the Continental Divide and by the time I’d reached Vail, just twenty five miles to the west, the roads were free of snow and ice. I popped in a CD and sped west, happy to finally be underway.

One of life’s great pleasures is living in and traveling around the American West. It is heaven on earth. Once I’d gotten off the Interstate at Rifle, Colorado, the scenery as well as the culture changed. Yuppies in shiny SUVs were replaced by flinty eyed ranchers in dusty pick up trucks. Ah… much better.

Much of the West’s beauty is epitomized in Utah. Mountains, desert, colorful rock formations, five national parks – it is one of my favorite states. Driving north out of Vernal on US 191 offers a colorful slice of Utah’s majesty. The road climbs 3000 feet through foothills and major geologic formations until it reaches the 1 billion year old exposed core of the Uintas. Numerous pullouts and signs along the byway explained the evolution of the geology along the route. I stopped briefly at the Red Canyon Overlook where 1,300 foot high cliffs accented spectacular views of Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

I spent the night in the southwestern Wyoming community of Kemmerer. A sign on the outskirts of town proudly proclaimed Kemmerer as the “Fossil Fish Capitol Of The World”. You don’t say! Rather than get a motel, I found a nice dark street and climbed into the back of my truck. I’ve got a full mattress and a couple of pillows back there. After placing my backpack and a couple of boxes up in the cab, I was able to stretch out fully and sleep every bit as comfortably as I would in a motel, but without the annoying room charges.

I awoke to an inch of new snow and a generally blustery day. In the planning stages, I had envisioned making this drive on a beautiful spring day. Alas, it was not to be. I nonetheless got the day off to a good start with a big plate of bacon and eggs in a tiny downtown coffee shop. Two tables of older men swapped stories and laughs over hot coffee and eggs. The local Breakfast Club, no doubt. A placard on the table indicated that Kemmerer had a population of 103 pronghorn antelope, 113,000 fossil fish and 3000 people. It is also the birthplace of JC Penney’s. The original store, opened in 1903, sits right downtown in the town triangle. Not square.

I continued north through Idaho and Montana, spotting bighorn sheep, elk, mule deer, antelope and numerous bald eagles along the way. I also encountered snow, sleet, rain and occasional sun as well. I briefly considered getting a motel for the night in Missoula, Montana but decided to press on when the forecast called for late evening snow on the high passes along the Idaho border. This turned out to be a good decision as the following morning’s road reports indicated black ice and sleet along Interstate 90 behind me. I arrived in Seattle about noon and, after lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant in the U District, met up with friends for a two day visit.


March 22
Amtrak’s Coast Starlight
Seattle, WA to Emeryville, CA.
First Class Standard Bedroom

From the outside, Seattle’s King Street Station is fairly impressive, sporting a large clock tower atop an impressive brick edifice. Inside however, it aspires only to keep pace with the old Greyhound Station in North Hollywood, California. The entrance to the station is through a nondescript single glass door and the central waiting room/ticket lobby is dingy and plain. A couple of posters along one wall advertised a drive to renovate the station, a much needed effort that appears to be more conceptual than reality at this stage.

The station was quite crowded this Sunday morning. As I waited in line to obtain my Sleeping Car boarding pass, an announcement was made advising us that today’s train was completely full. Furthermore, due to track reconstruction down in southern Oregon, we would encounter delays of up to three hours. Ah well, to a railfan like me who happens to be holding a First Class Sleeper Car ticket, this was not particularly bad news.

Behind me, a man and his wife were trying to figure out whether or not their room would be on the side facing the ocean. They had asked the ticket agent about this and were told that there was no way of knowing in advance as it all depended upon which way their car was attached to the train. Forwards or backwards, it didn’t matter since the cars rolled just fine in either direction. Well, the very notion that their car might be attached without some sense of predetermined direction was most troubling to this couple, especially as they were so looking forward to seeing all that ocean scenery along the way. As a veteran Coast Starlight rider, I thought it might be best if I helped clarify the situation for them.

“Where are you riding to?” I asked.
“Sacramento.” was their reply.
“Ah. Not to worry, then. Aside from the Puget Sound, you won’t be seeing any coastal scenery at all!”
“Whaaat?! But what about the Oregon coastline?!”
“Nope. The entire route to Sacramento is inland. The only time the train parallels the coastline is down in Southern California, between Pismo Beach and Oxnard.”

Like many Coast Starlight neophytes, they’d fallen victim to Amtrak’s somewhat misleading emphasis on coastal scenery along the route between Seattle and Los Angeles. Case in point – Amtrak’s brochure promoting the Coast Starlight. On the cover is a picture of the train skirting the Pacific Coastline above Santa Barbara. The brochure then opens to a beautiful two page spread of the Coast Starlight rolling through bucolic coastal splendor just south of Santa Barbara. The next page serves up yet another picture of coastal bliss with the statement: “Turn yourself over to the ultimate off-road adventure. The Coast Starlight is ready to carry you along the rugged Pacific Coast in complete and total comfort” Hmmm…

Continuing on to the next page, potential riders are advised to “Get up from your seat and wander around. Catch a view of America’s West Coast few people ever see.” Below this statement are two small pictures of coastal scenery and on the opposite page is yet another full page photo of the train heading north out of Santa Barbara.

The next two pages highlight onboard services and accommodations with nary a glimpse of the Pacific coast. Moving on, however, we turn to a full page photo of the Starlight passing by Mt. Shasta in broad daylight. What the brochure doesn’t mention, however, is that in order to get such a view aboard the Starlight, one would have to be riding the northbound train which would then have to be running at least 2-3 hours late! Assuming the train is on time, Mt. Shasta cannot be seen by southbound passengers. Northbound passengers can glimpse it only during the summer months, and then only if they’re up by 6:00am.

The page opposite Mt. Shasta offers the following observation: “It’s not hard to experience the West Coast’s most spectacular sights. All you have to do is glance out the window.” Below this, photos and print suggest you’ll be able to see the following:

Majestic Mt. Rainier (On a clear day, yes), Volcanic Mt. St. Helens (Not visible from the train), The Mighty Cascades (Rarely visible as a range, even on a sunny day). The worst one is under a caption entitled “Whale Watch”. Potential passengers are reminded that “You never forget the sight of your first (or second or third) pod of migrating whales at play in the Pacific.” Well yes, it’s possible that you might see a pod of orcas out in the Puget Sound, but then it’s also possible you might climb Mt. Fuji someday, too. The odds of either happening are likely about the same.

Finally, on the last page: “Collect breathtaking scenic vistas along the ever changing Pacific Coast route that stretches from Los Angeles to Seattle.” This is accompanied by a map that clearly shows only a tiny portion of the route even touching the Pacific coast. For what it’s worth, only about 120 miles or 9% of the route’s 1390 total miles actually offer ocean scenery.

Based upon this brochure and what I’ve seen of most other Amtrak promotional material about the Coast Starlight, it’s completely understandable how people might get the impression that this is a coastal journey. People love an ocean view. It’s romantic. It’s exciting. It’s awe inspiring. The same cannot be said for the I-5 corridor through which the train travels between Tacoma and Eugene. At best, Amtrak’s brochure is overly misleading. At worst, it’s downright duplicitous. They really would do well to give at least equal billing to the spectacular non-coastal scenery along the route. There’s lots of it.

Boarding for First Class sleeper car passengers was called at 9:35am, 25 minutes before departure. I hoisted my pack and headed down the platform to car 1131, named “Vermont”. At the door stood the car attendant, Haywood. He offered a cheerful “Good Morning!” and directed me to my room. Number 11. Downstairs on the left. And yes, it was on the coastal side of the train!

Opposite the stairway to the upstairs level is a shelf for baggage. I stowed my pack there and headed down the hall to my room. Each Amtrak bi-level Superliner Sleeper car offers 14 Standard bedrooms, 5 Deluxe bedrooms, 1 Family bedroom and one Handicapped bedroom. Four Standard bedrooms along with the Family and Handicapped bedrooms are located downstairs. The Standard bedrooms measure 3’6” by 6’6” and are accessed via a sliding glass door. During the day they offer two wide opposite facing seats that fold together to become a bed at night. Above them is a fold-down upper berth. Other amenities include four separate lights, an electrical outlet, a tall mirror, a fold out table, a small open closet with hangers and even a thermostat which I immediately turned to its lowest level. Best of all, each compartment has its own huge window, approximately 2’ X 5’, through which to view the passing scenery. Compare that to your average First Class Suite on a 747. Toilet and shower facilities are down the hall. For a single traveler, I think these Standard Bedrooms are quite sufficient and comfortable.

At my seat were two big fluffy pillows and a small wicker basket containing a washcloth and two small bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Behind the center console where the table is stored were two bottles of water and a variety of pamphlets about the train. There was a route guide, a timetable, a safety card much like you’d see aboard an airliner and a brochure describing the train and its various services and attractions.

Although most people are excited about the prospect of a seat or bedroom high on the upper level of Amtrak’s Superliner fleet, I specifically chose a lower level room for two reasons. First, the downstairs rooms are quieter because there is much less foot traffic passing by your door. All the inter-car traffic is upstairs. As well, the train’s natural rocking motion makes for a difficult time walking and most people tend to ricochet their way down the narrow hallways, bouncing off walls and doors with equal abandon. One sleeping car passenger complained that her arms were bruised after just one afternoon on the train. Second, being lower in the train car results in much less tilt motion than is experienced on the upper levels. Like a fulcrum point on a seesaw, the ride is smoother the lower you are.

At the top of the stairway is the service area for each car. In the morning, juice and coffee are available from this area. Ice is available throughout the day. I immediately unloaded a few beers into my room’s personal trashcan and threw in a few cups of ice. It’s a 32 hour journey down to Santa Barbara and I’m gonna need cold beer!

For you more technically minded readers out there, today's Coast Starlight was powered by two General Electric 4,250 HP Genesis Model P42DC locomotives. The overall consist included a baggage car, a transition sleeper (For the crew and some passengers), three Superliner II Sleeper Cars, the Pacific Parlour Car, a dining car, the Sightseer Lounge Car and five Superliner coaches.

All of Amtrak’s long distance trains provide a lounge car which is available for all passengers. The Coast Starlight, however, offers a dedicated First Class lounge car in addition to the regular lounge car. This First Class lounge is called the Pacific Parlour Car. For some odd reason, Amtrak has chosen to use the British spelling of parlour rather than parlor. The car itself is vintage 1950s Santa Fe equipment, once used aboard the all coach “El Capitan” between Chicago and Los Angeles. For years, these cars sat unused and neglected in the Los Angeles yards. In the mid-1990s, Amtrak decided to spruce up the Coast Starlight, its most profitable train. The plan was to offer superior service, classier dining and a special lounge reserved exclusively for First Class passengers. Amtrak remodeled and refurbished these old Santa Fe cars at a cost of 2 million each. The result is, in my opinion, one of the finest cars ever to grace American rails.

The all aboard call was made, the doors were shut and we were on our way, gliding slowly out of King Street Station past Seahawk Stadium and Safeco Field, under the West Seattle bridge and out into the suburbs. Meanwhile, various announcements were being made about the train, its amenities and the services to be expected. Smokers were reminded that the Coast Starlight is an entirely smoke free train, so regardless of what class one was traveling in, cigarettes could be smoked only at designated station stops. Sleeping car passengers were encouraged to head up to the Pacific Parlour Car to enjoy a light morning breakfast of coffee, juice, muffins and pastries. I had learned from previous experience aboard the Starlight that most sleeper car patrons heed this announcement and the result is that for the first hour or two of the trip, the lounge is extremely busy. I went up to grab a Danish and sure enough, every seat was taken. I returned to my room, plugged in my hot pot, and soon was enjoying an exquisite homemade blend of Chocolate Macadamia Nut Sumatran coffee with my pastry.

Before long, we were rolling past Boeing Field where I got an excellent view of a new 757-300 painted in Northwest’s new colors. I’ve always considered Northwest’s current livery to be one of the more attractive in the industry. I would describe their new livery as austere by comparison. It consists of a red tail and a totally gray fuselage with a large NWA emblazoned towards the front of the aircraft. Some have said the new livery looks clean and uncluttered. So does a Collie if you shave all its hair off. I’ll miss the warmth of Northwest’s old colors.

Also seen lining up for take off at BFI was Boeing’s new 777-300ER, sporting an attractive promotional color scheme along with a set of massive GE90-115s, the most powerful jet engines in the world.

As we approached Tacoma, the clouds began to break up and we were treated to beautiful sunny vistas along the southern Puget Sound and Tacoma Narrows. I think the views here are even prettier than those along the Pacific coast.

The first call for lunch came at about 11:45am. Breakfast and lunch are served on a first-come-first-served basis aboard the Coast Starlight. Only dinner requires a reservation. I decided to eat immediately and was seated with a man and his daughter who were traveling down to Portland and back for a couple of days. Neither of them had ridden on a train in years but both were thoroughly enjoying their ride high up in Amtrak’s bi-level Superliner cars. They were taking advantage of an Amtrak Rail Sale fare offering a round trip ticket between Seattle and Portland for only $26.00.

The last time I rode the Coast Starlight, it offered a much more extensive menu, featuring a variety of regional specialties at all three meals. Unfortunately, yet another round of budget cuts have forced Amtrak to standardize its menus systemwide, resulting in a comparatively basic and uninspired selection of foods. Gone are the Fiesta Omelet (or any omelets, for that matter), the Santa Barbara Chicken Salad, the Monterrey Burrito and the Parmesan Crusted Red Snapper or the Tillamook Bay Swordfish. The luncheon entrée choices were as follows:

LUNCHEON ENTREES

Black Angus Steak Burger
Served with or without cheddar cheese. Accompanied by lettuce, tomato, and onion on a Kaiser roll with a choice of vinegar and oil coleslaw or fruit salad.$7.75

Turkey Club Sandwich
A traditional favorite served on thick sliced wheat berry bread, filled with turkey breast, Swiss cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato. Served with a choice of vinegar and oil coleslaw or fruit salad. $8.50

Chicken Caesar Salad
Sliced, grilled, smoked chicken breast on top of a mixture of crisp greens with sliced black olives, cherry tomatoes, seasoned croutons, and Parmesan cheese. Served with Caesar dressing. $8.75

Chicken Pot Pie
Tender white meat chicken, garden vegetables and rich gravy baked in a tender lattice crust. Served with a choice of vinegar and oil coleslaw or fruit salad.$8.00

Grilled Vegetable Lasagna
A mixture of garden vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic in a creamy cheese filling. Topped with Mozzarella cheese, toasted breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. $7.00


Meals are complimentary to all sleeping car passengers and there are no limitations on what you may order. I ordered the turkey club sandwich and a bowl of clam chowder. What I received however was a cold turkey sandwich with a couple of slices of bacon added. The bread was not toasted and the turkey was pressed. The bacon appeared to have been cooked hours ago and the coleslaw was some of that commercial stuff made and packaged in Cincinnati three months ago. It was served in a disposable plastic container. The clam chowder was actually pretty decent, especially for all the clams in it. Dessert was a choice of cheesecake or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, either of which could be topped with a strawberry compote. I elected to pass on dessert and headed on back to the Pacific Parlour Car for a spell.

There are several types of seating available in the Pacific Parlour Car. At one end are eight large over-stuffed swivel chairs. These are quite comfortable, indeed. In the middle of the lounge is a buffet area, used for the morning breakfast offerings and the afternoon wine tastings. Opposite it, a stairway leads down to an 18 seat movie theater. Tonight’s offerings were “Sweet Home Alabama” and “The Tuxedo”. Just beyond the buffet area are two long rounded couches, intimately arranged around small tables suitable for drinks, very much like the seating you would find in a cocktail lounge. Finally, nearest the stand up wooden bar are six booths with tables. Perfect for breakfast or, as was the case this evening, a rousing game of Scrabble or cards. For some nice photos of the Pacific Parlour Car, check out:

Pacific Parlor Car

The bar was manned by very friendly guy named Michael. It was obvious he enjoyed his job and it showed. I purchased a bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and took a seat in the last empty swivel chair. Seated next to me, enjoying a single malt scotch, was John, a Seattle electrician heading down to San Diego to visit friends and family. Like so many passengers I’ve met on board trains, John was a bit of a railfan. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours discussing everything from who’s still operating old EMD F and E Units to the NCAA basketball tournament to backpacking along the Sierra Crest in Kings Canyon National Park. It wasn’t long before a couple of other passengers joined in and between the conversation and the beer, the afternoon passed by very quickly. This is what really makes train travel so enjoyable – hanging out and having a good time with fellow travelers while enjoying beautiful scenery in comfortable surroundings with plenty of cold beer. Air travel is relatively boring by comparison.

At 3:00pm, an announcement was made inviting First Class passengers to a Pacific Parlour car tradition, the afternoon wine tasting. Trays of fruit, cheese and crackers were set out at the buffet area as the lounge began to fill with curious and thirsty passengers. Having drunk three beers already, I decided to pass on the wine tasting. I participated in one of these the last time I rode the Starlight and it was a fun time for everyone present. Three or four wines produced from along the Starlight’s route are described and sampled. All of the wines are available for purchase on board, either by the bottle or by the glass. None of them cost any more than about $15.00 per bottle, so it’s not like an auction of vintage Rothchild’s at Sothby’s.

I returned to my car and took a hot shower prior to dinner. A single shower is located in the downstairs portion of each sleeper car. The water flow was more than adequate and although I wasn’t in the shower very long, there was no shortage of hot water. Now – if only I could get a massage! Instead, I popped a cold beer and put in some work on this report.

At about 5:00pm, we pulled into Eugene, Oregon. An announcement was made advising coach passengers that the train was oversold out of Eugene into Chemult. Unlike the airlines which would be looking for volunteers, Amtrak cautioned that unless one wanted to sit in the lounge for the two hour journey into Chemult, it was recommended that people return to their cars, at least during the boarding process. The reason for the oversell was a large and noisy group of school kids headed back over the Cascades to Chemult. There must have been at least 50 of them.

Out of Eugene, the Coast Starlight climbs 4000 feet up to Cascade Summit. Without question, this is one of the most scenic parts of the trip and so I shut my laptop down and watched as we climbed through 22 tunnels and two long hairpin turns. Unfortunately it was starting to get dark as we approached the summit. The best time to enjoy this portion of the southbound trip is during the summer months. Northbound trains traverse this section entirely during daylight hours year round.

I’d made dinner reservations for 6:30pm. My preference would be to eat a bit later but experience has taught me to take advantage of the earlier seatings because even in the best of times, many of the non vegetarian entrees have a tendency to run out by the later seatings. Here are the entrée selections from the dinner menu:


DINNER ENTREES
All entrees are served with a mixed green salad with a choice of dressing and a dinner roll.

Filet Mignon
A classic 6oz. beef filet mignon cooked to your preference and accented with a demi-glace sauce. $18.50

Roasted Chicken
A quarter chicken is slow roasted to perfection. Served with a zesty BBQ sauce. $12.50

Home Style Roast Pork
A hearty portion of sliced roast pork. Oven baked and complimented with a tangy Ranchero sauce. $14.50

Regional Seafood Selection
This evening’s selection of fish has a regional flair. Your server will describe this selection. $16.00

The above selections are served with your choice of baked potato, whipped mashed potatoes or rice pilaf along with a garden vegetable blend.

Grilled Vegetable Lasagna
A mixture of garden vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic in a creamy cheese filling. Topped with Mozzarella cheese, toasted breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. A garden vegetable blend is served to compliment this dish. $11.00

*** *** ***

DESSERTS

Vanilla Ice Cream
Served with your choice of whipped cream, fruit topping or chocolate sauce.$1.75

New York Style Cheesecake
A classic favorite with your choice of whipped cream, fruit topping or chocolate sauce. $3.75

Deep Dish Apple Cherry Cobbler
Apples and cherries baked in a rich golden crust. Topped with pastry dumplings.$3.25

Amtrak Signature Dessert
A warmed luscious combination of a chocolate mousse with a creamy vanilla filling atop a base of chocolate cake. Served with a drizzle of chocolate sauce and whipped cream. $4.00


I was unaware that a 6 oz. filet mignon had ever been considered “Classic”. Perhaps in Ethiopia. I ordered the roasted chicken, opting to accompany it with a baked potato. The chicken was very good – nicely cooked, the meat moist and tender. Although the barbecue sauce was just a bit sweet for my tastes, this was a well cooked and overall satisfying entree. Amtrak’s Signature Dessert made for a delicious ending to the meal.

I spent the remainder of the evening in the lounge car, drinking and chatting with my fellow riders. At 12:30am, I called it a night and returned to my compartment. Haywood had already made up my bed, complete with turned down sheets. The bed looked inviting and comfortable. After turning down the lights, I was asleep within minutes.

The bed, though not very wide, was fairly comfortable and I slept quite soundly. When I awoke at 7:30am, we were about forty minutes out of Sacramento. We were running about an hour and a half late due to a detour we’d made around a construction area during the night. I brewed myself up a cup of coffee and headed on up to the diner for breakfast. It was completely full however, and I was instructed to take a seat in the lounge car until my name was called. Ten minutes later, I was sat and enjoying a chilled glass of orange juice while awaiting my order of scrambled eggs, hashed browns and turkey sausage. I was later joined by a lady and her daughter who, it soon became apparent, had nothing to say short of a mumbled “G Mornin”. They hardly even spoke to each other - just stared out the window. I ate quickly and returned to my room.

As we were sitting in Sacramento, an announcement was made that due to a derailment and further track construction south of San Jose, the train would be terminating in Emeryville, just outside Oakland. Southbound passengers would, depending upon their destination, either connect to a southbound train to Bakersfield out of Martinez or continue on to Emeryville where they would be bussed. I was booked to Santa Barbara which meant I’d be detraining in Martinez, riding the San Joaquin to Bakersfield, then transferring to a bus for the remainder of the journey into Santa Barbara. So much for Amtrak’s highly touted coastal scenery north of Santa Barbara. Worse, this construction was to continue throughout the week which meant that my return from Santa Barbara would be via bus and Bakersfield as well.

I had a quick chat with the conductor and determined that as I was traveling on an award ticket and was not interested in any compensation, I could detrain in Emeryville, spend the day in San Francisco or Berkeley, then catch the northbound Coast Starlight later that evening back up to Seattle. Done. I got all the details worked out at the Emeryville station and caught a bus into Berkeley where I spent a most enjoyable afternoon checking out the music stores, enjoying a fine lunch of chicken pesto pasta and walking around the UC Berkeley campus.

I arrived back in Seattle the next evening and, with an extra day to spare, headed out to one of my favorite places, the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park.

Seat 2A

PART II: MILEAGE RUN ~ SEATTLE-NASHVILLE X 3
MILE 3350 – 27890
By Air: 22250 Miles
By Road: 2280 Miles
By Boat: 10 Miles


Most people I know accrue the majority of their Frequent Flyer Program mileage and status through business related travel. My job in Denali National Park does not require any travel however, so all of my travel expenses are paid out of pocket. While I am well compensated for my work, it is not offered year round and I am not a rich guy. For me to maintain a style of travel that allows me to enjoy shorter check in lines, priority standby and boarding, First Class upgrades, double mileage accumulation and of course lots of award travel, I have to be very judicious in how I plan my travel. In particular, I pay special attention to maximizing mileage every time I fly. And, I do a lot of Mileage Runs.

Truth be known, I’ve been trying to maximize my flying time ever since I first saw an airplane. In the early 1970s I learned it was possible to make multiple connections between origin and destination cities so long as one stayed within a specified routing. I got really excited when I discovered joint fares because they involved using two, even three airlines to get from one city to another – all for about the same price as nonstop. An example of this was a trip I did in 1976 between New York and Denver. The joint fares tariff indicated the following routing was allowable: NYC-PI-ATL-EA-MEM-BN-DEN. And of course, one could make connections along each carrier’s routing for their specific city pair. My ticket cost about $3.00 more than the nonstop United flights. Here’s what I ended up with:

Piedmont: Newark-Norfolk-Wilmington-Atlanta
Eastern: Atlanta-Memphis
Braniff: Memphis-Little Rock-Ft. Smith-Tulsa-Oklahoma City-Dallas-OKC-Denver

There were no Frequent Flyer Programs back then. My primary motivation was simply to fly as much as possible. Well, imagine my surprise and delight when the airlines introduced Frequent Flyer Programs in the early 1980s. Now I was able to combine flying for pleasure with flying for miles. In the past I’d simply tried to maximize my flight time on trips I would have taken anyway. That all changed with United’s first Triple Mileage Promotion in early 1988. I bought one Denver to Washington DC roundtrip and two Washington DC to Seattle roundtrips. Seven days, 26 flights, 15870 actual miles flown, 52440 miles earned. It was my first Mileage Run

So, what exactly is a Mileage Run? There’s been plenty of opinions on this topic over at FlyerTalk’s Mileage Run forum but I believe that in its purest sense, a Mileage Run is a trip wherein the primary motivation for and benefit of the trip is the accrual of mileage. Nothing else. Sight seeing, relaxation, business meetings are all secondary to the primary decision to make the trip. A Mileage Run is all about miles.

Since 1988, I have done literally dozens of mileage runs. While some are of the opinion that time is money and that, benefits notwithstanding, there are better ways to spend your time, I say time is money only in a business sense. On a personal level, time and money are well spent doing whatever it is you enjoy doing, be it going to baseball games, collecting stamps, driving an expensive high performance car, whatever. I enjoy flying, so for me spending eight days flying all over the country is time well spent, particularly in light of all the miles I’ll be accruing. Of course, my friends and family think I’m a little crazy but they sure are envious when I fly off to Florida or California for the weekend. They are equally appreciative when I upgrade them into First Class – or – if they’ve been particularly well behaved, flying one of them somewhere.

Thanks to the input of such Mileage Run luminaries as keithguy and tvl4free, I’ve learned a lot more about how to maximize routings, especially along the NW/CO network. I began planning this current set of Mileage Runs back in January. After literally hours of research on Expedia and nwa.com, I found availability on the routings I liked and bought four separate roundtrips between Seattle and Nashville. Unfortunately, an ear infection forced me to cancel one roundtrip but I still ended up with 25 flights covering 22,250 miles. The total cost of the three SEA-BNA tickets came out to $525.00. I earned 24,440 status miles and my total mileage earned, including bonuses, amounted to 62850 miles. For you cost per mile junkies, that amounts to .0214 cents per status mile and .0083 cents per accrued mile. Here is the story of my latest Mileage Run.


March 27, 2003
SEA-LAX 526p-800p AS 737-790 N613AS First Class Dinner
Total Miles Flown: 950 Total Miles Earned: 1900

I awoke to an absolutely spectacular day on the Olympic Peninsula – sunshine and only a few clouds! After stopping for breakfast at the Lake Quinault Lodge, I took a leisurely drive along US 101 back to Bremerton. Much of this route is two-lane rather than interstate and it is a very scenic drive. From Bremerton, I caught the Washington State ferry across the Puget Sound to Seattle. The Bremerton to Seattle run is a poor man’s tour of the Puget Sound. It’s a beautiful 50 minute trip for less than $10.00 one way. At SeaTac, I took advantage of a great Park & Fly deal through the La Quinta Inn and presented myself at Alaska’s ticket counter at about 4:00pm. The First Class/MVP line was nonexistent and soon I was enjoying a nicely chilled Heineken in Alaska’s Boardroom.

Beer drinkers might be pleased to know that Alaska’s Seattle Boardroom is finally offering premium beverages for sale. On tap at $4.00 per pint were Red Hook Ale and Alaskan Amber. Also available were a variety of premium wines. Conspicuous by their absence were the big bowls of bagged peanuts that used to be placed around the lounge. I’d heard a couple of months ago that Alaska was considering dropping the nuts from the Boardroom stock due to the greed of some passengers, many of whom would grab not just one or two packets but more like a half dozen or more.

Tonight’s flight to Los Angeles was to depart from Gate D-3, only a short stroll from the Boardroom. The flight appeared to be quite full, especially as there were two groups of high school sports teams aboard. First Class was of course full to capacity and I arrived to find that my seat had been taken by two ladies who simply assumed that I wouldn’t mind sitting back in row 3. Actually, I did mind but said nothing and trudged back to 3C. I had pre-selected 1F back in January for two reasons: One, it’s the bulkhead row and offers better legroom. Two, it was on the west facing side of the aircraft and would offer a nice view of the setting sun on this early evening departure. And finally, what’s the point of offering seat assignments if nobody respects them? Especially last minute upgrades? Honestly though, had I been sitting there and they’d asked nicely if I might consider switching back to row 3, I likely would have done so without any further thought of it. Lord knows I’ve traded away my seat more than a few times before. After all, there’ll be other flights to enjoy those sunsets. What irks me though is when people simply don’t care and just arbitrarily take your seat without even bothering to ask. I guess an “old timer” like me was just raised differently.

Although we pushed back from the gate on time, we didn’t get far before making a quick U-turn and heading back in. What! Did we forget the Colombian coffee? The captain announced that we had a “minor” mechanical problem and that hopefully we could get it fixed before too much longer. An hour and a half later, we were on our way to Runway 16L for powerful take off roll to the south. By now, the sun had set but those of us on the left hand side of the aircraft enjoyed a pretty twilight view of Mt. Rainier as we climbed southward. Flying time was announced at a speedy 1 hour 52 minutes, cruising at 41,000 feet.

I had not eaten a full meal since breakfast and with the late departure, I was well and truly famished. Our flight attendant stood at the front of the cabin and read off the First Class dinner choices. Here they are in menu form:

Seattle to Los Angeles

DINNER

To Begin
A packet of honey roasted almonds 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

Shoyu Chicken
Accented with a chilled papaya and pineapple relish.
Accompanied by snap peas and a rice pancake.

** ** **

Dessert
Brown Butter Pear Tart


While both entrees sounded good, I was hoping for the chicken since turkey often becomes a bit dry after reheating in those aircraft ovens. Alas, the turkey was all that was available by the time my order was taken. So be it. I accepted an ice cold MacTarnahan’s and chatted with my seatmate about cars and the upcoming baseball season. He had the USA Today breakdown of all the American League teams and their prospects. My Oakland A’s were given a good chance of repeating as AL West champs. One preseason publication even had them picked to win it all! Still, this current A’s squad have yet to demonstrate their ability to get past the first round of the playoffs. Hopefully, this will be their year.

The turkey was indeed dry and the chili BBQ sauce tasted a bit weird. Still, it was filling and I particularly enjoyed the pear tart, which was presented atop a coulis of rich dark chocolate sauce. Coffee and Bailey’s polished off this meal and before long we were on final into LAX. California’s famed Santa Ana winds were out in full force and our pilots worked gallantly to keep the aircraft lined up on the runway. On our taxi into the gate, I saw my first ever A340-600, long and lean in the colors of Cathay Pacific. Performance issues aside, aesthetically I think this aircraft is just a bit toooooo long.


March 28, 2003
LAX-MSP 1245a-611a NW A320-200 N315US Coach Class
MSP-EWR 712a-1038a NW A319-100 N354NB First Class Breakfast
EWR-MEM 230p-426p NW DC-9-32 N611NA First Class
MEM-BNA 525p-623p NW DC-9-14 N8912E Coach Class
Total Miles Flown: 3680 Total Miles Earned: 7960

My upgrade didn’t clear between Los Angeles and Minneapolis but I was thankful to have the next best seat – a reclining exit row window. Three hours later, we were on final approach over snowy midwestern plains into Minneapolis. The temperature was 31 degrees and if I didn’t know better I’d swear we were only a week away from January rather than April!

Given the quality of sleep one gets whilst sat upright for three hours in an airline seat, I was practically dead on my feet by the time I boarded the little Airbus 319 that would take me into Newark. This time I was in First Class and, with blanket and pillow secured, I easily tacked on another two hours of slumber until we began our final into Newark. I raised my window shade to bright midmorning sunshine and watched as we glided past the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Always an impressive sight! We landed smoothly and taxied past a Singapore 747-400 and a Malaysian 777-200 before parking at Gate 41A.

Northwest operates a very nice WorldClub here at Newark. While not one of the newer designs such as those at their hubs of MSP, DTW or MEM, it’s a spacious and well appointed clubroom with big picture windows that let in lots of natural light and afford an excellent view of the tarmac. Like all WorldClubs, it offers an open bar area and a refrigerator stocked with Heineken, Miller MGD and Bud Lite. I’d slept through breakfast on the flight in from Minneapolis so I was happy to see a tray stocked with a variety of bagels and muffins along with a shiny new toaster. At the back of the clubroom are about a dozen work stations along with a Microsoft Word equipped computer and a printer. There I had breakfast and brought this report up to date.

From Newark, I continued on down to Memphis aboard N611NA, a DC-9-32 that first flew on September 9, 1969 and provided years of safe and reliable service to Alitalia and ATI before coming over to Northwest in 1995. More than a few people have indicated their displeasure at the prospect of a flight aboard Northwest’s ancient DC-9s. Some even refuse to fly on them. I like the DC-9s, however. They’re comfortable and reliable and have galleys enabling them to offer the same level of service found on NW’s larger and newer Airbuses and 757s. Today’s model, though almost 34 years old, performed like a much younger airplane. Long live the DC-9! And by the way, some of the Concordes have been in service since 1976! You do the math…

This mid-afternoon departure offered a beverage only service in both classes. Up in First Class, our beautiful and attentive FA passed around Northwest’s ubiquitous Snack Basket. Missing however were the Fisher’s Almonds, my favorite part of the basket offerings. Our FA explained that they were generally only seen on the longer flights now, so I settled for a Club Soda and a bag of Zesty Party Mix.

In Memphis, we parked at B15, right next door to Jim Neely’s Interstate Barbecue. I know I’ve mentioned this fine establishment in previous Trip Reports but allow me to reiterate the fact that they make the finest barbecued pork sandwich I’ve EVER had. Of course, I wasted no time in reacquainting myself with another one before heading down the hall to my connecting flight up to Nashville.

I would guess that the average fleet age for most major US airlines is about eight or nine years these days. Not so with Northwest where because of its reliance on the DC-9 and DC-10, the average age is closer to 20 years. I rather enjoy flying aboard these older jets though and that’s a good thing because today’s DC-9-14 up to Nashville was definitely one of the oldest jetliners still flying in America. It first flew on October 25th, 1966 and served with Eastern and Republic before donning Northwest’s livery. It’ll celebrate its 37th birthday this fall. I have fond memories of many a flight with Eastern and Texas International aboard these baby DC-9s. Alas, they’re extremely rare birds these days. I took my exit row seat at 9F and thoroughly enjoyed this short flight down memory lane.

March 29, 2003
BNA-MEM 630a-736a NW DC-9-31 N1798U First Class
MEM-DTW 945a-1234p NW DC-9-31 N8923E First Class
DTW-LAX 343p-544p NW A320-200 N333US First Class Dinner
LAX-SEA 719p-1001p AS DC-9-80 N982AS First Class
Total Miles Flown: 3740 Total Miles Earned: 8080

Ah, what a treat! An entire day assigned to Seat 2A. That’s right – all of my upgrades cleared! And, it was a pretty nice day for flying, too. A few clouds, but generally sunny and pleasant. I wonder what my horoscope would have read for today? Here’s a paper. Let’s see…

Your adherence to the advice of nebulous celestial manifestations over that of real flesh and blood people is your greatest asset.

Hmm…

The short flights down to Memphis and up to Detroit offered no special service to write of. I did however spot Embraer’s new RJ-170 parked amongst some private jets on the other side of the Nashville airport. We had just taken off and from a distance I first thought it might be an A319 Business jet but as we flew overhead I could clearly make out Embraer’s promotional color scheme and titles. Perhaps it was on a promotional tour of the US? We landed in Detroit on time and I spent a pleasant three hour layover in Northwest’s main WorldClub making phone calls and catching up on correspondence.

At 315pm, I collected my gear and headed on down to Gate 78 for my flight out to Los Angeles. A320-200 N333US was assigned to this flight. The airplane looked freshly painted as she sat at the gate gleaming in the late afternoon sun. I hadn’t eaten since this morning’s breakfast, so with a full dinner service to look forward to, I was anxious to board and get underway.

Flight time was projected at 4 hours and 5 minutes, cruising at 39,000 feet. Our route of flight would take us just south of Chicago before heading out over central Nebraska and Colorado. From there it was on over southern Utah before beginning our descent into Los Angeles just west of Las Vegas. Clear skies out west meant that we’d enjoy superb views of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Utah’s Canyonlands and Lake Mead outside of Las Vegas. Excellent!

As soon as we’d leveled off, the service began with the snack basket and beverages. Despite this being one of Northwest’s longer domestic flights, there were no almonds. Also missing was the hot towel service. Worse, there was no James Page Lager! As consolation, I accepted a nicely chilled Budweiser but of course it just wasn’t the same. Hopefully these missing items will be the exception rather than the rule. I recognize that times are tough for America’s airlines and I understand that cutbacks such as these probably make sense right now. I only hope that when and if the economy improves sufficiently, so too will the inflight services. Sadly, history says otherwise.

The dinner choices were also offered without fanfare. “Tonight we have chicken and mashed potatoes or short ribs.” Hmmm… chicken, please. And another beer, thanks! Here’s how the dinner choices would’ve looked in menu form:

Detroit to Los Angeles

DINNER

To Begin
A selection of seasoned Gulf shrimp served with a tangy mango dipping sauce and fresh pineapple cilantro salsa

Salad
Endive lettuce accompanied by sliced orange, strawberry and walnuts
Offered with Fat Free Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing

Dinner Rolls

** ** **

Main Course

Grilled Chicken A tender grilled chicken breast is seasoned with rosemary and mustard and presented with mashed potatoes and a couscous stuffed tomato

Beef Short Rib
Flavorful braised beef is accompanied by stewed potatoes, carrots and onions

** ** **

Dessert
Chocolate Cake

This was almost exactly the same meal I had back in October when I flew between Detroit and San Jose. I say “almost” because the one glaring difference was that the ice cream sundae cart had been replaced with a single slice of Northwest’s old standby, the chocolate cake. The cake was tasty enough but I do miss the panache of the ice cream sundae service.

On a brighter note, the skies were indeed clear from Western Colorado onwards. Passengers on the left hand side of the airplane were treated to memorable views of Utah’s Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Parks. We also got the tail end of the Grand Canyon and a broad overview of the Mojave Desert as we descended into Los Angeles. We landed in sunshine and 73 degrees on a beautiful southern California evening. Without a doubt, the last hour and a half of this flight epitomized everything I love about flight. Spectacular landscape viewed from a comfortable perch high above the earth. Of course, kicking back in a First Class seat and enjoying a cold beer whilst flying westward into the setting sun only served to enhance the experience.

The flight up to Seattle was aboard Alaska’s DC-9-83 N982AS. I’m one of those guys that logs all of my flights, including registration numbers. This was my sixth flight on ship 982, totaling 3,360 miles. Despite the dinner hour departure time, First Class passengers were offered only a cheese and cracker plate. Ah well, might as well check out Alaska’s March wine selection…

Washington Hills 2000 Chardonnay

Sebastiani 2000 Sonoma County Chardonney

Sebastiani 1998 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon

Bridgman 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon


I had a glass of the Sebastiani Cab and thought that the description (Moderate to full in body, this wine has a dark garnet color and aromas of blackberry, cassis, clove and chocolate. On the palate, blackberry flavors predominate with touches of chocolate and toasty oak. The finish has mild tannins and a complex hint of dried herbs.) was a bit generous as I was unable to discern enough chocolate and toasty oak to warrant a second glass. Instead, I popped a couple of aspirin, reclined my seat and snoozed until our descent into Seattle.


March 30, 2003

Had everything gone according to plan, I would have been regaling you all with tales of Alaska’s sunset dinner flight down to LA, Northwest’s service into Kansas City - a destination rarely visited by Mileage Runners – and perhaps even a brief accounting of my night in Nashville with friends who were going to come down from their self imposed exile in Southern Illinois for a quick rendezvous.

Unfortunately, in the big Monopoly game of life, I landed on Chance and the card read: Develop a middle ear infection. Pay $256.00 to a clinic for diagnosis and treatment, and remain grounded for the next two days until infection subsides sufficiently to resume flying.

The truth is I’d noticed some discomfort on my first flight out of Seattle a couple of days ago but it seemed manageable. I was wrong. All those take offs and especially descents between Seattle and Nashville only exacerbated the condition to the point where by yesterday I was in considerable pain. Any of you who’ve suffered this malady know of what I write. By the time I’d landed in Seattle last night, I could barely hear out of my left ear and had perhaps 50% hearing in my right. This in addition to the pain and pressure attendant to the condition. Ouch!

Suffice to say I’m recovering nicely and will resume this report on April 1st.


April 1, 2003
SEA-LAX 526p-800p AS 737-790 N623AS First Class Dinner
LAX-DTW 1035p-552a NW 757-351 N585NW First Class
Total Miles Flown: 2930 Total Miles Earned: 5860

Two days of antibiotics and antihistamines have alleviated though far from vanquished my inner ear problems. Still, I’m tired of layin’ low and don’t want to cancel another ticket. I figure I’ll at least fly down to LAX and if flying is still unbearable, a couple of days out in the desert coupled with the drugs oughta beat this thing. I know that sounds like a plan out of a Hunter S. Thompson book but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Although First Class was sold out, the back of the plane was only about a third full for tonight’s flight down to LAX. This aircraft was outfitted with the “new” First Class seats which feel like they have even less legroom than that offered with the old seats. If the person in front of you is fully reclined, extricating yourself from the window seat is no easy task. If you were at all calorically challenged, it’d be an almost insurmountable challenge.

There were no delays today. We pushed back on time, sped on over to 16L and, finding no one in front of us, roared off into the evening sky. Although it was mostly cloudy in Seattle, the skies above the initial cloud layer weren’t much nicer. High, flat gray clouds. So much for a nice sunset. The captain informed us that we’d be 2 hours and 25 minutes enroute to Los Angeles tonight, flying at 33,000 feet. Sounds good to me! Now what’s for dinner?

Seattle to Los Angeles

DINNER

Salad
Endive lettuce is complimented by tomatoes with green and yellow peppers. Offered with Creamy Cilantro Dressing

Entrees

Thai Curry Prawns
Presented in a coconut cilantro cream sauce
Served with steamed rice and baby bok choy

Mediterranean Chicken
Accented with a tomato and olive compote
Accompanied by confetti rice and snow peas

** ** **

Dessert
Toffee Pecan Pumpkin Cheesecake


Despite my seat in Row 2, my first entrée choice, the Mediterranean Chicken, was no longer available. Prawns it is, then. And a Club Soda and lime, please. Over the years, I’ve found that if you’re at all hungry, you’ll want to avoid Alaska’s prawn entrees because you won’t get very much to eat. Quite possibly, all those folks who’d made their selections ahead of me had learned this lesson as well. Sure enough, tonight's shrimp entrée was a perfect example of what I’m talking about, offering four small prawns and perhaps 2/3rds of a cup of rice. It was certainly tasty enough, though I would describe the curry as rather gentle. So gentle in fact, that I didn’t taste any curry at all. The dessert was excellent as always. Honestly, I can’t think of another domestic airline that consistently offers such a varied selection of high quality desserts, from cheesecakes to mud pies to tarts to three layer cakes. Bravo, Alaska!

For those that suffer from ear problems in flight, the worst part is the descent. The pressure is far more intense and the level of discomfort can graduate to quite painful in some cases. In a worst case scenario, your eardrum will rupture. Three nights ago, the pressure had built up inside my ears to such an extent that I didn’t completely regain normal hearing for two days afterwards! Pain? Oh yeah! My big test this evening would be to see if I could get through the descent into LA without any pain. If there were pain, it would indicate that the infection was still bad enough that further immediate flying would be inadvisable.

Thankfully, I was able to consistently equalize my ears through vigorous gum chewing (The way Mike Ditka used to do when prowling the sidelines as coach of Da Bears) and lots of forced yawning. I also did another snort of Afrin for good measure. Now my jaw aches but at least I can continue this Mileage Run and rack up enough additional mileage to qualify for a First Class Cathay Pacific award to Africa someday.

Alaska uses Terminal 3 at LAX. Northwest is next door at T2. Faced with a two and a half hour layover, I headed for the lounge. Both airlines offer lounge facilities at LAX but Northwest’s WorldClub is far superior. Alaska’s Boardroom began life in the late 1960s as TWA’s Ambassador Club. As operated by TWA, this was a comfortable and well appointed facility. When American took over, they treated that lounge like the Iraqis treated Kuwait City back in the early 90s. By the time Alaska assumed full ownership earlier this year, the once proud Ambassadors Club was but a shell of its former self. Thankfully, Alaska has indicated it plans to renovate the facility a la its SeaTac Boardroom. Until that time, this lounge compares favorably with MIAT Mongolian Airlines’ Golden Yak facilities at Ulan Bator.

Three days ago, I was flying on some of the oldest aircraft in Northwest’s fleet. Tonight, I was flying aboard one of the newest, according to our captain. Unfortunately, new planes sometimes have small glitches that need to be corrected. In tonight’s case, the flight attendants working the back of the aircraft reported that they were hearing a strange noise as we were taxiing. Right. Back to the gate we went as the captain explained the new plane/glitch theory. Mechanics were called out and checked everything from the commodes to the cowlings (I’m not kidding!) and reported finding nothing wrong. It was ultimately determined that the source of the noise was most likely the carry on luggage bin doors vibrating against one another. When we finally got airborne, it was 11:30pm, almost an hour late.

Just in front of us, an Air New Zealand 747-400 thundered down the runway, bound for Auckland. I remember thinking that by the time that plane touches down in Auckland, I’ll have flown to Detroit, on to Memphis and Nashville, then back to Memphis and would be about half way back to Detroit from Memphis.

I slept fairly decently for most of the three hour forty four minute flight into Detroit. Unfortunately, by the time we’d parked at Gate A68, it was 6:27am and my connecting flight to Memphis was leaving from Gate A6 at 6:35am. The Northwest agent meeting our flight told me no way I’d make it in time to which I replied Hey – you never know… maybe it’ll be delayed for some reason. It wasn’t. I arrived at gate A6 at 6:38am with no airplane in sight. Thankfully, I’d been protected on a 7:00am nonstop down to Nashville. As well, Northwest was kind enough to upgrade me. Thanks, NWA!


April 2, 2003
DTW-BNA 700a-745a NW DC-9-32 N9346 First Class
BNA-MEM 1050a-1154a NW Avro RJ-85 N517XJ First Class
MEM-DTW 111p-404p NW DC-9-51 N769NC First Class
DTW-LAX 525p-727p NW A320-200 N357US First Class Dinner
LAX-SEA 926p-1159p AS 737-490 N799AS First Class
Total Miles Flown: 4210 Total Miles Earned: 9080

Ex-flying banana (Hughes Airwest) DC-9-32 N9346 delivered me down to Nashville in style and comfort, reclined and unconscious all the way in Seat 1A. With three hours to burn in Nashville, I moseyed next door to Gate B4 and caught another two hours of sleep. This was a good move because I felt much better when I awoke, primed and ready for my first flight aboard a Mesaba/Northwest Airlink Avro RJ-85.

My first ever flight on a then BAe-146-100 was aboard Aspen Airways back in 1985. Amazingly, Aspen went with a six across seating arrangement on their 146s. This was not a comfortable airplane. even on the short 35 minute flight up to Aspen’s Sardy Field. Mesaba’s Avro RJ-85s (The equivalent of the old BAe-146-200) offer a much more generous configuration ~ 2-3 seating in Economy and three rows of 2-2 seating in First Class. Regardless of where you’re seated on this plane, you’ve really got to pinch yourself to remember that this isn’t a dream, that you’re actually flying aboard a Regional Jet! I can only imagine that two engines vs. four give the Embraer and Canadair RJs an edge economically. Still, for sheer comfort in terms of cabin size and seating, the RJ-85 is far and away my favorite Regional Jet.

It’s a short flight down to Memphis from Nashville – 200 miles and 40 minutes. Service is a quick pass with the beverage cart. First Class is distinguished by the addition of an oatmeal bar service. Touchdown in Memphis was smooth and very quiet since the Avro uses a combination of brakes and rear fuselage spoilers rather than reverse thrust to slow itself down upon landing. As we taxied in to the A Concourse, we passed by the huge Fed Ex freight terminal at MEM. Wow! The fleet was definitely in! There must’ve been a good fifty airplanes parked over there, at least twenty of them DC-10s and MD-11s. Even on a good day, I wonder of the McDonnell-Douglas plant in Long Beach ever had so many DC-10s parked in a line? The other point of interest, at least on a personal level, is that I’ve probably flown aboard many of those Tens. Fed Ex bought out all the Continental DC-10-10s and most all of the United DC-10-10s. By the time they’d been retired, I’d flown the entire CO fleet and all but five of the UA birds.

My flight up to Detroit was conveniently located at B-14, right next door to my favorite airport barbecue joint! I ordered the half barbecued chicken – a steal at only $7.00, which includes beans and coleslaw! – and headed onboard my waiting DC-9-51, an ex-North Central machine lookin’ mighty fine in Northwest’s red, gray, blue and white. It’s only an hour and twenty minute flight up to Detroit so despite the lunch time departure, there is no meal served. Unless, of course, you bring your own!

I spent a pleasant hour in Detroit’s North side WorldClub before heading down to board my flight to LA, conveniently located at gate 18, directly beneath the club room. Judging by the crowd at the boarding lounge, this flight looked to be oversold and I gave serious consideration to going up and leaving my name at the podium until I overheard an agent telling another passenger that there were still a few seats available.

I am pleased to report that this flight marked the return of the Oshibori Towel service and the Fischer Almonds. Unfortunately, James Page Lager and the ice cream sundae cart did not make an appearance. I had a glass of cranapple juice and a pack of almonds while chatting with my seatmate about our route of flight. He had a Rand MacNally Road Atlas which he’d purchased during his recent vacation and was curious to see if he could spot any towns, rivers, etc. during the flight. Only one problem. He had an aisle seat. Since it was cloudy, I graciously volunteered my window seat which he refused. C’mon, I said. It might clear up half way across the country. Besides, I’ll be back on this route in a couple of days. Well okay, then!

Route of flight was to cross over Lake Michigan between Milwaukee and Chicago, (Sounds like Lake Forest or Waukegan to me), head on over Madison and Sioux City before crossing over Nebraska and oh blah blah blah – none of it’s even remotely interesting until you get west of the Rockies anyway! Compared to drawing a straight line between DTW and LAX, we did take a fairly northerly route though, passing through southern Wyoming and just south of Provo before taking on a more southwesterly heading on over Las Vegas and into Los Angeles. Unfortunately, cloud cover obscured most of the western US. On the plus side, that meant that instead of checking out the view, I got some work in on this report.

Dinner was a carbon copy of the dinner I was served out of Detroit four nights ago with the exception that cheesecake had replaced the chocolate cake. This time I opted for the ribs and was not disappointed. They’re served New England style with roasted potatoes, baby carrots and little pearl onions. Although I didn’t eat any of the cheesecake, it looked very nice, attractively set atop a raspberry coulis.

Here’s Northwest’s First Class wine selection:

Sebastiani Sonoma County Chardonnay 1999

Reserve Sainte Foi Chardonnay 2001

Frei Brothers Redwood Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2000

Lindeman’s Bin 45 Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

My 9:26pm Alaska flight up to Seattle was unremarkable except for the removal of an elderly man for having boarded drunk. I remembered seeing him walk through First Class on his way back into Coach. He seemed a bit… unstable, but I attributed it to his advanced age. My eventual seatmate commented to me later in the flight that he’d seen this man in the gate lounge and that he “smelled like a tequila factory”. It’s amazing he ever got past the agent at the jetway.

Unfortunately, we departed about 45 minutes late out of LAX due to the late arrival of a number of connecting passengers from Mexico. We certainly didn’t make up any time flying up to Seattle and by the time I’d crawled into the back of my truck, I had all of four and a half hours before I had to be up and checking in for the next day’s flights. Such is the life of a Mileage Runner on a budget.

April 3, 2003
SEA-PDX 700a-750a HZ DHC-8-200 N375PH Coach Class
PDX-MSP 900a-215p NW 757-251 N522US First Class Breakfast
MSP-ATL 340p-717p NW DC-9-31 N923RW First Class Snack
ATL-MEM 810p-833p NW DC-9-32 N923RW First Class
MEM-BNA 930p-1024p NW DC-9-31 N9344 Coach Class
Total Miles Flown: 2990 Total Miles Earned: 7660

Today is the day Northwest officially unveils their new livery. Although I’ve seen it from a distance, I’m looking forward to a closer inspection. Aircraft sporting the new colors will be parked in each of the hub cities, and it just so happens I’ll be traveling through both Minneapolis and Memphis today.

My Horizon Air Dash 8-200 down to Portland was completely full this morning. We departed on time however and were offered coffee and juice along with a tasty slice of Orange Spice cake. All this on a flight that I timed out at just 32 minutes. By any standard, this is just excellent service for a flight of this length. No wonder so many folks consider Horizon the finest little regional airline in America.

In Portland, I paid a quick visit to Alaska’s beautiful new Boardroom before heading all the way down to the very end of the concourse where my 757 to Minneapolis was boarding. The captain welcomed us aboard and described our route of flight over places like Pendleton and Idaho’s Bitterroot Mountains. He then pointed out that clouds would likely obscure the western two thirds of the country so it would hardly be worth our while to look for these spots. Hmmm…

Breakfast was a choice of scrambled eggs or Rice Chex. Northwest used to offer French Toast on these west coast to MSP or DTW flights but recent budget cuts have deleted it. I wanted a hot breakfast and chose the eggs. Good thing I’d thought to bring along an extra packet of salt and pepper because the tiny packets that Northwest offers are simply insufficient for seasoning both the eggs and the potatoes.

Upon arrival in Minneapolis, I headed over to the C Concourse WorldClub. Though all of Northwest’s newly redecorated WorldClubs are very nice, this one on MSP’s C Concourse is far and away my favorite. It’s got large windows offering excellent views of the ramp along with a fireplace and plenty of work stations. The combination of wood, stone and potted plants would do most any home proud.

Check Out Northwest’s New WorldClubs!

My flight to Atlanta was departing from gate G-7. As I approached from far down the G Concourse, I could see the tail of 757-300 N590NW painted in the new colors. As it turned out, it was parked right next door to my flight at G-9. How fortuitous!

Rather than a bare silver fuselage as had been initially reported, the aircraft was painted in a silvery gray, a la Virgin Atlantic. Close up, it actually didn’t look all that bad. The tail however, is wrong. It sports only a small portion of Northwest’s famed compass logo and on the right hand side of the aircraft, the compass points northeast, not northwest. Many people have lamented the loss of one of the finest corporate logos in the industry and I couldn’t agree more. Here’s hoping that Northwest comes to their senses and restores the complete logo to the tail.

Ex-Hughes Airwest DC-9-31 N923RW did the honors down to Atlanta and Memphis, followed by another Airwest machine, N9344 into Nashville. Only beverages were offered on these flights which, given the departure times and/or length of flights did not seem inappropriate.

If you must overnight in an airport, Nashville is certainly one of the better ones. Just off the B Concourse is a reasonably dark, quiet area where I set out my Thermarest pad, tossed my sleeping bag over me and picked up a good 5 hours of sleep.


April 4, 2003
BNA-MEM 630a-736a NW DC-9-31 N1334U First Class
MEM-DTW 830a-1120a NW 757-251 N549US Coach Class
DTW-LAX 1202p-206p NW 757-251 N544US First Class Lunch
LAX-SEA 440p-723p AS 737-4Q8 N778AS First Class Dinner
Total Miles Flown: 3740 Total Miles Earned: 8080

Today is Friday and it was a busy morning at Nashville International. I was thankful to have been upgraded on at least the Nashville to Memphis flight so that I could use the empty First Class check in area as opposed to the Economy Class check in where the line resembled the check out line at Moscow’s old GUM department store back in the 70s. Long and slow.

It’s worth noting here how I’m going about upgrading. As part of Northwest’s partnership with Alaska, elite members of each airlines’ frequent flyer programs receive a number of complimentary upgrades. As an Alaska MVP Gold, my upgrade is good on any paid Northwest fare. A full Y class ticket would allow me to upgrade at time of booking. Discounted fare tickets allow me to upgrade on day of departure. So far, I have had remarkable success with these upgrades and my thanks and appreciation go out to both Northwest and Alaska for making this perk available.

My flights down to Memphis and up to Detroit were unremarkable save for the flight attendant working the First Class cabin on my short flight between Nashville and Memphis. Thank God it was a short flight because this guy was stressed. Not only that, but something about him suggested that being stressed was a natural condition for him as well. He had a frenetic prissiness about him that suggested he still lived with his mother and was probably a hypochondriac to boot. Hopefully my assessment is wrong and his condition is only temporary.

In Detroit, a steady rain was falling. My flight to Los Angeles was running just a bit late as the aircraft was inbound from Boston where snow was falling. The weather’s been pretty dreary all over the northeast this week and it’ll be nice to get back out to the west coast and sunshine, if only in Los Angeles.

I was very thankful to be upgraded into the very last First Class seat on this long flight into LA. My seatmate was busy with some paperwork when I arrived at 4C and said not a word to me for the entire flight. That was OK by me as it allowed me to polish off Stephen Hunter’s fine novel “Hot Springs” and afterwards bring this report up to date.

Bright sunshine flooded the cabin as we climbed out of Detroit and broke through the cloud layer. This was a luncheon flight and our two flight attendants serving the First Class cabin got the service started as soon as we’d leveled off at 35,000 feet.

Anybody remember that old Far Side cartoon where the two dogs are being fed and one of them is thinking “Oh Boy! Dog food again!” Meal service on Northwest’s Detroit to Los Angeles sector has been very much like this over the past eight days. This is the third time I’ve flown DTW-LAX on a lunch or dinner flight and this is the third time that the meal has been a choice of either chicken and mashed potatoes or beef short ribs. By contrast, three dinner flights over the same period on Alaska between Seattle and Los Angeles have yielded six different entrees.

Our flight attendant was unfamiliar with the beef entrée (I can’t imagine how as it would certainly appear that Northwest has simply standardized their meal service system wide) so I was only too happy to give him all the pertinent details, including the fact that the onions were pearl onions, not Vidalia!

Interestingly, I’ve seen more than a couple FAs with NW claim they don’t know anything about how a certain entree dish was prepared. Perhaps I’m missing something here but what’s keeping them from just lifting up the foil and checking it out for themselves? In the privacy of the galley, if need be?

My Alaska flight between Los Angeles and Seattle was completely full so I wasted no time in boarding the aircraft and getting settled in. On this flight, my seatmate was the exact opposite of the man from my flight in from Detroit. Right away he started talking and boy did he have a lot to say. He was an interesting guy though – he designed and created video games and owned his own company. Although my video game experiences pretty much came to an end with Pac Man, I enjoyed chatting with this guy though I was somewhat thankful for the brief respite that dinner provided. Here is the menu:

Los Angeles to Seattle

DINNER

To Begin
A packet of honey roasted almonds to accompany the beverage of your choice

Salad
Mesclun greens and walnuts
Offered with Mustard Vinaigrette Dressing

Entrees

Pan Seared Turkey Medallions
Prepared with Asiago cheese and served with
roasted red potatoes and sugar snap peas

Seared Alaskan Salmon with Bechamel Sauce
Accompanied by a shiitake mushroom, asparagus and bell pepper medley
along with chive russet potatoes

** ** **

Dessert
White Chocolate Mousse Cake


Of course, I selected the salmon, one of my all time favorite Alaska Airlines entrees! Though Seatmate chose not to eat, the man across the aisle from me had selected the turkey medallions entrée and it looked to be quite a big plate of food. The dessert was moist and light, a delicious ending to a fine airline meal.

Of course, it was raining when we landed in Seattle. I stopped briefly in the Boardroom to check my email and bring this report up to date. Then, I hopped in my trusty Mazda truck and began the 2300 mile drive North to Alaska.


DRIVE TO ALASKA
MILE 25610 – 27890

This is the 25th time I’ve driven between Alaska and the Lower 48 states or vice versa. On a couple of those trips I’ve put my truck on board the Alaska Marine Highway between Prince Rupert, BC and Skagway, Alaska but mostly I’ve driven the entire distance. Once, I drove up to Fairbanks all the way from Key West, Florida. Indeed, we are fortunate to live on a landmass where it is possible to drive from the bottom of South America all the way north to Alaska. If, that is, you enjoy driving. I do. I think the drive through Canada up to Alaska, a distance well over 2000 miles, is one of the world’s great drives!

Most of the stories I’ve heard about travelling the Alaska Highway highlight the arduous nature of trips from years past, when the road was unpaved and one could almost always count on a cracked windshield, a broken headlight and one or two flat tires along the journey. Today, the road is of excellent quality and almost entirely paved, the only exceptions being the inevitable construction zones. In fact, I don’t think the highway has ever been entirely paved because it’s always being widened or otherwise improved somewhere along its length.

Construction of the Alaska Highway began in 1942. It was intended as a supply route to Alaska during World War II and followed a line of existing airfields from Edmonton, Alberta up to Ladd Air Base in Fairbanks, Alaska. War planes didn’t have enough range to make it out to the Pacific via Hawaii so they were flown up through Alaska, down the Aleutian Islands and on to aircraft carriers within range of the Aleutians.

From Seattle, I drove up Highway 97 to Prince George. A beautiful wooded rest stop served as my home for the night. The next day, I drove 700 miles to Liard Hot Springs. This is a wonderful place to stop for a swim. I arrived late but hit the springs in the morning before I continued on. A wooden boardwalk takes you out to the pools, which sit in beautiful wooded seclusion. The warm water is especially invigorating when the air temperature is only about 25 degrees!

On to Beaver Creek, 690 miles up the road and the last settlement in Canada before entering Alaska. In the town of Watson Lake is the famous sign post forest. I don’t know how it got its start, but over the years many people have brought signs with names of towns from all over the world. These days, there are literally hundreds of signs – maybe even more than a thousand. The drive between Whitehorse and Beaver Creek is my favorite part of the trip, with the road winding through mountains and valleys, along rivers, creeks and lakes. The largest lake in the Yukon is Kluane Lake and I stopped in Destruction Bay for dinner. The sun was setting as I drove past the Wrangell and St. Elias Mountains. There are some big mountains back in there. Canada’s tallest, Mt. Logan, is 19,720 feet. Mt. St. Elias rises over 18000 feet. It is a wild and rugged area – wilderness at its finest.

Along the way I also saw a variety of wildlife. Though I didn’t see a lot of any one type, I did see a few buffalo, caribou, mountain sheep and elk. I also saw at least one each of porcupine, moose, wolf and a big bald eagle.

Thankfully, I was the beneficiary of excellent weather all the way up to Whitehorse. At Haines Junction, just before Kluane Lake, I ran into snow for the first time and there were some tricky stretches of road to deal with. By the time I reached Beaver Creek however, the skies had cleared but so also had the temperature dropped. I spent the night in the back of my truck in –23C temperatures. It was a fitful sleep at best.

Only 350 more miles to go until Fairbanks. Funny how 350 miles would seem like a long drive anywhere else but here, after two 700 mile days, it seemed little more than a short morning’s drive. Coffee and a ham and egg omelet started me off nicely, customs was a breeze and I pulled into Fairbanks at about 1:00pm.


[This message has been edited by Seat 2A (edited Jan 07, 2004).]

Seat 2A

PART III: FAIRBANKS, ALASKA to HOBART, TASMANIA
MILE 27890 - 46520
By Air: 18630 Miles


27,890 miles so far and this trip is only just beginning. Part Three covers my travels between Fairbanks, Alaska and Hobart, Tasmania. The most direct route between these two cities would involve flying first down to Los Angeles, then across the Pacific to Melbourne and on to Hobart, a journey of about 32 hours. Because I am traveling on a British Airways award ticket via the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, I am traveling over a far longer route, flying Alaska Airlines down to San Francisco and connecting to British Airways on to London. From London, I’ll fly across Europe and Asia to Singapore, then on to Melbourne where I’ll connect to the Qantas Link service down to Tasmania. Compared to the more direct routing, this journey is twice as long in both mileage flown and time spent aloft. And, as usual, the biggest question I hear from everyone is “Why?”

After forty years, over three thousand flights and 2.6 million miles aboard one hundred and seven different airlines, I still love to fly. I particularly enjoy flying in International First Class. Qantas offers a reasonably decent First Class product but their flights across the Pacific to Australia leave late at night. I’d be fed one light dinner, at a time when I’d rather sleep than eat. Then, after sleeping through most of the flight, I’d enjoy one full breakfast before landing in Australia. My First Class experience, for which I’d shelled out 135,000 hard earned miles, would be half over after only one international flight, most of which I’d slept through! In taking British Airways via London and Singapore to Melbourne, I pay a bit more (150,000 miles) but I get twice the flying time and three times the food. I also get a stopover in London on the way back which will allow me further travels around Northern Europe.

This routing will also make for a much better Trip Report. Yes it’s true that I flew BA over the same routing last year but aside from the fact that it’s always fun to write and read about flying First Class aboard a great airline, it’s also a chance to compare this year’s service with that of years or even months past. And, since discovering FlyerTalk two years ago, I’ve found I rather enjoy writing about flying.

There are two reasons why I enjoy writing about the inflight experience: One – I enjoy describing a good flight to an eager audience. Two – very few people actually write about their flights. In most travelogues, and even some FT Trip Reports, the typical description of one’s flight goes something like this:

“Boarding was fairly chaotic but once I got settled in, I found the seats to be pretty comfortable. For dinner I had the lobster appetizer and the curried chicken for my main course. Both were very good. Afterwards, I watched a bit of the movie before finally falling asleep. A light breakfast was served before we landed in Paris. Overall, it was a very nice flight.”

That’s like describing Paris by saying “It’s a big city with a big tower. Oh yeah, there’s some pretty nice restaurants and museums, too.” .

Books and travelogues about people’s travel experiences are a dime a dozen. Aside from your bookstore or library, just go on over to Google, plug in the country of your choice and you’ll find plenty of travelogues to read. On the other hand, if you want to read about what it’s like to fly in First Class aboard British Airways, Qantas or Lan Chile, much less a flight on any domestic airline, you’ll find far fewer options. That’s why FlyerTalk’s Trip Report forum is such a great resource. So, for those of you who spend a considerable amount of your time flying in Coach or Business Class but wishing you were in sitting in International First, or for any of you just curious about BA’s premium product regardless of your personal experience, my style of Trip Report may be of some interest. I will refrain however from offering an analytical breakdown and grading of facilities, amenities and services. If I liked the flight and the service, I’ll write about it accordingly. As to whether my written descriptions and comments ultimately contribute to a positive or negative assessment of BA and other airlines mentioned herein, you be the judge.

My trip reports put a lot of emphasis on the inflight service, especially the meal service because I particularly enjoy that aspect of the First Class experience. On a long flight, a nicely prepared and served meal represents a wonderful distraction from the ennui of long distance flight. With a seven to ten hour flight to look forward to, a good meal, nicely presented at a leisurely pace, represents entertainment far more valuable to me than anything found on the PTV.

While I certainly enjoy and appreciate the space and comfort afforded me whilst sitting in the forward cabin, I especially look forward to and enjoy the meal service for this is where the best airlines really shine and the pretenders fall behind. Your First Class cabin crew cannot influence the comfort of your seat or the quality and variety of your entertainment options. They most definitely can influence for better or worse the overall meal experience from preparing it properly in the galley to presenting it in a professional and gracious manner. In international First Class, this includes a knowledge of the foods and wines that are being served. A well trained and dedicated cabin crew can mean the difference between simply eating some food or dining upon a meal.

Witness the First Class product of our two largest US carriers who, despite offering amongst the finest in First Class Suites and IFEs, offer meals that more and more are lacking in quality, variety and portion size. A fair percentage of the time, these meals are dished out by poorly trained and/or motivated cabin crews who pale in comparison to their more professional and polished counterparts at airlines like Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific, British Airways or Air New Zealand. The end result is often a comparatively lackluster meal service. And, as one international airline executive astutely put it a few years ago, “A well fed passenger is a happy passenger.”

And what about food quality? There are a lot more stories about bad airline meal experiences than good ones. 75% of all passengers travel in Economy Class and most of those stories are about Economy Class food. Yes, I’ve heard some sniff that even International First Class airline food can’t hold a candle to even moderately priced restaurant fare, but I disagree. Sure, bad meals happen sometimes in First and Business Class but unless you’re a gourmand of the nth order, most folks find the food in International First Class to be quite acceptable – as good as and occasionally even better than meals they’ve had in fine earthbound restaurants. Read through the trip reports from fellow FTers and see for yourself.

I also realize that some readers sniff derisively at my use of the term “experience” in relation to flying First Class, but then their more practical approach to travel no doubt blinds them to my unadulterated joy of flight. My trip reports are for people who like to fly rather than those who have to fly. They’re for people who truly enjoy the experience of commercial flight, from arriving at the airport to enjoying the lounge to sipping fine champagne and dining on Chateaubriand at 35000 feet. If you believe that getting there really is half the fun, then my trip reports are for you.

So, the story continues now as I once again take the long way between Fairbanks, Alaska and Hobart, Tasmania. Grab a drink and recline your seat. Part III is cleared for take off.


10 April
FAI-ANC-SEA Alaska 94 First Class
737-490 N793AS Seat 1A
810a – 222p Flight time: :44/3:23

Even at 6:45am, the check in counter at Alaska Airlines was fairly busy. At least eight people were lined up with their luggage and, in two cases, pets. Why, there was even someone in front of me in the First Class/MVP line! It wasn’t long however before I was checked in and enjoying a plate of pancakes in the tiny airport restaurant upstairs. It was a beautiful sunny day in the Alaskan interior and I smiled as a pair of Northern Air Cargo DC-6Bs taxied by. It could have been 1957. The snowy peaks of the Alaska Range towered to the south, glistening in the early morning sunlight. This would be a good day for flying.

We took off to the west and headed way out towards Ester Dome before making the big turn to the south and cruising on down to Anchorage at 33,000 feet. As I watched the peaks and glaciers of the Alaska Range pass by beneath us, it occurred to me that on a flight of only 44 minutes, cruising altitude must be maintained for only about five minutes before descent is initiated.

Unfortunately, clouds began to gather as we crossed over the crest of the Alaska Range and by the time we’d landed on Anchorage’s Runway 6L, the skies were totally overcast. Despite this being a thru flight to Seattle, the layover in Anchorage was an hour long so I headed next door to the Alaska’s Boardroom for some coffee and a Danish.

The flight down to Seattle was totally full in both classes. Even so, the doors were closed and we pushed back on time. Anchorage is one of the world’s busiest air cargo centers and as we followed a Cathay Pacific 747-400F out to the runway, we also passed by 747s from Singapore and Nippon Cargo Airlines along with a Japan Airlines bird sporting that airline’s latest color scheme.

The captain advised us that due to headwinds, our flying time down to Seattle this morning would be a leisurely three hours and twenty two minutes. Flight Attendants please be seated for take off. Moments later, we were climbing out over the Chugatch Mountains and on through the cloud cover into bright sunshine. Ah… much better.

My seatmate was an interesting fellow from Oregon who had done his share of flying back in the “Good Old Days” of commercial aviation, the 1960s and 1970s. Back then, he’d lived in Fargo and Minneapolis and had logged many an hour in the First Class cabins of Northwest’s 707s, 720s and even Electras, enjoying the old Regal Imperial Service. He’d even flown Northwest’s infamous flight 105, the milk run that made something like seven stops between Minneapolis and Seattle, offering 727 service to cities like Bismark, Jamestown, Butte and Helena along the way. Needless to say, we had a great time exchanging airline stories, covering everything from the old style inflight service to aircraft types operated to who merged with who. As a result, this 3 hour 22 minute flight was too short!

Oh yeah, a luncheon was served as well. It seems appropriate to list this aspect of the flight as an afterthought because although Alaska is highly regarded for their meal service, their luncheon offerings are minimal and uninspired compared to their breakfast and especially dinner services. Lunch today consisted of a choice of:


Mixed Green Salad with Chicken Breast
Garnished with red peppers, cucumber strips and artichoke hearts
Served with Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette dressing
or
Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese Soup
Served with a Turkey Sandwich

Dessert was a candied chocolate mint.

I chose the salad while my seatmate chose the soup and sandwich combo. My salad was pretty good and I especially liked the dressing. However, the soup and sandwich looked a lot more filling. Still, for a three and a half hour flight, Alaska really should offer at least one hot entrée choice more substantial than a bowl of soup. Many passengers have indicated that they’d also appreciate a proper dessert rather than a little piece of candy.

Any of you who’ve read my past reports know that I think the Anchorage to Seattle route offers some of the world’s most spectacular scenery as seen from 35000 feet. Glaciers, mountains, fjords – amazing stuff. Unfortunately, clouds obscured the entire route and I didn’t see land until a small opening in the clouds revealed the southern tip of Vancouver Island. We landed in Seattle on Runway 16L (Is there any other?) and taxied briskly to gate D1, conveniently located right next door to Alaska’s Boardroom. A cold beer and an internet connection awaited until my connecting flight to San Francisco three hours later.

10 April
SEA-SFO Alaska 592 First Class
737-490 N706AS Seat 1F
550p – 800p Flight time: 1:53

Alaska operates a fleet of forty 737-400s. Up to this point, I’d flown all but four of them. The remaining four could take years to log a flight upon because short of actually going down to the airport, locating one of the aircraft and buying a ticket to wherever it’s going, I am at the mercy of random selection. Thankfully, fate shined brightly upon me this afternoon as one of the missing four aircraft, N706AS, would be operating my flight down to San Francisco.

Flight time was projected to be one hour and forty eight minutes. On most US airlines, a flight of this length would offer only beverages, even in First Class. Not so with Alaska. First Class passengers were offered a choice of:

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

Orders were taken from the back of the cabin forward. Thankfully some folks must have decided not to eat for despite being the last people to order, my seat mate and I still had both choices available. I went with the sandwich, he chose the chicken. The chicken and in particular the wild rice salad looked much more appetizing than my sandwich which was more bread than turkey. Oh well. At least a meal was offered!

In San Francisco, I checked into the Doubletree SFO and met up with fellow FTer aw. We had exchanged First Class menus and emails over the past year and had tried on two previous occasions to get together. Alas, late flights and missed connections had thus far robbed us of a rendezvous. In any event, it was nice to finally meet aw, an interesting and engaging fellow who used to manage United’s catering operation at SFO. We had a nice chat until the day’s travels finally caught up with me and I had to call a it a night about 2:00am.


APRIL 11, 2003

Happiness is waking up knowing that tonight you’ll be sitting in First Class aboard one of the world’s great airlines.

For most people, travel is all about the destination. Getting to and from that destination is often little more than an afterthought. As such, a trip on an airplane is not to be enjoyed so much as it is to be endured. Most people aren’t travelling in First Class aboard one of the world’s finest airlines, however. I’m taking about world class airlines like Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, Emirates and British Airways. Flying First Class on these and a very few other airlines is not just a flight, it’s an experience! If you’re like me and you love to fly, you’ll know what of I speak.

We’re talking about the very best way one can fly as a passenger. It’s not just the space or the food. It’s the training and pride reflected in flight attendants who anticipate your needs, not just come when they’re called. It’s consistently and graciously meeting the expectations and needs of an often sophisticated and seasoned clientele, many of whom have expectations commensurate with their lot in life, a lot that rarely if ever includes Economy or Business Class travel. It’s training and pride that reflect in a meal being presented, not just served. It’s a commitment by the airline to provide only the finest in food and amenities and to maintain a high standard of service that allows only the best and most dedicated flight attendants to work the First Class cabin. It’s class. First Class. It all adds up to the very best service one can expect in the air and it’s exciting stuff to experience, much less anticipate. I’ve been looking forward to this flight for eleven months and now the day is here! Let’s head on over to the International Terminal and check in!


11 April
SFO-LHR British Airways 286 First Class
747-436 G-BNLL Seat 2A
650p – 105p Flight time: 9:45

After spending much of the morning and early afternoon strolling around the pretty and quaint downtown district of Burlingame, California, I returned to my hotel, reclaimed my backpack and caught the shuttle over to the International Terminal at SFO. This terminal is a beautiful building, very modern in design with plenty of big windows flooding the interior with lots of natural light. BA’s check in counters were moderately busy but there was no line at the First Class counter and within minutes I was on my way to the First Class lounge.

BA’s First Class Lounge at SFO was a disappointment. It was located in a small room just off the main entrance to the Terraces Lounge. Far from being a dedicated lounge offering separate and superior amenities to those found in the Business Class or Terraces Lounge, it featured only a small bar area and a few couches and chairs. There were no tables, work areas or internet available. A TV was mounted in the wall and one man sat watching the Master’s golf tournament. Food consisted of a variety of crackers, pretzels and chips. Packaged cheese was available but there were no nuts. Traditional First Class offerings such as canapés, finger sandwiches, veggies and dip were not in evidence. Nor was any attendant on duty. This lounge was boring. Terraces looked far more inviting, so I headed over there.

As Business Class lounges go, I think BA’s Terraces Lounges are quite nice. The SFO lounge had a very comfortable but casual feel to it with pastel colors, umbrellas and even lounge chairs. A large bar area offered the same beverage and snack selections as the First Class lounge and there were plenty of tables, phones and work areas available. CNN was on the big screen television and many people watched with rapt attention as CNN rolled through its 22nd straight day of nonstop coverage of the war in Iraq. I found a free phone at a work area and made a few last minute calls to family and friends.

Normally, BA boards their SFO flights from gate A4. First and Business Class passengers may board directly from the lounge area. Unfortunately, the late departure of BA 284 meant that BA 286 was departing from A9, way down at the end of the concourse. When the boarding announcement was made in the lounge, I headed down to the gate straightaway, looking to avoid the rush. Alas, it was not to be. Although tonight’s flight was not totally booked, there appeared to be more than enough passengers for BA to make a profit. And, all of them appeared to be in the gate area trying to board the aircraft. I looked around for a First or Business Class boarding queue but there was none so I just took my place in the crowd and fifteen minutes later stepped aboard 747-436 G-BNLL, beautifully adorned with the Chelsea Rose artwork on her tail.

Upon entering through door 2L, I was greeted by two flight attendants and escorted to the First Class cabin. As we passed through the Club World cabin, I considered what a shame it would be if BA were to ever drop its First Class product entirely. Mind you, if your lot in life is usually in an Economy Class seat, Club World would look incredibly spacious. However, compared to BA’s First Class cabin it seems positively claustrophobic.

All of the world’s finest airlines offer First Class Suites rather than mere seats these days. Indeed, I have looked over many an airline web site, savoring the photos of the new First Class cabins and seating. They are all most impressive. However, I like BA’s cabin the best. It’s not too futuristic looking like ANA’s nor too green like Cathay’s. BA’s cabin was intended to emulate the interior of a Rolls Royce. It’s quiet and refined, radiating a subdued elegance with seats upholstered in gray Connolly leather and chenille fabric offset by burr walnut wraparound barriers, beige side panels and dark blue carpet. It is the nicest First Class cabin I have ever had the good fortune to travel in.

As we passed through the Club World cabin, lots of passengers and crew were jostling about storing baggage and getting settled. Upon entering the First Class cabin, the ambience was immediately quiet and peaceful. There are only fourteen suites and for this evening’s flight into London only about half of them were occupied. Light piano and guitar music played softly in the background, filtering through the cabin like early morning sunlight through the forest.

As I approached my seat, I was welcomed by Jeanny, as lovely and capable a Flight Attendant as has ever graced a First Class cabin. My jacket was hung and moments later I had a glass of Krug in hand and a plate of warmed mixed nuts at my side. Sleeper suits were distributed along with a sheet listing the personal video selections. There were 31 movies available, including an old favorite of mine, “The Sting”.

Our Captain offered a warm welcome aboard and informed us that it would be a great night for flying – smooth conditions all the way to London with a slight tailwind that would put us at the gate in Heathrow about ten minutes early. From the back of the plane I heard a smattering of applause. Flight time was projected at nine hours and forty minutes. As we taxied out to the runway, hot towels were distributed, enjoyed, and then collected.

Take off was from Runway 28L. I had the AirShow map on and noted that we were traveling at approximately 196 mph when we finally rotated and lifted off into the evening sky. We briefly headed out over the Pacific before making a big turn back to the east. The sun was low in the sky and passengers on the right hand side of the aircraft were treated to a beautiful evening view of San Francisco, the bay and all the bridges. We had just flown past Berkeley when the Captain extinguished the Seatbelt sign. I was surprised as we still had a lot of altitude to gain. Cabin service got underway quickly and fifteen minutes into the flight, I had a glass of Grand Cru Classe Margaux in hand, comfortably reclined while watching as we approached the snow capped Sierra Nevada Mountains. I raised my glass of Margaux and silently toasted my good fortune to be traveling in such plutocratic luxury. Ah… the good life! It sure is nice to be back in the nose of a BA 747! At sunset. With a six course meal yet to come.

A small plate of canapés were soon delivered along with the menu. Here are tonight’s dinner selections:

San Francisco to London

DINNER

Appetizer
Maine lobster and papaya salad with raspberry vinaigrette
Or
Tomato Tarte Tatin with goat cheese and rocket cream

Soup
Cream of Vegetable soup

Salad
Mixed Seasonal Salad served with balsamic olive oil, Blue cheese dressing
or extra virgin olive oil

** ** **

MAIN COURSES

Fillet of Beef
Accented with morel mushroom sauce and served with potatoes dauphinoise
and green beans in pancetta

Grilled Salmon
Presented with lemon tarragon caper sauce and wild rice

Freshly Cooked Pasta
Offered with your choice of sun-dried tomato pesto or Gorgonzola and bacon sauce
Served with freshly grated Grana Padano cheese

Lemon and Herb Chicken Caesar Salad

** ** **

CHEESE, DESSERT & FRUIT

Cheeseboard Selection
Somerset Camembert, Capricorn Goat, Yarg, Hereford Red and Cashel Blue Cheese

Dessert
Hot Chocolate Fondant with Earl Gray crčme Anglaise
Cappuccino Mousse

Selection of fresh fruit

** ** **

ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Shepard’s Pie

Hot Bacon Roll

The Great All Day English Breakfast

Continental Breakfast featuring pastries, yogurt, cereals and fresh fruit


This menu represented a considerable cutback from the variety of foods offered on last years flights. For example, my flight from Los Angeles to London offered a choice of four main entrees and three lighter courses. Breakfast was presented as an entirely separate menu and included another hot dish.

Ah well, be that as it may, this menu still offered a decent variety of attractive and enticing fare. For my appetizer, I selected both the lobster and the tomato tarte tatin. In his fine Trip Report of early February, RTW4 gave rave reviews to the tarte, so I just had to give it a try. I also ordered a bowl of soup and for my main course I chose the salmon. Then I sat back and perused the wine list.

WINE LIST

Champagne
Krug Brut, Grande Cuvee

White Wines
Domane Wachau Riesling Smaragd Terrassen, 2001
Meursault, 2000, Chartron et Trebuchet
Edna Valley Chardonnay, 2000

Red Wines
Chateau Desmirail, 1996, Grand Cru Classe Margaux
Buehler Napa Valley Zinfandel, 1998
Cuvaison Carneros Pinot Noir, 2000

Dessert Wine
Chateau Filhot, 1998, Grand Cru Classe Sauternes

Port
Warre’s, 1986, Reserve Tawny Port


I decided to follow up the Margaux with a glass of the Zinfandel. This was a wonderful wine! Here’s the description from the wine list:

This Napa Valley Zinfandel comes from a very good year and has a characteristic ripe bramble aroma. The flavour is of soft red berry fruits interlaced with herb and spice with a warm, satisfying finish.

I also made a point of looking over the liquor selections in search of any Crown Royal, just in case fredmartens should ever decide to cash in some of those considerable miles he must be earning as an AA Plat towards a BA First award. Sorry, Fred, no Crown Royal, but come fly BA anyway. There’s plenty of other good stuff!

The Lobster and Papaya Salad was a nice start to the meal but the Tomato Tarte Tatin was truly memorable! Pureed and lightly spiced tomatoes were blended with an onion relish and placed atop a delicate pastry base. Topping this was a nice portion of goat cheese and the whole affair was then placed amidst a plateful of Rocket Cream sauce. Delicious!

The salmon entrée was equally delicious and would have done any land based restaurant proud both in flavor and in presentation on the plate. The fish was light and moist, and the sauce flavorful without being overbearing.

I really wanted to try out the Hot Chocolate Fondant for dessert but I was just too full. Still, I couldn’t pass on a glass of that fabulous Warres 1986 Port, along with a small plate of cheese. Since returning from last year’s travels with BA, I’ve been trying to purchase a bottle of that particular Warre’s port. I’ve searched from California to Florida and many points in between. Alas, it would appear that BA must have bought up all or most of the available stock.

Our route of flight took initially took us across northern Nevada and southern Idaho. I noted on the SkyMap that after only one hour and twenty three minutes of flight, we’d already reached Yellowstone National Park. The skies were relatively clear and I was tempted to call some friends of mine who work there. The phone rates were prohibitive, however. As in a $5.00 hook up fee and $10.00 per minute thereafter! In short order, we passed by or over Billings, MT, Fargo, ND, and Duluth, MN. before following the northern shoreline of Lake Superior over Thunder Bay, then across the Hudson Bay and on out over the Atlantic to the British Isles.

By now it was 10:30pm PDT and although I wasn’t all that tired, I knew I had to get at least four or five hours of sleep or I’d be a complete wreck in London tomorrow. I popped a Melatonin and headed into the lavatory to change into BA’s new and improved Sleeper Suit. The suit is made of 100% cotton and is dark gray as opposed to last year’s entirely white ensemble. “BA First” is stylishly embroidered onto the breast of the shirt and both shirt and pants come packaged in their own drawstring bag. When I returned to my seat, I found that Jeanny had already lowered it and made up my bed for the night. That woman is a living angel! Well fed and properly medicated, I was asleep within minutes of lying down.

It’s worth noting that early on in the flight, the cabin was extremely warm. The purser noticed that I was fanning myself with the menu and said that he’d see what he could do. Later, he returned and confided that the thermostat had registered a toasty 25C but that the temperature should be down to 21C soon.

I slept surprisingly well and when I awoke, there was only an hour left in the flight. We’d already crossed over the west coast of Ireland and if I intended to enjoy the full breakfast service, I had to get it in gear. I could see that both FA’s were very busy serving and clearing breakfast dishes so I broke down my bed, set up my seat and pulled out my table. Soon I was dining on a delicious fruit plate followed by the Great British Breakfast – a plate of scrambled eggs, hashed browns, mushrooms, a tomato, two slices of bacon and two links of sausage. A bread basket was then presented bearing five or six different types of rolls, muffins and pastries. I chose a croissant and enjoyed another cup of BA’s fine coffee before plates were cleared and the cabin was prepared for our landing at Heathrow.

It was a sunny though somewhat hazy day around London. The gently rolling English countryside looked warm and inviting in the early afternoon sun and those of us on the left side of the aircraft got an excellent view of that big castle where the Royals hang out. We touched down at 12:59pm, six minutes ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, Terminal 4 wasn’t ready for us and it wasn’t until 1:37pm that we finally chalked our wheels at Gate 5.

In all, this was an excellent flight, particularly so for the dedicated and caring service from the cabin staff. Yes, there have been some cutbacks in the meal service and the lounge amenities but a good crew can go a long way towards making such things seem distant and even forgotten. My only complaint is the same one I always seem to have after a flight in BA’s First. This flight was too short!


HEATHROW AIRPORT

The first thing I wanted to do upon disembarking was head over to the Molton Brown Spa and take advantage of a nice hot Pharo-Hansrohe Body Jet Hydrotherapy Shower. Yes, that really is the name of the shower! The Molton Brown Spa offers a veritable treasure trove of exotic and New Age treatments with far out names and descriptions. Just reading about them gives me a buzz. Here – take a hit from the brochure and see for yourselves…

“Move from the travel environment into a sensory well-being zone. The Molton Brown Spa is a dedicated therapy center filled with mood sensitive colours, aromas, sounds and sensations harmonized with soothing textures, lighting and state-of-the-art design.”

Massages are definitely out at the Molton Brown Spa, having been replaced by a variety of pre-flight and post-flight circulation therapies. These therapies have the most intriguing names as well! There’s the “Yuan Zhi Peacemaker” or the “Vitamin Energy Boost” which I first thought was a beverage but was instead described as “A supremely uplifting massage bursting with mind and body enhancing citrus vitamins. Sweet Florida orange and lemon oils deliver immune boosting vitamins directly onto the skin and leave you feeling clear, alert and energized for the journey.”

Check out these awesome facials!!

Rosa Mosqueta Facial Restoration Therapy
A deeply nourishing facial using natural Vitamins E and C and wild Rosa Mosqueta oil from the foothills of the Andes. This therapy refreshes, counteracts air-wear, and helps elasticity and tone.

Equilibrium Spritzer For Men
A dedicated treatment to rebalance and energize male skin. Including skin brushing, exfoliation and high performance cleansing with wheat germ oil to improve circulation, comfort and condition.

Eegads! Imagine the shame and despair of having skin that’s out of balance! As much as the memory pains me, I seem to recall an instance a couple years ago when my skin just might have been out of balance, but then so was the rest of me at the time so I figure it all evened out. And what about this skin exfoliation? Exfoliation? To permanently remove foliage, right? From the skin? No thanks. Maybe for Swamp Thing perhaps, but I think he flies Delta.

No, I desired only a shower, albeit a body jet hydrotherapy shower. Here’s what I had to look forward to!

“Awaken the senses with the Pharo-Hansrohe hydrotherapy shower: wash off the day and give your muscles and mind the benefits of an intense cleansing and toning aqua-massage. Adjustable body jets pummel you from all angles and combine with the aromatic lather of Molton Brown Travel Reviving Shampoo & Shower Gel to leave you fully revitalized and with a sense of total wellbeing.”

Emerging from that shower thoroughly revitalized and with a sense of total wellbeing, I then glided upstairs to the Concorde Room. I had originally planned on heading into London for a spell after my shower but by the time I’d finished up in the spa, it was near 3:00pm and I figured by the time I’d gotten anywhere in London, I’d only have had a couple of hours before I’d have to be heading back to Heathrow. I’ll save my first real visit to London for a time when I won’t feel hurried.

Meanwhile, up in the Concorde Room, I was being attended to by a bevy of attendants offering a variety of drinks and culinary delights. Everything but grapes and fans, I’m tellin’ ya! Unlike most lounges that offer a variety of canapés, reception sandwiches and other light snacks, the Concorde Room’s menu offered everything from a full breakfast to a variety of more filling sandwiches and salads. I opted for a Fuller’s London Pride and a plate of veggies and dip – my old standby.

I watched a bit of soccer as Manchester United destroyed yet another comparatively hapless opponent while thousands of bawdy fans cheered and chanted from the stands. It would be fun to attend one of those games! These Brits take their footy seriously!

Later, I put in some time on one of two internet terminals provided and managed to get all my emails cleared up. That done, I proceeded to try and bring this report up to date as I don’t want to be doing it while I’m busy enjoying Tasmania.


12 April
LHR-SIN British Airways 17 First Class
747-436 G-BYGF Seat 2K
915p – 520p Flight time: 12:16

I left the Concorde Room at 8:30pm and headed across the terminal to Gate 19. As I approached the gate, I was amazed to see that the aircraft operating tonight’s flight was once again adorned with the Chelsea Rose tail art. Mind you, the Chelsea Rose is an attractive design but as long as BA is still flying a few Tails Of The World designs on some of its aircraft, I’d like to get some variety. In particular, I find the Scottish, Polish and Indian artwork most attractive. As it is however, BA owns 56 747-400s and of the five that I’ve flown, four have worn the Chelsea Rose tail art. As I got closer yet, I also saw via the registration that this was the exact same aircraft that took me down to Singapore last year. Hmmm…

There were only five of us in the forward cabin for this Saturday evening departure so service was a little more relaxed though no less professional. You’ve gotta like the favorable ratio resulting from two FAs and only five passengers. We wanted for nothing, including conversation. One of our FAs, Sarah, told me how much she enjoyed working the Japan flights that routed through Anchorage back in the 70s and 80s. BA flew that route only once a week which meant that the crews lucky enough to work that run got to layover for a week in Anchorage. Understandably, for some this might not be such a pleasant proposition, especially in winter. However, Sarah stated that she thoroughly enjoyed her Alaska layovers during both winter and summer. Here! Here!

Dinner tonight marked a return to the more extensive First Class offerings that I’d experienced on last year’s travels with BA. It would seem that BA is playing up to or down to its respective competition on some routes. The primary First Class competitors out of America are United and American, two airlines that have been bleeding millions in losses every day over the past year. As they’ve reduced costs through “streamlining and simplifying” their First Class meal service, BA has apparently responded with a commensurate reduction in its services as well. At least on routes where UA and/or AA represent the primary competition or where BA has no nonstop competition such as SEA where I also noticed the reduced offerings up front while making my two runs out to Helsinki back in December. Apparently, Singapore Airlines still offers some pretty stiff competition from the galley so BA’s menus on routes into and out of Singapore are more extensive. See for yourself -

London to Singapore

DINNER

Appetizers
Michel Roux’s Lobster and Tabouleh Salad
Tomato, Buffalo Mozzarella Cheese and Basil Salad

Soup
Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

Salad
Mixed Seasonal Salad served with your choice of dressing

** ** **

MAIN COURSES

Grilled Fillet of Beef
Enhanced with roasted shallot and balsamic butter
Served with a small baked potato, roasted vine plum and mushrooms

Vineet Bhatia’s Pan Fried Spiced Halibut
Complimented by Upma-Indian couscous, raw mango julienne and tumeric sauce

Stir Fried Ginger Chicken
Served with sweetcorn and crab noodles

Open Lasagne of Asparagus and Mushroom
Offered with tomato and saffron dressing

LIGHTER OPTIONS

Freshly Cooked Penne Pasta
Presented with your choice of tomato, artichoke and smoked paprika
or roasted mushroom and thyme cream sauce
Served with freshly grated Grana Padano cheese

Warm Garlic Chicken Manoucher Sandwich

** ** **

DESSERT

Vineet Bhatia’s Reshmi Mithai
A chocolate silky torte with pine kernel, cashew and pistachio nut brittle

Rhubarb and Honey Crumble

Cheeseboard Selection
Capricorn, Mull of Kintyre, Gubbeen, Blue Wensleydale and Rustique Camembert Cheese

Fresh Fruit
Chocolates

** ** ** ** **

WINE LIST

Champagne
Krug Brut, Grande Cuvee

White Wines
Meursault, 2000, Louis Jadot
Chateau de Chantegrive, Cuvee Caroline, 2000, Graves Blanc
De Bortoli Yarra Valley Chardonnay, 1998

Red Wines
Chateau Desmirail, 1996, Grand Cru Classe Margaux
Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1996
Frei Brothers Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, 2000

Dessert Wine
Miranda Golden Botrytis, 1995
De Bortoli Nobel One Botrytis Semillon, 1996

Port
Warre’s, 1986, Reserve Tawny Port


A small plate of delicious canapés and a glass of 1996 Penfold’s Bin 407 got this meal off to a tasty start. For my appetizer, I ordered Michel Roux’s Lobster and Tabouleh Salad. It was pretty good but I’d rather have a plate of just tails and claws. The tomato and red pepper soup was quite good, especially with the addition of some garlic bread. I selected the halibut for my main course and was a little disappointed, mainly because this was the least spicy Indian dish I have ever eaten. Mind you, the meal was beautifully prepared and presented. It just didn’t have much flavor. Perhaps the chef, while of Indian heritage, was born and raised in Britain, a country not renowned for its “zesty” foods. I rummaged about in the front pocket of my daypack and pulled out just the solution for occasions such as this: A packet of Cholula brand hot sauce from Mexico. Ay yi yi! This fixed that halibut up right nicely. Alas, once again I was too full to consider dessert even though the very notion of a chocolate torte with a pine kernel, cashew and pistachio nut brittle sounded especially heavenly. Or sinful, depending upon your waistline. I settled for another glass of port and a little bit of cheese.

By the time the last of the plates had been cleared, it was almost midnight London time. As I’m typing this, we’re just over three hours into the flight. Our present location is over the Black Sea, just southeast of Yalta. We’re at 31,000 feet, speeding along at 592 mph. From here, it’s another nine hours and 5,106 miles to Singapore. Most of my fellow passengers have slipped off to sleep. I was getting a bit tired myself but my selfless dedication to the task of bringing you all the very finest in trip reports kept me slaving away long into the ni – zzzzzZZZZzzzzzzz

Despite the narrowness of BA’s First Suite, I generally sleep quite well in them. Once again, I didn’t awake until there was only a little more than an hour left in the flight. I raised the shades and saw that we were flying down the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. Last year we flew down the west coast. Regardless, it was a most beautiful sight indeed as the blue waters glistened against the backdrop of Thailand’s verdant mountains and valleys. If only we could fly down there and get just a bit closer! Gorgeous view!

There was still plenty of time to present a full breakfast service. Here’s the menu:


BREAKFAST

To Begin
Freshly squeezed fruit juice
Our special wake up energizing smoothie of banana, coconut and mango

Continental Breakfast
Fresh Fruit
Birchermuesli
Natural or Fruit yogurt
Warm breads and breakfast pastries

** ** **

HOT CHOICES

Classic British Breakfast
Freshly scrambled or boiled eggs, grilled bacon, pork sausage, sauteed mushrooms and grilled tomato

Mushroom Omelette

Banana Toasted Brioche
Served with maple syrup butter


I’m a big fan of those energizing smoothies. Put them in a larger glass and they’d make a nice meal by themselves. This flight’s crew offered them in only a wine glass so I also ordered a plate of fruit and a mushroom omelette. The fruit was delicious, comprised of melon, raspberries, grapes, kiwi fruit and orange sections. While the omelette was also good, I would recommend that the cooks add a few more vegetables, maybe sprinkle on a bit of cheese and call it a veggie omelette.

I spent the remainder of the flight checking out the beautiful clouds and ocean as we made a big sweeping turn west of Singapore and lined up for our final approach into Changi. Unfortunately, thunderstorms were moving through the Singapore area and so we arrived on a cloudy and rainy afternoon. The temperature was 84F and the humidity considerably higher. We could all feel it as soon as the aircraft door was opened.

With the SARS scare, I had planned to stay on board the aircraft during our transit in Singapore. Alas, an announcement was made that the maintenance department wanted to correct or adjust a couple of items on board the aircraft and so it would be necessary for all passengers to deplane. I’d chatted earlier with our FAs about their concerns, if any, about exposure to SARS during their layovers in Singapore. Neither of them seemed overly concerned. As I strolled through the Changi terminal, I was somewhat surprised to see how few people were actually wearing those surgical masks that had become de rigeur of late in Hong Kong.

British Airways operates its Singapore lounge facilities in conjunction with Qantas. This lounge is much nicer than BA’s lounges in Los Angeles or San Francisco. For one, it’s much larger because Qantas uses Singapore as a hub for its Australia to Europe services. There were two Qantas aircraft on the tarmac as we arrived, and more were on the way.

I checked in with the receptionist and got directions to the shower room. This was a large rounded room with eight or nine shower stalls, each offering full bathroom facilities in addition to the shower. I quickly showered and changed into a fresh shirt, then made my way into the main lounge area to check out the amenities. An attractive food service island offered a variety of open face sandwiches along with tuna sandwiches and veggies. The hot buffet area offered dim sums, meatballs and fried rice. Although I’d just had breakfast an hour or so earlier, I helped myself to a small open faced salmon, cream cheese and caper sandwich along with a can of Tiger Beer. The lounge was only about a third full so I grabbed a copy of the local Singapore paper, The Straits Times, and found a comfy chair to while away the next half hour. This is the lounge experience as it ought to be. Comfortable surroundings, hot showers, good food, a well stocked bar, up to date periodicals and internet terminals. Well done, BA and QF!


13 April
LHR-SIN British Airways 17 First Class
747-436 G-BYGF Seat 2K
710p – 420a Flight time: 6:52

I returned to the gate at about 6:40pm, a half hour before departure time. Boarding had just commenced and my First Class seat assignment got me onboard straight away. The first thing I noticed upon entering the aircraft was how nice and cool it was onboard. Perhaps air conditioning was what those mechanics were working on. Lord knows, it’s certainly an important thing to have in this part of the world. Singapore sits just 80 miles or so north of the equator and a dry day here means humidity in the low seventy percent range!

We had a new cabin crew for the trip down to Melbourne and they, like all the other BA crew that have served on this journey, were simply marvelous! Gracious, competent, caring and beautiful to boot, I’m really hard pressed to imagine a finer group of FAs.

By contrast, I’ll never forget that old biddy masquerading as a BA First Class Flight Attendant that had the gall to lecture us on our eating habits during last year’s flight out of Singapore. Hopefully she’s been put out to pasture on some nice short run like London-Dublin where food service is minimal if at all.

Speaking of food service, here is tonight’s menu:

Singapore to Melbourne

DINNER

Appetizers
Warm spinach and ricotta cheese cannelloni on red pepper sauce
Baby leek terrine with yabbie and verjuice vinaigrette

Soup
Tom Kha Gai – Thai coconut chicken soup

Salad
Mixed seasonal salad served with herb mayonnaise, lemon olive oil or extra virgin olive oil dressing

** ** **

MAIN COURSES

Spring Lamb Cutlets
Served with mint jus, fresh vegetables and new potatoes

Red Snapper
Accompanied by chye sim and mushroom bee hoon

Pumpkin Gnocchi
Accented with Fontina and rosemary oil

Char-grilled Chicken on Caesar Salad

LIGHTER OPTIONS

Freshly Cooked Penne Pasta
Presented with your choice of tomato and basil or bacon and mushroom carbonara sauce. Served with freshly grated Grana Padano cheese

Grilled Fillet Steak
Accented with red onion marmalade in ciabatta bread

Selection of Reception Sandwiches

** ** **

DESSERT

Warm Chocolate and Macadamia Brownies
Served with caramel ice cream

Tropical Fruit Jelly

Cheeseboard Selection
Capricorn, Mull of Kintyre, Gubbeen, Blue Wensleydale and Rustique Camembert Cheese

** ** ** ** **


Hmmm… so many choices. I wasn’t terribly hungry, having just polished off breakfast only three and a half hours earlier. Still, service like this is a rare treat for me so I looked over the menu and decided on a somewhat lighter meal. I started with a half order of the cannelloni appetizer. A full portion was delivered and I felt a bit bad over not having eaten the whole thing because it really was quite good. Still, I only have so much room. Regardless, only a fool would pass on the soup course out of Singapore or Bangkok! I love the lively South Asian soups and tonight’s offering totally lived up to my expectations. It was a delicious creamy and moderately spicy chicken and coconut soup presented with thin strips of chicken around the perimeter of the bowl and garnished with cilantro. Mmmm!

I’d been eating fish entrees this entire trip and as attractive as the Red Snapper sounded, I opted instead for the lamb cutlets. The last time I had lamb cutlets on an airplane, it was obvious that the meat had been subjected through a particularly intense oven experience and I recall having to chew hard and practically snap my head back to get the meat down. Well, I’m pleased to report that this time, the lamb was pink and tender - quite nicely done, really. Unfortunately, it had just a bit too much gravy for my tastes. The lesson from this – a lesson I should have learned by now after 2,991 flights – is that when flying from wherever, the local entrees are generally the best prepared. As such, I would have done well to have the lamb out of London or Auckland, and the fish out of Singapore. Last year, I remember having Barramundi in a coconut curry sauce on my Singapore to Melbourne flight and it was one of the finest meals I’ve ever had on land or in the air – certainly the finest Barramundi I’ve ever eaten.

There were only four of us in First Class on this comparatively short flight down to Melbourne. The perception of a short flight is rather interesting in itself as the distance between Singapore and Melbourne is 3,750 miles, about the same as New York to London. However, after the 12.5 hour, 6760 mile flight from London, this flight certainly seemed short. In any event, I had an interesting chat with the passenger in 1A, a 25 year old guy from Melbourne who, for the past two years had been teaching English to grade school kids in Barcelona, Spain. He hadn’t been home in two years and much had changed in his life relative to his friends and family back home in Australia. He had essentially come of age since he’d left two years earlier and it was going to be an interesting visit home for him. He had some refreshing perspectives for one so young and it certainly sounded like he had a fruitful and interesting life ahead of him. As for his seat in First Class, his parents flew a lot on business and used their points to get him back home during Spain’s school holidays. They hadn’t intended to put him in First Class but that was all that was available at the time so… Needless to say, he was having a great time of it!

I could have chatted far longer but I decided to call it a night just off Australia’s northwest coast. Now that I’ve reached forty, I need my sleep a lot more than I used to, if only for some sense of mental acuity the next day. I bid good night to 1A and retired to the comfort of 2K where I snoozed until about 40 minutes out of Melbourne.

A continental breakfast was offered prior to arrival in Melbourne. Last year I forgot to put this in and Carfield noticed immediately. So, in the interests of a properly thorough Trip Report, as well as to honor Carfield, whose Trip Reports I’ve always enjoyed, here is the breakfast menu:


CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

Freshly squeezed fruit juice
Our special wake up energizing smoothie of banana, coconut and mango
Fresh Fruit
Birchermuesli
Natural or Fruit yogurt
Warm Breads and Breakfast Pastries


I had two servings of the fruit smoothie and got all my belongings prepared for our landing in Melbourne. After twenty hours on this airplane, I’d gotten a bit spread out. We made an exceptionally smooth landing, followed by an exceptionally slow, almost tentative taxi to our gate. It had been forty one hours since I’d begun my First Class odyssey with British Airways and I tell you the time flew by all too fast. Sitting in BA’s First Class, being wined and dined in true plutocratic style by the wonderful flight attendants, and stretching out for an occasional sleep between pamperings made this forty one hour trip seem much shorter. Too short. I could easily handle another couple of legs, say on to Tahiti and then maybe Santiago. Still, it was good to be back in Australia and the prospect of lunch at my favorite little Indonesian restaurant in Hobart was enough to speed me off the aircraft, through customs and immigration and over to the Domestic Terminal for my flight down to Tasmania.


14 April
MEL-HBA Qantas Link 965 Economy Class
717-2S3 VH-VQD Seat 15A
720a – 830a Flight time: :53

Despite holding an e-ticket, I saw no dedicated e-ticket check in area at the Qantas counters. Nonetheless, Economy Class check in was very impressive. There were plenty of agents on duty and the assembled crowd of early morning travelers was processed and on their way most expeditiously.

I had hoped to get a glimpse of one of Qantas’ relatively new A330s but none appeared to be in town, or at least not at any of the gates. Parked next to us however was a 737-800 with winglets, the first time I’d seen one up close. Those winglets are pretty tall, too! About 6 feet would be my guess.

The boarding lounge was quite full. This being the first flight on Monday morning, I should imagine this is a very popular departure with business travelers and returning vacationers. We started boarding right at the advertised time – 7:05am – and I was thankful to have snagged an exit row window. Qantas Link operates their 717s in a one class configuration and the best legroom is actually in the first row. I also noticed that on this aircraft the seats were different from the two 717s I’d flown last year. They were an attractive violet-bluish-grey and were substantially better padded than the modern Slimline seats most major airlines employ today. They really were quite comfortable.

Take off was short and sweet and with only a fifty minute flight ahead of us, the FAs wasted no time in getting the service underway. Within fifteen minutes of take off, I had a nice boxed breakfast in front of me consisting of a container of orange juice, a good sized bowl of meusli, a large fruit and meusli bar and a small container of milk. Coffee and tea followed about five minutes later and I remember commenting to my seatmate that we hadn’t seen service like this on a fifty minute flight in America since the early eighties! The FAs really did a great job of getting everything distributed and then cleaned up. There were still a good ten minutes in the flight by the time my tray was cleared, yet I never felt rushed in any way. Well done, Qantas!

It was a beautiful autumn day in Tasmania and during our approach into Hobart the views of the Derwent River valley were stunning to say the least. I stepped off the airplane into bright morning sunshine and 60 degrees. Ah… Tasmania! My favorite destination in the entire South Pacific. It’s good to be back!


[This message has been edited by Seat 2A (edited Jan 08, 2004).]

Seat 2A

PART IV: TASMANIA'S EAST COAST via BUS, BOAT and THUMB
MILE 46520 - 47080
By Bus: 450 Miles
By Thumb: 110 Miles


HOBART

A van service from the airport will drop you anywhere in downtown Hobart for a very affordable $9.00AUD, about $5.50USD. I’d booked a night at the Central City Backpackers, a large and friendly hostel located right in the heart of downtown, just off the Elizabeth Street Mall. I got a single room for $21.00US and, after depositing my pack, hopped in the nearest shower, located just down the hall.

I’m reasonably certain that amongst of all the passengers who traveled down to Australia with me aboard BA’s First Class, I’m the only one staying in a hostel tonight. Even if I weren’t traveling on a budget, even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d still be staying in a hostel.

Understandably, the communal environment of hostels isn’t for everyone. For those travelling on business or folks just looking to enjoy a nice vacation with all the amenities such as restaurant, pool and more personalized service, a nice hotel or resort is the way to go. Certainly, I enjoy a night in a nicer hotel now and then but as a single traveler, I find myself feeling a bit isolated at times. Sometimes this is what I want. Sometimes it isn’t. One of the nicer benefits of staying in hostels is meeting some of your fellow travelers. My travels are a mere jaunt compared to some of the folks I’ve met down here on past trips. It’s not uncommon to meet people who’ve been on the road for over a year, travelling around the world or just around the region. They all have some great stories and experiences to share, including a lot of helpful information based upon personal experience about places I might be interested in going. I’ve already met three pretty cool people while down in the kitchen fixing up some coffee earlier this morning. In a traditional hotel, I’d tend to be in my room or out about town. On those occasions when I do travel with others, we figure it out as we go and occasionally do the hotel thing. Then again, most of my friends are camping/hostel types themselves. It’s not a money issue so much as it is a lifestyle issue.

It’s worth noting that the term “Youth Hostel” is a bit of a misnomer. Hostels are open to those of all ages. Also, not all accommodations are in dormitories. Many hostels offer single rooms. Granted, the amenities are minimal – often just a bed and a chair, but then how much time do you spend in your room? As well, the dark days of curfews are but a distant memory. Most hostels are open 24 hours though you may be required to use a door code to get in after 11:00pm.

Anyway, time to get out and enjoy the day! My favorite little Indonesian restaurant in the whole world is the Bali Café in Hobart. Like many of the best places, it’s an inauspicious little restaurant that would easily be missed by someone looking for more ostentatious indications of quality like a fancy sign or an ornate entrance. The Bali Café also makes the best lamb curry I’ve ever had and that’s exactly what I ordered and enjoyed whilst sitting in the sun at the big street side window.

After lunch, I caught the Metro bus up Cascade Road to the Cascade Brewery, the oldest in Australia. Cascade Draught is one of my favorite Aussie beers and I’d been meaning to take this tour for some time now but had just never gotten around to it on previous visits to Hobart. The tours are quite popular and reservations are essential. I booked rather late in the day and was fortunate that a couple had just cancelled for otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten on today.

Needless to say, the tour was as informative as it was fascinating. Over an hour and a half, we walked and climbed all over the grounds, from watching and learning about the production process to sampling the brews to visiting the on site museum and gardens.

I have nine days here in Tasmania and didn’t arrive with any particular plan. It’s been my experience in the past that when traveling, aside from set travel dates, plans made days in advance either fall apart or just get in the way of what you discover you really want to do at the time so I’ve learned that it’s best to just figure it out as I go. I’m very familiar with Tasmania, it’s destinations and attractions. Some I’ll revisit, others will be new to me. In a sense, they’re all like ingredients and spices in my kitchen cabinet. I’m confident enough as a cook/traveler that I can work with them all and whip up a pretty tasty little visit.

All of Tasmania is beautiful! You won’t go wrong wherever you go. I hadn’t been down to Port Arthur and its famous and historic penal colony since 1984. Now seemed like a good time for a return visit. Bus travel around Tasmania is easy and relatively inexpensive. As a YHA member, I also qualified for a 20% discount off the cost of my ticket. I made arrangements to bus down there where I’d overnight, then check out the historic site in the morning and bus back up to Hobart and on to the coastal community of Triabunna later that afternoon.

Out of Hobart, many of the inter-city busses double as school busses on their late afternoon departures from the city. I arrived at the bus station to find about fifteen middle and high school aged kids awaiting transport home. They were all dressed in their school uniforms - the guys in basic slacks and oxford shirts and the girls in plaid skirts, green jackets and straw hats. A couple of the girls tossed a small football out on the sidewalk in front of the station. One threw overhand, the other underhand.

The bus driver, Des, was an older man who was well liked by the kids. There were only five of us non-students on board. As for riding on a bus with all the kids, they were chatty but not rambunctious and overall quite well behaved. The last three of them were dropped off way out at Eaglehawk Neck, about an hour and a half out of Hobart. That’s a long ride to get to and from school each day!

Tasmania and indeed most all of southern Australia has suffered through an extremely hot and dry summer. Bush fires ravaged not only forests but towns and suburbs as well. In one Canberra suburb, over 400 houses were lost to the fires. The past two weeks have been quite rainy however and the hills and valleys of the Tasmanian countryside glowed a beautiful bright green as if it were spring. Flowers had even sprung up. Even so, it was indeed Autumn and some of the trees were beginning to show their colors. In the late afternoon sunshine, against a cobalt blue sky, it was hard to imagine anyplace more deserving of the moniker “Heaven on Earth”.

The bus dropped me off right at the hostel. As I entered, I was greeted by the hostel manager, Carrie. Like many of the folks I’ve met in the Australian Hostel business, Carrie had a ready smile, a quick laugh and a friendly and welcoming demeanor. She also had a little black dog that was part Chihuahua, part Scottish terrier. What a magnificent creature! His name was Okie and he danced around at my feet begging attention. In this regard, I am a dog’s best friend and I briefly introduced ol’ Okie to hitherto unexplored realms of canine ecstasy. A cranium rub, sternum stroke and nasal massage were followed up by an extended behind the ear scratch and base of the tail rub.

The Port Arthur Youth Hostel is in a beautiful wooden house with a nice veranda and garden out front. It was built in 1890 and originally served as a guest house for visitors to the historic site. Over the years, it unfortunately fell into considerable disrepair and was condemned and scheduled for demolition in 1975. Thankfully, the Australian Youth Hostel Association purchased the building through a grant and did a beautiful job of restoring it.

It was a quiet night at the hostel – tourist season is pretty much over by the end of March down here – and I had the eight bed boy’s dorm to myself. Since I hadn’t gotten around to buying any groceries yet, I walked over to the old Port Arthur Motor Inn for dinner and a beer. I’ve allotted myself $30.00 per day spending money and so far have had little difficulty in staying within budget. For $10.00US I got a delicious lamb sandwich with chips (fries) and a pint of Cascade Draught. It was also a quiet night in the hotel pub – just me, the bartender and one other guy chain smoking cigarettes and reading a paper.

Later, I headed back to the hostel where I had a nice evening chatting with Nigel and Margaret (“Call me Maggie!”), and their two girls Claire and Helen. They’d just come from that evening’s Ghost Tour through the prison ruins, an excursion from which Claire was still recovering even though she’d cut out early. They lived in South Australia and this was their first trip down to Tasmania. Nigel pointed out that many Aussies were a bit reticent to travel overseas just now, especially to such formerly popular hotspots at Bali and New Caledonia. Tasmania had always been nearby but because it was in their backyard, it had perhaps been taken for granted. More to the point, it was perceived as a safe and affordable destination. Needless to say, they were thoroughly enjoying their trip and wondering why they hadn’t come sooner.

The next morning, after a hot shower and a good hot breakfast buffet at the Motor Inn, I purchased entry to the historic site and headed down to the ruins.

Port Arthur was established as a penal colony back in the 1830s. The prison and surrounding support buildings, including a magnificent stone church, were built with convict labor. Using local stones and woods, the crew of old did an admirable job and through the 1840s, the prison community was practically self sufficient, producing timber, ships, clothing, and furniture along with growing its own vegetables. During this time, its harbor was one of the busiest in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the 1850s and 60s, Britain slowed down and finally ceased its convict transportation system. Port Arthur was finally closed in 1877. Most of the buildings were stripped of usable items like doors and window glass. Some were even dismantled and the stones taken to Hobart to build new homes and buildings. In 1895 a bush fire came through and burnt much of the settlement. In 1897, another bush fire burnt even more, including the main prisoner’s quarters, the largest of the buildings. Port Arthur was eventually declared an historic site and although today most of the original settlement is ruins, a reconstruction effort has restored much of the main prison, the guards tower a few other support buildings.

As prisons go, it’s hard to imagine a more beautiful setting for one. The community is nestled along the shores of Maingon Bay and sets amongst rolling hills and lush eucalyptus forests. The view out the prison windows is truly stunning and were I a prisoner gazing out upon such a view, I’d be sorely lamenting my lost freedom.

My bus back to Hobart left at 1:00pm and once again, my driver was Des. I had a chance to chat with him on the nearly empty bus back up to Hobart and learned that he’d been driving busses between Hobart and Port Arthur for twenty one years. He lived in Port Arthur and his usual work day started with a 6:00am run up to Hobart, returning to Port Arthur at 10:00am, then back to Hobart at 1:00pm and finally back to Port Arthur at 4:00pm. By the time he’d get home, it would be 7:00pm. Total mileage for the day: 260 over winding and hilly roads.

With an hour and a half layover in Hobart, I wandered down Elizabeth Street in search of food. Finding food is never a problem in any downtown Australian city. Take Away shops, selling meat pies, sausage rolls, sandwiches, chips, fried stuff and toasted sandwiches are a dime a dozen. It’s not uncommon to see two, sometimes even three of these on a single block and even though each of these shops are privately owned, they all seem to sell exactly the same things! After grabbing a copy of The Australian at a New Agency, I found a corner Take Away shop with big windows affording a nice view of the street. I ordered a toasted sandwich and coffee.

My bus trip up to the tiny seaside enclave of Triabunna was once again part school bus and, after dropping off most of the kids, I too was finally dropped off at the Shell Roadhouse, out on the edge of town. I’d called in a reservation to the hostel in advance and soon, a battered Ford Falcon station wagon eased into the parking lot. The driver, Fran, was the better half of the colorful couple that runs this hostel. Her husband Don is a large, gregarious man with long bushy black hair and an equally bushy black beard. Between them both, they run a warm and friendly place that is one of my all time favorite hostels.

Fran remembered me from my visit last year and I got a big hug from her before throwing my big backpack atop some old tires in the back of the wagon. The hostel itself is an old country house with a couple of out buildings for visitors. Don and Fran have a separate house and as we pulled off the gravel road and parked the driveway, I could hear Led Zeppelin blasting Don into euphoria. The dogs, Jack and Mickey, trotted out to great us. Jack lives to chase sticks and balls while 14 year old Mickey, some kind of sheep dog mix, is known as “The Mobile Rug”. I complimented the animal on its fine pelt and, after signing in, purchased some beers and bread from Fran before heading off to my room out behind the big house. The hostel offered both dormitory and single accommodations and as a single room cost only $18.00 (12.00 USD) as opposed to $14.00 AUD for the dorm, I of course opted for the single. The single rooms were housed in a pre-fab unit apart from the main accommodations. The rooms were quite basic – a bed, a closet, a desk and a window. That’s it. The shower and bathrooms were in the main building, which aside from the rooms also sported a nice commons room with a radio and a fireplace (Thankfully no TV) and a big kitchen. There were about a dozen other hostelers booked in, including four bicyclists. The temperatures were pleasant and a few of us hung out on the porch drinking beers and trading stories. I had an interesting chat with a couple guys from Germany who had traveled down through South America before coming across to Australia via Easter Island, Tahiti and New Zealand. I did that trip myself back in ’95. They were eventually headed north to Thailand and Nepal before returning to Germany in late August. Later in the evening, Fran came out and delivered a jar of freshly baked oatmeal cookies while Don regaled us with stories of his recently misspent adulthood. It was a nice evening.

Whether you like it or not, the morning wake up call starts about 6:00am with a cacophony of rooster and sheep calls. The roosters of course offer the most strident calls, but the sheep give it a pretty good go as well. Regardless, I was up and at ‘em by 7:30am.

Triabunna is the gateway to Maria Island National Park. Like Port Arthur, Maria Island is a former penal colony. It is a beautiful and mountainous island that offers not only the history if its convict past but also some great hikes along its beaches or up into its mountains. Although a ferry will take you from the Triabunna wharf to the island, the best way to experience it is with East Coast Eco Tours. Don had informed us the night before that if we could get at least five people together, we could have a great day checking out Maria Island as well as Seal Island and save a little money in the process. Seven of us signed up.

The owner/operator of East Coast Eco Tours is an amiable character named Brian Hawkins who moved down to Tasmania some twenty years earlier, got involved in the local fishing and lobstering industry, then built his own tour boat and now takes people out to and around Maria Island. The boat was fairly basic but comfortable enough with nine seats sheltered under a metal roof with plastic roll down side walls if it rained, which it did for a spell.

We could smell Seal Rock long before we got close enough to see the animals for which it’s named. It’s appropriately named however as it is home to hundreds of seals! While many of them barked and scattered at our approach, a few of the more curious ones swam out near the boat.

From Seal Rock, we headed straight over to Maria Island. What made this part of the journey so entertaining was our occasional escort of porpoises. I’d seen them before from larger craft while in Hawaii and Florida but it was neat to be practically at water level with the porpoises leaping out of the water only five feet way along side us.

At Maria Island, Rod took us into some beautiful sheltered coves and showed us the painted cliffs, all things we’d never have seen had we taken the ferry across. We spent a good two hours wandering around the old prison area and along the coastal trails. I even saw a fairy penguin squeezed in amongst some big rocks on the shore.

Because it was raining and looked like it would continue to rain (It didn’t) when we started out, I didn’t bring my camera. However, Brian’s web site has some fine shots of Maria Island and Seal Rock.

Maria Island Boat Trip Photos

By the time we got back to Triabunna, it was about 3:00pm and while some of our crew caught a ride back to the hostel with Rod, I and three others headed into “town”, eventually settling on stools at the Triabunna Hotel pub, the only one in Triabunna. The beer was good, the conversation flowed and before we knew it, it was dark and time to head home. A nice day in Triabunna.

After breakfast, I bid my fellow hostellers goodbye and got a ride out to the highway with Fran. I could have taken the bus but if you want to go up the coast, there’s only one highway so everyone would be going my way anyway. Might as well save a few bucks.

Now I realize that hitch hiking is not for everyone. Many people view it as potentially unsafe while others simply aren’t comfortable with sticking their thumb out and soliciting a ride. One thing worth considering, however, is that hitch hiking, like flying, generally only makes the news when something goes wrong. While there’s no denying that some people, especially women, have run into trouble either hitch hiking or picking up hitch hikers, the truth is that the vast majority of hitch hikers just want to get from point A to point B. Just as there’ll be no news report on any of the thousands of flights that take off and land safely each day, you’ll also hear nothing of the many people who hitch hiked or picked up a hitch hiker each day. A lot of really nice people have stopped to give me rides over the years. Some of them I’m still in touch with.

I’ve been hitch hiking around the country since I was sixteen years old and I reckon I’ve perfected it to an art form, quite literally so in one respect. It starts with appearance. The idea is to present an image that’s acceptable and non-threatening to drivers, not a difficult thing to do if indeed you embody these qualities. I dress in clean clothes and I look drivers in the eye when they approach. Even facial expression comes into play. Open expression, slightly raised eyebrows. “Goin’ my way…?”

I also use a sign. I do this for two reasons. One, it attracts attention. Most people are naturally curious and even if they aren’t initially planning to stop, many of them are still wondering “Where’s he going?” Throughout, their brains are processing all this information from appearance to demeanor to destination and it generally isn’t long before one plus two plus three adds up to six and I’ve got a ride. The other reason I use signs is to give me something to do during those times when there are no cars approaching. I always carry alot of colored pens with me and the longer I’m out there, the more colorful and ornate my signs become. More than a few of them still hang in hostels, bars and friends houses around the Western US. Occasionally, if I’ve been out there long enough, I start really getting into the artwork and it’s a bit of a disappointment when a car finally does stop! Still, I remember one couple who gave me a ride as saying they decided to stop because anyone who’d make a sign that nice couldn’t be all that bad. Indeed. Yet another reason to make those signs nice. Positive reinforcement.

Finally, I make sure I’m in a spot where I’m easily seen and where people have a chance to safely stop off the road. Together, all of these things combine to give me the best possible chance of getting a ride sooner rather than later.

So it was that after only about twenty minutes, during which I’d managed to create only a basic sign, I got my first ride up to Swansea, a pretty seaside resort just 70k up the road. The fellow who picked me up ran a nursery just south of Triabunna and was just delivering a couple of saplings up to Swansea. There’s a hostel in Swansea that I stayed in last year but unfortunately it’s operated on only a seasonal basis and had just closed so the next one up the road was in St. Helens, about 100 km. further along. Thankfully my ride, knowing I was headed for St. Helens, dropped me off on the far side of town and I was soon on my way to Bicheno with Pete, a Hobart bricklayer heading north to visit the folks over the Easter holiday. One more ride delivered me right to the doorstep of the hostel, courtesy of Simon and Jana, who were actually going to Scamander but decided to drive me on into St. Helens as it was only about 10 minutes farther up the road. How’s that for Tasmanian hospitality?!

This was a good day of hitching. Believe me, it isn’t always so easy. I’ve spent hours and hours awaiting rides along the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island or even at US 101 and State Street in Santa Barbara when I shared a long grassy strip with about seven other hitch hikers. You just never know, but my approach and experience has generally served me well and I’m never worried nor expecting to be waiting too very long for a ride.

St. Helens is a pretty seaside resort town up on the northeast corner of Tasmania. There are some beautiful beaches and bays nearby and the town itself offers a variety of motels, shops and activities. The hostel is located just a couple of blocks off the downtown and as the office didn’t open until 5:00pm, I dropped my pack in the commons room and headed into town for a late lunch.

While there are plenty of excellent restaurants in Australia, in the smaller towns one tends to find a profusion of basic cafes and take away shops. These places are nothing to write home about, usually offering a variety of fried things, especially French fries, meat pies, pasties and quiches, along with toasted and cold sandwiches and rolls. If you want a little more nutritious luncheon, go to a pub that serves a good counter meal. Usually the roast of the day comes with a load of vegetables and is an excellent deal, costing about $6-7.00 USD. Add a pint of ale and you’ve covered most all of the important food groups for your nutritional needs. Unfortunately, the main St. Helens Hotel wasn’t offering counter meals for some reason but just up the street was an excellent little curry shop called The Wok Stop. They offered a nice variety of meat or vegetable curries and I had the lentil and spinach curry served over rice with yogurt and cilantro. Delicious!

Later that afternoon I wandered back to the hostel and checked in with the hosts, Eamonn and Joanne. I’d guess they were in their mid forties, with two kids just old enough to have moved out of the house and on to university. Eamonn had worked most of his life in forestry and had the forearms to prove it. Joanne had been and was planning to continue being a school teacher. She was also an excellent piano player in the George Winston/Liz Story mold. Amazingly good, really. They had just moved down to St. Helens from northeastern Tasmania and taken over the operation of this hostel about a month ago. From all indications this would be to everyone’s benefit. At some hostels, the only time you see the folks who run the place is when you check in. Not here. Eamonn and Joanne used the hostel kitchen as their own and in so doing mixed with us hostelers on a regular basis. Like Fran down at the Triabunna Hostel, Joanne also baked cookies for the guests every night. Hers were even better though – rich chocolate peanut cookies that went great with coffee in the morning.

My stay in St. Helens just happened to coincide with the Easter holiday. Lots of people were in town for the weekend and the weather was beautiful all week long – sunny with high temperatures in the low 70s. There was a big pre-Easter celebration on Saturday night and the main street through town was closed off for the celebrations. A couple of the pubs had bands and lots of merchants had stuff for sale out on the sidewalks. There was a costume contest for the kids and capping it all off was – that’s right – The Crab Race. Entrants had until 8:00pm to go and get themselves a crab. The contestants were tossed into a large bucket and a large circle of about forty feet in diameter was outlined in the street. At the stroke of 9-ish, the bucket was emptied in the middle of the circle and the winner was the crab that made it to the perimeter the fastest. Truth be told, the race itself was rather anti-climactic. Most of the crabs seemed more than a bit disoriented and just lay there in a pile. Two or three of them though got right after it and the winner skittered across the line in about five seconds. No prize was offered short of that visceral satisfaction one gets in knowing that they’re the proud owner of the fastest crab in town.

To make a long story shorter, I was going to stay only a couple of days but I found life in the town of St. Helens and the hostel itself so much to my liking that I ended up staying four days. I would have stayed longer, too, but I had a plane to catch. Such is the story of this Trip Report!

Tuesday morning, I joined another hosteller, Ruth from England, and together we caught the Australian Post mail van up to the tiny town of Winnaleah. Ruth had been on the road for five months so far and wouldn’t be returning to England until September. She too wanted to be a school teacher but in the meantime her most recent jobs had been working in a factory as well as helping to teach martial arts to people of all ages. She was about five months from earning her black belt in a discipline I can neither spell nor pronunciate. Needless to say, I was on my best behavior.

Riding in the mail van meant sitting in the back amongst the packages. We had seats however and the van made all the stops on the way to Winnaleah, going up and back various side roads as well as into and out of many drive ways. In America your mailbox must be in an accessible place along the main roadway. In Tasmania, they were more than happy to drive up one’s driveway and deposit the mail in a box closer to the house. I think what I’ll remember most about my ride on the Mail Van was its route through some of the most scenic countryside in all of creation. Absolutely gorgeous!

In Winnaleah, Ruth was met by a lady who runs a farm hostel a few kilometers out of town. We said our goodbuys, exchanged hugs and addresses and then she grabbed my wrist and flipped me over her back onto – just kidding – actually, I promised to send her one of my famous postcards which she’d seen me creating in the hostel.

Red Line Coaches ran a connecting service down to Launceston that left in a little over an hour so I wandered into the town hotel, took a seat at the bar and ordered up a beer. There are two breweries in Tasmania, Boag’s and Cascade. Boag’s is brewed up in Launceston while Cascade is brewed down in Hobart. Truth be known, I’m partial to Cascade, but I’ve found some Tasmanians, particularly in rural areas, are fiercely loyal to their local grog and so, not wanting to ruffle any feathers, I went with a handle of Boag’s Draught. When I was first down in Tasmania back in 1984, you couldn’t get Boag’s in southern Tasmania nor Cascade up in the north. In fact, I spent a night camped in a caravan park outside Bronte Park, located in the geographical center of Tasmania, and the pub there claimed to be the only pub on the island serving both beers.

Never one to pass on a good counter meal, I also ordered the roast of the day and got a big plate of lamb chops with a pile of potatoes, broccoli, carrots and squash for only $7.00 USD. Such a deal!

I chatted for a bit with the bartender and the one patron in the bar, Willie, a local dairy farmer. Two questions came up that I’ve been asked by almost every non-hostel working Tasmanian I’ve met this trip. The questions are: “So, are you over here on holiday, then?” and “What do you think of Tasmania?” What surprises me about the first question is that I’m hauling around a big backpack and don’t have that businessman look about me. Of course I’m over here on vacation! As to the second question, well, I love Tasmania but the question strikes me as being a bit like Miss America asking “Do you think I’m pretty?” As such, I tend to downplay my answer a bit, at least initially. “It’s OK, I guess.” I reply in as nonchalant a fashion as I can muster. Later, I’ll embellish my answer a bit more and everyone goes away happy.

The bus down to Launceston also turned out to be a van and the trip got off to a painful start when the driver shut his finger in the sliding door. After some histrionics and mild swearing, he got himself under control and off we went. A quick stop was made down n Derby at the general store where he procured a band aid and some TLC from the lady running the place. I was the only passenger out of Winnaleah but by the time we reached Launceston, we were two seats shy of full.

The place to stay in Launceston is the AYH affiliated Metro Backpackers. As big city hostels go, this place is clean, comfortable, quiet at night and well run. The receptionist, Chris, remembered me from last year’s visits. He even remembered the mini-Mileage Run I booked on their computer – one ANC-EWR r/t at $236.00 base and one EWR-LAS r/t at $138.00 base fare. I was pretty amazed considering how many hostelers have passed through the Met in the last year.

I was assigned to Room B which offered a big window and a nice view of Brisbane Street below. After about 10pm, traffic on the street is minimal and that open window sure is nice for keeping the place cool at night. I threw my pack on the bed and headed down to my favorite Launceston pub and eatery, the Royal Oaks. It’s conveniently located right next door to the hostel, offers an extensive menu of delicious and affordable food, and has two great pubs! YHA members even get a 20% discount on their food and their first beer free if they order a meal. So it is that for $9.60 AUD or about $6.00 USD I got a handle of Cascade Draught and a nice dinner of garlic prawns over rice with veggies. I spent my last night in Tasmania hangin’ with the eclectic mix of locals and non locals at the Royal Oaks pub. Best backpacker deal in Launceston, possibly Australia!

Seat 2A

PART 5: ADELAIDE and FIRST CLASS MEL-SIN-LHR
MILE 47080 - 58760
By Air: 11170 Miles
By Rail: 510 Miles

Originally, I had wanted to depart Tasmania out of Hobart. Beginning back in January, I’d been watching the Qantas and Travelocity sites waiting to see if the advertised $120.00 USD roundtrip fare might go down. Unfortunately, I was unaware that the Easter holiday fell during the same period that I was traveling both to and from Tasmania and by the time I finally gave up and decided to just pay the price and get the reservation taken care of, holiday travelers had grabbed up all those $120.00 r/t seats. I ended up buying a one way early morning special down to Hobart on Qantas for about $70.00 USD but on my return date of April 23rd, I could find nothing affordable out of either Hobart or Launceston. Time to widen the search.

Ah Ha! From Devonport, a northern coastal city better known for its ferry service to the mainland, I found a $60.00 USD midday departure on Regional Express Airlines, the carrier formerly known as Kendell Airlines. This was great for not only did I score a good deal but I’d also get to add another airline to my collection of airlines flown, now totaling 106.


23 April
DPO-MEL Regional Express 584 Economy Class
SAAB 340 VH-KDI Seat 10C
100p – 215p Flight time: 1:04

The bus from Launceston pulled into Devonport at 11:50am. When I’d booked this flight a month ago, the departure time was listed as 1:45pm. As such, I decided to wander around Devonport a bit before grabbing a taxi out to the airport. Along the way, I stopped into an internet cafe and checked out the Regional Express website, mainly to see if the plane were on time. Well, imagine my surprise to discover that the plane was now scheduled to depart at 1:00pm, not 1:45. I looked at my watch. 12:20pm. Big time adrenaline rush! I hurried back to the bus terminal, reclaimed my pack and called a taxi. Thankfully, the taxi arrived within about two minutes and the airport was only about 6 miles out of town. I was deposited at the modest terminal building at 12:40pm and was happy to see a small line of passengers still checking in. In fact, another four people arrived after me and joined the line. In America we’d have been denied boarding and would likely be paying surcharges to get on the next available flight. In Devonport this day, we were checked in and wished a pleasant flight.

Despite the inbound flight’s having arrived on time at 12:40pm from Melbourne, we didn’t begin boarding until 1:10pm. The aircraft, a SAAB 340, still bore the livery of its predecessor, Kendell Airlines. Actually, since Kendell used to handle regional services for Ansett, the aircraft bore the Ansett livery and Kendell titles. I took a meaningless snapshot and headed for the gate. Interestingly, there was no security. No X-Ray, no metal detectors, nothing. A uniformed though unarmed airport security officer stood by the door as we boarded however. As I entered the aircraft, I was surprised to see that each of the seats bore lambs wool seat covers. The aircraft was outfitted with 34 of these seats and each of them was full for this afternoon departure up to Melbourne.

Disciples of exacting detail will be pleased to know that at exactly 1:32pm, the pilot pushed the throttle forward and delivered a surge of fuel to his twin General Electric CT-7 turboprops. Both engines combined to deliver the power of 3,470 horses and after a 23-second gallop down the runway, we lifted into the clear Tasmanian sky. Whoa, Nellie!

Flight time was an hour up to Melbourne and a snack and beverages would be offered. There was only one flight attendant, an attractive gal dressed in black jeans and a blue button down REX shirt. She did a great job of getting all 34 of us fed and watered. The snack consisted of a chicken salad sandwich on a little hoagie roll, a Kit Kat bar and a container of water. Coffee and tea followed, though alcohol was available for those so inclined. Just prior to landing, a basket of mints was passed around. This would have been considered quite a nice service for a one-hour flight based upon America’s standards of ten years ago. By current Aussie standards, it seems par for the course. Here’s a big Good On Ya! to Qantas and REX. Let’s hope this style of service can continue a while longer!

I had an almost four hour layover at Melbourne. Unfortunately, my various US airline lounge memberships are of no use down here but I did find a Hudson’s Coffee kiosk that had an open table with a wall socket nearby, so I whiled away the hours over coffee and a big cookie while bringing this report up to date.


23 April
MEL-ADL Virgin Blue 185 Economy Class
737-7Q8 VH-VBB “Barossa Babe” Seat 12C
650p – 740p Flight time: :56

Finally, Virgin Blue have moved into Ansett’s old terminal. Check-in proceeded smoothly and I headed directly down to the gate to get a look at tonight’s aircraft, a 737-700, hopefully with winglets! Alas, the plane at the gate bore no winglets but under the cockpit was emblazoned an Akubra wearing busty blond trailing the Aussie flag. Her name made for a nice consolation prize, however. Tonight’s plane was dubbed the “Barossa Babe”, certainly an appropriate name for an Adelaide bound aircraft!

Despite the color blue in its title, Virgin Blue’s aircraft are painted predominantly red with a tail logo similar to the mainline fleet out of London. Inside the aircraft, the one class cabin sported dark blue leather seats and three lovely ladies to serve us. Given the name and the image of this airline, I can’t help but wonder if any guys work as FAs. No complaints with the ladies though – they did a fine job, even if it was somewhat less intensive in the service area than the more traditional airlines.

And what of Virgin Blue’s onboard service? It’s called you get what you pay for. In each seatback pocket is a menu detailing the food and beverage offerings. The following prices are in US Dollars. As meals go, you can purchase a cold breakfast (cereal and pastry) or a sandwich for $2.75. Wraps, which must be a bit larger, are also a wee bit dearer, coming in at $3.10. A can of coke will run you $1.25, a beer $3.10 and a cocktail $3.75. There are also a variety of snack items from chips to muffins to candy running anywhere from $1.25 to $2.25.

Souvenirs of your Virgin Blue flight are also available on each flight. These include items such as playing cards, lapel pins, a small daypack or a biography of Richard Branson. From my vantage point at exit row 12, the FAs didn’t sell much of anything in the way of food, drink or souvenirs. Maybe a dozen people seated forward of me bought anything at all and when it came to the souvenir cart, the FAs did pretty much a nonstop stroll through the first 12 rows. This may have been attributed to the time of day and the short length of flight, however.

We landed in Adelaide right on time and the luggage delivery was impressively expeditious. I had my pack within ten minutes of getting off the plane.
Overall, I think Virgin Blue offers a great product – one that quite possibly may represent the future of Australian domestic air transportation. For the time being, the fleet is young and modern, the employees are young and still excited to be working for a new airline, and the fares are probably the best Australia’s ever seen on average. My ticket cost me only $41.00 one way for the 400 mile flight between Melbourne and Adelaide. While Qantas may match this fare, their overhead and services will certainly impact their profit margin relative to that of Virgin Blue. The odds would suggest that within two or three years, their domestic Economy Class product will probably be a lot closer to that of Virgin Blue’s.


ADELAIDE

Wow! It’s hot in Adelaide! It was 20 degrees when we landed at 7:30pm compared to daytime highs in Tasmania of about 15. I caught the airport shuttle into town where the driver dropped me off right at the doorstep of the Adelaide Backpackers Inn. Across the street was a competing hostel and the driver warned me to be sure I went into the right hostel as the hostel employees tended to get a bit perturbed with errant entries. Hmm…

The night manager of my place was an elderly gent named Peter who was as a nice a person as you’d ever want to meet. It was hard to imagine him getting all that perturbed over anything, much less someone walking into the wrong hostel. Not that it would have mattered anyway, for tonight both hostels were completely booked.

After spending the past week in dormitory style accommodations, I’d purchased a single room ($25.00 USD) which consisted of a bed, a table and a dresser. The kitchen and lounge area were down the hall and a free, fix-yer-own breakfast of eggs, cereal and bread was available in the morning. As hostels go, this was a pretty good deal and everything would’ve been fine except for two problems. The building’s air conditioning had gone out earlier that afternoon and despite the cooler evening temperatures, the room was uncomfortably warm. Repairs could not be affected until morning. Worse, the walls were paper thin and I could clearly hear the folks in the lounge, the giggling gaggle of girls across the hall and the big guy snoring in the room next door. Arrrgh!

By 11:30pm, I’d made the decision to find a hotel room with guaranteed air conditioning and some peace and quiet. In the smaller Tasmanian hostels, neither of these problems were ever a concern and I’m sure that there were some quieter and cooler places in Adelaide as well but I knew that after this night, I deserved a treat. A coin operated internet kiosk was available in the lounge and I used it to book a room at the Parkside Motel, located just five blocks away. I’d done a search of discount hotel brokers and landed a room there for about $42.00 USD. Each room offered air conditioning, ensuite toilet and shower, coffee maker, a refrigerator and cable television. Satisfied, I headed back to my cubicle and was asleep by about 2:00am.

With only a day to spend in Adelaide, my original plan had been to take a day tour up to the Barossa Valley wineries. Years earlier, some friends and I had taken a tour of Washington’s Chateau St. Michele Winery but I didn’t have much appreciation for wines back then and remember admiring the beautiful grounds more so than any of the wines. Unfortunately, I woke up a bit late and by the time I’d gotten everything together and checked into the Parkside, it was 11:30am.

After enjoying a good half-hour of blissful air conditioning, I headed back outside and walked up Pulteney Street towards the downtown district. Armed with a complimentary Adelaide Visitor’s Guide, my plan was to get a bit of lunch, then check out the South Australian Museum. It was described as offering over 3000 items, including the largest Aboriginal cultural display in existence. It sounded like a good way to spend the afternoon and was probably air-conditioned to boot.

I like Adelaide. Years ago, it had a reputation amongst the backpacker set as a rather hot and boring place to go unless you were planning to retire. The Adelaide I strolled through had broad tree lined avenues and a multitude of parks, both large and small. I wandered down Angas Avenue past beautiful Victorian buildings and into an area offering all manner of restaurants and shops. I found a nice shady table at an outdoor cafe and had a decent Pad Thai for lunch. Afterwards, I headed back up Angas towards the museum.
In Victoria Square, I watched in amazement as a beautiful old trolley car eased to a stop and offloaded its passengers. When I say “old”, I don’t mean 1950s but rather 1929! These cars were beautifully maintained and fully functional antiques. I just had to take a ride on them! Wherever they went.

As I stepped aboard, I was impressed by the beautiful wooden interior and leather seats. What a magnificent way to get about the city. Outside, the driver and conductors were enjoying a smoke break to I got off and took a few pictures of the cars from outside. No announcement was made signaling departure. When the crew had finished their smokes, they chatted for a moment, looked at their watches and headed back on board the train. I did too.

A conductor appeared at my seat and asked where I was going. Wherever this tram’s going, I replied. Roight. That’d be somewhere or another beach, he said. He had a broad accent and I couldn’t make out the name of our destination. Oh well. How long will it take to get there, I asked. Twenty-six minutes, he replied. That’ll be $3.20.

Our destination turned out to be the seaside resort of Glenelg, an attractive town with a beautiful beach and pier and a long avenue full of shops and enticing restaurants. Looking at Glenelg and its beach as we arrived, I knew I wanted to spend some time here. The South Australia Museum would have to be seen on another day. As for Glenelg’s history, it was the place where South Australia was first declared a British colony in 1836. My ticket was good for three hours and I used up most of it ambling along the beach front, then up and down the main street and its shops. I’m generally not much of a shopper, which is to say I only go to stores when I need something. Still, I found a nice used bookstore and later found a CD of one of my favorite Irish groups, The Fureys, that before today I’d only had on cassette. A cappuccino and a delicious chocolate-raspberry pastry at a little waterfront cafe closed out my visit to Glenelg, a place I’m quite certain I’ll return to someday.

By the time I’d arrived back in Adelaide it was near 6:30pm and I was ready for food and grog. Earlier in the day, I’d walked past the Duke of Aberdeen Hotel. This was an attractive building that began life in 1850 as the Devon Arms and is one of the oldest hotels in Adelaide. Although it was completely refurbished in the 1980s and renamed the Duke of Aberdeen Hotel, many of its interior furnishings date back to its early years. At street level is the Cooper’s Ale House. Cooper’s is a local brewery that prides itself on producing organically made, additive free beer. The pub looked like a great place to enjoy dinner and a couple of beers. The bar is beautifully constructed of Jarrah wood, a wonderful deep reddish-brown wood that lent class and warmth to the main barroom.

Here’s hoping that greggwiggins gets a chance to visit this fine ale house and sample its brews for they are certainly worthy of his skills as a free lance writer. I particularly liked the Pale Ale, quaffing a couple of nice cold pints with my dinner. I got back to the Parkside about 9:00pm, turned the air conditioner on full blast, dashed off a few postcards and enjoyed a restful night in my cool and quiet room.


25 April
Adelaide-Melbourne Great Southern Railways First Class
“The Overland” Car M Cabin 7
1010a-910p

Australia is a continent well suited to train travel. I say this not so much from an economic standpoint but rather from the perspective of comfort and convenience. Sure, one can jet about the continent far more affordably these days than in years past, but if you prefer to remain earthbound, the prospect of driving across Australia’s vast desert expanses pales in comparison to relaxing aboard the Ghan or the Indian Pacific as you cross the Nullabor or the Great Sandy Desert. This is especially true now that Great Southern Railways will take your car along for the ride for only $99.00 AUD more!

Over the years, I’ve ridden a few trains in Australia, including the Indian Pacific between Sydney and Perth and the Sunlander between Brisbane and Cairns. This would be my first journey aboard the Overland and given the historic nature of this train, I decided to shell out $90.00AUD extra and make the trip in First Class.

The Overland operated the first inter-capital rail service in Australia. It has been taking passengers by rail between Melbourne and Adelaide continually since 1887 and so far as I know is the oldest continually operating train in Australia. It was originally known as The Intercolonial Express, then the Melbourne Express, and finally settled on the Overland in 1936.

Perhaps even more remarkable, given Australian railroad history, is that the Overland also operated the first service between States without a break of gauge. Early on in Australian railroad history, each state determined its own unique track gauge. Needless to say, this made interstate rail commerce a difficult and time consuming operation. When opened in 1917, the Trans-Australian Railway offered coast to coast passenger services via Melbourne, and included about six train changes. It wasn’t until the completion of the east-west standard gauge project in 1970 that one could ride a single train from Sydney to Perth. The new direct service became known as the Indian Pacific.

In the late 1990s, the Overland was taken over by Great Southern Railways and a 1.1 million dollar improvement project was undertaken. Over time, the Overland’s rolling stock had deteriorated to the point where most of the sleeping cars could not be used and even coach passengers were reluctant to ride the train. The cars were repaired, refurbished and their exteriors redone in an all new stainless steel livery. A lounge car was also added for sleeping car passengers.

Today, the Overland offers a comfortable and thankfully air conditioned service between Adelaide and Melbourne. Travelers can choose between Gold Kangaroo First Class and Red Kangaroo Economy Class services for the eleven-hour, five hundred-mile journey. My First Class ticket cost me $92.50 USD. Here’s the lowdown on the First Class amenities:

Gold Kangaroo Service

 Ensuite twin or single berths with lounge seating converting to sleeper accommodation at night.
 Cabins supplied with fresh sheets, pillows, doonas and fluffy towels.
 Champagne or orange juice welcome.
 Complimentary 2 course lunch and light dinner (daylight service) or breakfast (overnight service) in the Gold Kangaroo Lounge.
 Additional meals, snacks and beverages available for purchase from the Lounge. Video entertainment.
 Complimentary tea and coffee available 24 hours a day.
 Comfort controlled air conditioning.
 Complimentary on-board magazine.


The airport shuttle makes a stop at the Interstate Train Station on its way back out to the airport. The route is most circuitous however and if you’re at all in a hurry, I’d recommend a taxi. One benefit to riding the airport shuttle today was that we got to drive up King William Street as Adelaide was preparing for its big Anzac Day parade. Anzac Day is like our Veteran’s Day in the US and I was happy to see an absolutely huge turnout as people had situated themselves over a good mile long portion of the parade route. I spotted lots of older men, veterans of WWII and the Korean War, dressed in their old military uniforms, most of which appeared to still fit! After all the recent protests, it really was nice to see such a positive turnout in support of these folks who’d served in past conflicts. I wished I could have stayed another day.

There are two train stations serving Adelaide – one for local trains out to the suburbs and one for interstate departures. As we approached the downtown train station that serves the local trains, my eyes widened in anticipation and awe. What a magnificent building! It really was quite grand – the kind of place from which great train journeys begin. Alas, the driver informed me that this was actually the station from which commuter train journeys began. In fact, he continued, the main function of this great building now was as Adelaide’s casino. Casino! Yes, he said – that’s what funded much of the restoration to the building. He also claimed it was every bit as ornate inside as it was grand outside and I remember thinking that it wasn’t that many years ago that our grandest and most ornate buildings used to be cathedrals, courthouses and railroad stations. Now, more than a few of the latest ones are casinos. Hmmm…

The interstate train station, located in the suburb of Keswick, is quite modest by comparison. A low one story structure, I would describe it as architecturally bland but otherwise quite functional. This morning it was quite busy with both the eastbound Indian Pacific and the Overland departing within an hour of each other. The first thing I saw as I entered the building was the end of the Economy Class Baggage Check line. Thankfully, First Class had a separate line that was much smaller. As in two people. An announcement was made that the Overland would be running just a bit late but the agent making the announcement made it sound as if it would only be off by perhaps a half hour so I wasn’t too concerned.

I purchased a copy of the morning Australian (one of the few decent news sources in Australia. Quite a few of the papers are Fleet Street style tabloids offering little of real substance. In the US, you’d compare them to papers like the New York Post or Newsday.

The station was fairly basic inside. There were no lounge facilities for First Class travelers, but there was a fast food operation called The Ghan Grill and of course a gift shop. I considered purchasing a T-Shirt but the price was $30.00 AUD so I went over to the post card rack where some very attractive cards showing Australian trains were displayed. At $1.50 each however, their allure quickly vanished! I wandered over to the Ghan Grill and bought a reasonably priced coffee instead. I’d wanted to make a couple of phone calls but the only phone I saw had a waiting line. Ah well, Victoria Station it ain’t but what this station lacked in amenities, it made up for in setting, surrounded by lots of shady trees and gently rolling hills. I went out to Platform 1 and watched as the Indian Pacific prepared for its departure. I peered in through a window and took a look at the lounge and dining cars. Nice. Very nice. Much nicer than when I rode this train back in 1988. It had obviously been extensively refurbished. It is also very much more expensive now than when I rode it back in ’88. The current one way fare for a roomette is $1560.00 AUD or about $990.00 USD.

Over on Platform 2, the crews were hard at work getting the Overland prepared for its departure to Melbourne. Through the windows I could see workers cleaning and making up the bedrooms while up in the dining car and lounge, food and provisions were being loaded. Outside the car, four men were hard at work removing graffiti that some loser had sprayed along the stainless steel finish. Two cars down, a team of three women worked to clean each of the train’s windows. One would run a soapy sponge over the window, the next would squeegee it and the last one would wipe up any wet spots. Throughout this, they laughed and joked with one another while in the background a PA announcement implored people to please not attempt to board the train while it was being cleaned. An elderly couple immediately gathered their baggage and headed towards the train. All they’d heard was the word Board.

Boarding was finally announced at 10:50am, forty minutes after our scheduled departure. My car was named “Tantini”, an aboriginal word that means Sleeping”. Forty minutes later, at 11:32am, we pulled out of the station. I was wide awake!

My First Class accommodations were in what’s called a roomette. These are smaller than a compartment and well suited for single travelers. During the day they offer a wide (non-reclining) seat and a big window. At night, a full sized bed folds down out of the wall. Other amenities included a fold out wash stand with hot and cold water, a fold out toilet, a vanity cabinet for toiletries, medicines and what not, a closet for coats and jackets and a compartment for shoes. In the old days, gentlemen could deposit their shoes in this compartment prior to retiring for the night and in the morning they’d find them nicely shined. Shower facilities were just down the hall at the end of the car. What I found interesting about the toilet facilities was that they’d not been modified to prevent liquid and solid waste from being deposited right along the railbed. A sign warned passengers not to use the toilets while the train was standing in the station.

The First Class lounge car was a real beauty. Named the “Kookabura Club Car”, it sported beautiful wooden walls and doors and was divided into small sections made up of wrap around couches and cocktail tables. In the middle of the car was a glass walled in area for smokers. One group of four puffed, drank and chortled their way through all but the meals while ensconced in this little room. Amazing! They looked to be having a marvelous time though and we waved to each other as I’d walk by. It would have been fun to join them if I still smoked but in that small room with all that smoke, I don’t believe I would have had to even light up to get my nicotine fix. As well, I would have smelled of smoke for days afterwards.

Lunch and dinner are included in the fare for First Class passengers. The luncheon menu is set – there are no choices. As well, there’s only one seating. If you want to eat, you’d best be headed for the dining cars when the call is made at 12:30pm. I was one of the last people to arrive in the diner and was led to the second car. There were plenty of open tables and I was invited to sit wherever I liked. By contrast, Amtrak and Via Rail find you a seat and as a single traveler, you’ll very rarely eat alone. Today however, two of the four seat tables were filled with couples who looked to be enjoying their own company so I took a table to myself and accepted a glass of “champagne” from my waiter. It’s a good thing there were no French Ministry of Wine officials onboard, for this “champagne” was a mediocre sparking wine at best. To even call it “champagne” was akin to blasphemy and in fact wrong as it was not grown in the Champagne district of France. It was sweet, bubbly and tasty in a wine cooler kind of way. Alas, I’m not a wine cooler kind of guy.

Luncheon was a grilled chicken breast with a baked ham and leek risotto. This was accompanied by a julienned vegetable salad served with aioli mayonnaise. Dessert was described as a seasonal fruit tart accompanied by a rosette of whipped cream. While the offerings were hardly gourmet, I thought the meal was pretty good.

The scenery between Adelaide and Melbourne is pretty though not spectacular. Leaving Adelaide, the train winds through the Adelaide Hills and crosses the Murray River right about lunchtime. After a brief stop in the town of Murray Bridge, the land flattens into sun baked savanna dotted with eucalyptus trees and bushes that made for pleasant viewing as I’d look up now and then from my reading, typing or conversation in the lounge. Over the eleven-hour trip, I did a bit of each.

Australia being the sporting nation that it is, occasional announcements were also made updating us on the score of the AFL’s Essendon – Collingwood contest. I also noticed that there was an audio system in my roomette offering three channels of entertainment but even at maximum volume the sound was so low I couldn’t even make out what kind of music it was.
Dinner was served at 6:30pm and this time a menu was presented. Here are the selections:

Penang Chicken Curry with Rice
Malaysian style curry with lime leaves, lemon grass, water chestnuts and coconut milk

Vegetarian Shanghai Noodles
Stir-fried Hokkien noodles with Asian greens and soy sauce


A glass of wine was offered with dinner, followed by tea or coffee afterwards. Dessert was a small chocolate mint, a la Alaska Airlines’ luncheon service. My chicken curry was mild but tasty enough. Unfortunately, the rice was a little under cooked.

After dinner I bought a beer and took a seat in the lounge. For a good fifteen minutes I was the only one in there save those people passing through on their way back to their sleeper cars. At the entrance to the lounge were four different signs warning against drinking too much and the railroad’s right and responsibility not to serve drunks. I asked one of the train attendants, Felicity, about this and she said it’s really more of a problem amongst the Economy Class crowd but the signs are posted in all lounge and dining cars regardless. I remember back in 1984 when I was riding the Sunlander through Queensland up to Cairns. The lounge car only served alcohol from 11:00am to 1:00pm and again from 4:00pm to 7:00pm. Most intriguing was a prominently posted sign declaring that there was to be no card playing during the hours when liquor was served. In Rockhampton, the railway station restaurant had to stop alcohol sales one hour before the train was due to arrive. Times have since changed in Queensland and the restrictions have been relaxed some. Even so, it would seem that Australia’s railroads and drinkers have had a tenuous relationship over the years.

We eased into Melbourne’s Spencer Street Station at 10:20pm, about an hour and a half late. I got a hearty thanks and so long from my car attendant, who I saw when I boarded, then didn’t see again until I detrained. It turns out they were short staffed in the Economy Class lounge and his services were needed more there. Fair enough, as we really wanted for nothing in my car, anyway.

Overall, I would describe my ride aboard the Overland as pleasant. Would I ride it again? For the experience? Nah. It won’t likely get any better the second time around. This is not a glamour train like the Ghan or the Indian Pacific, nor is it intended to be. It delivers a good, basic service between Adelaide and Melbourne, and for the price paid, I felt I got a good deal. My next big Australian train journey will likely be aboard the Ghan between Adelaide and Darwin. The new extension between Alice Springs and Darwin should be completed and operational early next year.

Thankfully, Melbourne’s Skybus Airport Shuttle departed directly from the train station for the 25-minute ride out to Tullamarine where the airport is located. My hotel for the night was the Formule1 Hotel, located just a five minute walk from Qantas’ domestic terminal. Once you exit baggage claim, there are plenty of signs indicating where the hotel is and how far you are from it.

Formule1 is a discount hotel chain owned by Accor Hotels, the same people who also own America’s Motel 6. Unlike Motel 6, most of these Formule1 hotels look to be Kit Hotels, as in the entire building is modular and some assembly rather than construction was required to get the hotel up and running. The rooms are compact and efficient. Mine featured a queen-sized bed with a single bed bunked above it. Also included were a well lit desk area, a quiet and very cool air conditioner, and a modular bathroom and shower unit tucked away into a corner. In the morning, a full continental breakfast was available in the lobby for only $6.00 AUD. If you’re arriving late or making an overnight connection at MEL and you don’t require or demand luxurious accommodations and a pretentious lobby, check out the Formule1. I’m sure they’ll leave the light on for you.

APRIL 26
This day has come all too soon. In the planning stages of this trip, I figured that having been to Australia and in particular Tasmania so many times before, twelve days would be sufficient for this visit. I was wrong. Like running across a good friend whom you haven’t seen in years while you’re both going elsewhere in a crowded airport, I found that nine days just wasn’t sufficient to properly reacquaint myself with Tasmania, pick up its rhythms and really become one with it again. Adelaide definitely demands a return visit of at least a week. As much as I look forward to reclaiming my suite for another twenty hours in BA’s fabulous First Class, I could easily do another month down here. Ah well, as I mentioned at the beginning of this report, this trip is more about going there than being there and I’ve got Finland, Russia and Estonia to look forward to so it’s not like I’m going back home to my factory job in Oklahoma. Still, I’ll keep this experience in mind when planning future excursions.

After a hot shower, a warm breakfast sandwich at the nearby McDonalds and a cool session in front of the air conditioner, I met up with fellow FTer rot8. In the finest traditions of true Aussie hospitality, Martin drove me into downtown Melbourne and gave me a brief walking tour of the Casino and Mall area across the Yarra River from the Central Business District. The last time I was in Melbourne, back in 1984, none of this was here. Melbourne’s a good looking city with a nice mix of classic and modern architecture. I particularly like cities with big rivers running through them and the Casino, shops and restaurants along the river were most attractively done indeed. We also had lunch and beers at a nice restaurant along the river walk before heading back to the airport. I enjoyed meeting Martin and I’ll look forward to when next our paths cross, hopefully at the MCG for a Collingwood game.


26 April
MEL-SIN British Airways 18 First Class
747-436 G-CIVD Seat 2A
415p-1015p Flight time: 7:03

Upon being dropped off at the airport, I cleaned up, changed clothes and presented myself at the First Class check in counter where I got my seat changed from 3A to 2A. By the time I’d cleared immigration and security, it was 3:20pm and I had very little time to get downstairs to the lounge pavilion and enjoy the pleasures of my membership, albeit temporary, in the Qantas Club.

The Melbourne Qantas Club is one of the finer First Class airline lounges that I have been in. It offers an excellent selection of food and beverages and I wasted no time in assembling a small plate of salmon, Caesar Salad, and sun dried tomatoes to go with an ice cold Boag’s Premium Lager. Later, I went over to the internet and transferred some articles about the Denver Bronco’s prospects in the upcoming draft to a floppy disc for reading later in the flight. I was just finishing up when the call came to board.

How many places have you been where upon entering you’re greeted with a flute of Krug and a plate of warmed mixed nuts? Welcome to 747 BA Place! Only five of us were sat up front for this flight up to Singapore and the flight attendants encouraged us to spread out. Very relaxed. Very comfortable. Would you care for some more champagne, perhaps? Oh, alright...

BA BAgs were distributed and you amenity kit fanatics will be thrilled to know that BA has introduced a new design for their bags. Gone are the compact zippered suitcase style bags, having been replaced by a large, fabric bag about 11x8x3Ѕ with an historic photo of a Shorts Flying Boat taking off along the front of the bag. BA’s really getting a lot of mileage from its photo archives with old pictures cropping up everywhere from the BAgs to inside the airplanes to airport lounges. I find them all quite fascinating, depicting a time when flight was still magical for most. As for the BAgs, there’ve been a few changes. Every passenger, regardless of gender, now receives the same BAg. The contents include socks and eyeshades, along with two pouches containing the following products:

Basics Pouch
Aroma Therapeutics Oxygen Mist
Carmex Lip Balm
Farmacia Natural Man Eye Gel
Aroma Therapeutics Sleep Enhancer
Teeth Pouch
Elgydium Toothpaste
Toothbrush
Farmacia Natural Mouthwash

The BAgs are presented with a small brochure that details all this. For additional items such as a shaving kit, face moisturizer or a fine wooden comb, just ask the crew.

It was a beautiful afternoon for flying and this particular segment between Melbourne and Singapore has become one of my favorite flights. Any of you who’ve read my FlyerTalk bio in Who We All Are may recall that my favorite inflight scenario is to be sitting in the nose of a 747, heading westbound into the sunset, whilst reclining with the “beverage of my choice” and awaiting a fine, seven course meal. BA 18 between Melbourne and Singapore delivers all of that with style and class that few can match.

As we climbed west-northwest to our assigned cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, I looked over the wine list and selected a glass of the Pinot Noir.

WINE LIST

Champagne
Krug Brut, Grande Cuvee

White Wines
Meursault, 2000, Louis Jadot
Chateau de Chantegrive, Cuvee Caroline, 2000, Graves Blanc
De Bortoli Yarra Valley Chardonnay, 1998

Red Wines
Chateau Desmirail, 1996, Grand Cru Classe Margaux
Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon, 1996
Frei Brothers Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, 2000

Dessert Wine
Miranda Golden Botrytis, 1995
De Bortoli Nobel One Botrytis Semillon, 1996

Port
Warre’s, 1986, Reserve Tawny Port


** ** **

Here now, are the dinner selections:

Melbourne to Singapore

DINNER

Appetizers
Prosciutto with celeriac remoulade and marinated figs
Char-grilled asparagus with warm Hollandaise sauce

Soup
Chicken Consommé

Salad
Mixed Seasonal Salad
Served with extra virgin olive oil, crиme fraiche with herbs or balsamic vinaigrette

Selection of warm breads

** ** **

MAIN COURSES

Loin of Lamb
Served with potato dauphinoise, roasted garlic and tarragon jus

Pan Fried Salmon
Presented with kiffler potatoes and braised baby leeks

Thai Green Chicken Curry
Served atop steamed jasmine rice

Vegetable and Walnuts Au Gratin
In a double cheese sauce


LIGHTER OPTIONS

Freshly Cooked Fusilli Pasta
Presented with your choice of sun dried tomato pesto or wild mushroom sauce. Served with freshly grated Grana Padano cheese

Cornish Pasties


** ** **

DESSERT

Warm Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart
Accompanied by Bailey’s Ice Cream

Peach and Raspberry Trifle
Presented with Sauternes jelly

Cheeseboard Selection
Capricorn, Mull of Kintyre, Gubbeen, Blue Wensleydale and Rustique Camembert Cheese

Fresh Fruit
Chocolates


** ** ** ** **

What a selection! What would YOU choose? I started with both the prosciutto and asparagus appetizers, both of which were delicious. The prosciutto in particular was an interesting presentation, not to mention combination with the celery and figs. We have chef Liam Tomlin to thank for this creation, which was as tasty as it was attractive. The Margaux made a nice accompaniment.

I had wanted to try out the consomme as it had been years since I’d eaten any but I was informed that unfortunately the FAs were unable to get the soup container open so I moved right along to my entrйe selection, the Loin of lamb. Wow! I have rarely seen such beautiful presentation of a dish, either on the ground or in the air. Four thick slices of lamb loin were presented atop the potatoes Dauphinoise and then surrounded by whole roasted garlic and onions, all of this accompanied by a tasty tarragon jus, then sprinkled with parsley. Unfortunately, the lamb didn’t quite live up to the presentation as it was a bit overdone. Still, overall I found the meal pretty good and when the FA came by to clear my table and offer dessert, I handed her a nearly clean plate.

Ah, dessert. My favorite desserts are cakes, especially multi-layered cakes with a thin layer of fruit compote amongst the cake and frostings. Tonight’s dessert however will be remembered as one of the most scrumptious and delicious desserts that I have ever eaten. The chocolate hazelnut tart was served on the hot side of warm and went perfectly with an accompanying scoop of cold Bailey’s ice cream and a cup of decaf cappuccino.

After dinner, there were still four and a half hours left in the flight, during one of the nicest times of day to be winging about above our fair planet. I decided to take in a double feature for my viewing entertainment. The first feature was an old favorite of mine, a beautiful sunset watched while flying over the Great Sandy Desert northwest of Alice Springs. There was a brief moment as the sun dropped below the horizon when all the clouds turned pink. Magical. I thought of fellow FTer mad_atta, a fellow window watcher who I know would have enjoyed this view. Minutes later, I watched as the horizon displayed the following colors, in order from below to above:

Black, reddish brown, orange, gold, white, pale blue, navy blue and indigo
Interestingly, as I got up for a brief stroll to the rear of the plane during intermission, I passed by a man who looked alarmingly like Alan Hale, the Skipper on the old TV show Gilligan’s Island. Once again, I was the only person in First Class and indeed one of the few on the plane who actually had my window shade open to view nature’s beauty outside of the airplane. All the way back through Economy, many shades were drawn as most everyone was busy watching movies or dozing. Ah well, to each their own, I reckon, but I’m tellin’ ya – good sunsets at 36000 feet aren’t something we get to enjoy everyday.

I watched with interest as we approached the edge of the continent just north of Broome. At the point where we left Australia behind and headed out over the Pacific, we’d been flying for 3 hours, 57 minutes. This is the life!, I thought. Sitting up here in the nose of a 747, flying high above the world’s oldest continent at sunset. The views were simply spectacular, and the muted sound of air rushing past the windows was music to my ears. Sitting this far forward, the engines are so far behind you that during cruise, I don’t think they can really be heard. Just out of curiosity, I took a stroll after dinner through Business, World Traveller Plus and finally Economy Class. The audible ambience is substantially more profound back there.

The skyline is now black, red, pink, ochre, sky blue and indigo. What’s that? Why yes, a glass of Port sounds fine, thanks.

About an hour before landing in Singapore, refreshments were offered. Here are the choices, any or all:


REFRESHMENTS

Grilled Fillet Steak
Accompanied by red onion marmalade in ciabatta bread

Selection of Reception Sandwiches
Chicken and Avocado, Cheese and Tomato, Ham and Veggies

Classic Margherita Pizza
A cheese, tomato and garlic taste treat

Selection of Pastries


** ** **

When you’ve eaten a big multi-course meal only five hours before, the prospect of even more food is not quite what I’d call refreshing. Even so, I had one of the little chicken and avocado sandwiches with a glass of Penfolds while working on this report.

We began our descent into Singapore soon after the plates were cleared. The Captain came on and informed us that the temperature in Singapore was 28 degrees with a dew point of 26. I was thankful that I was just passing through. I wonder what the lowest temperature ever recorded in Singapore is?

A slight tailwind had pushed us into Singapore almost half an hour early. How unfortunate, I thought. Comfortably reclined as I was in my First Class Suite, being wined and dined in true plutocratic fashion while nature put on a spectacular show outside my windows, well – this flight was all too short!

What with SARS on the rise in this part of the world, I decided that if I didn’t have to get off the plane in Singapore, I wouldn’t. Passengers were advised that as the aircraft would be refueled during our layover, those remaining onboard should refrain from using their cell phones, electronic games or laptop computers. Apparently, they spark now and then. I don’t know about cell phones, but thankfully my laptop has yet to emit any sparks. Local time in Melbourne was approaching midnight and I had no problem picking up an hour of sleep while the aircraft was cleaned and serviced.


26 April
SIN-LHR British Airways 18 First Class
747-436 G-CIVD Seat 2A
1140p-620a Flight time: 13:27

There’d been a crew change in Singapore and the new flight attendant working my side of the cabin stopped by to introduce himself. His name was Brendan and as the First Class load into London was light this evening, we had an opportunity to chat for a bit. Brendan started his flying career with BA back in the 707 and VC-10 days, but his life experience was considerably broader. He’d lived in Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore and Canada and took his first flight in 1952. He shared some great stories about the early days of intercontinental flight when, for example, rather than serving meals aboard the airplane, meal stops were made. He’d flown aboard Constellations, DC-7s and Brittanias and pointed out that First Class meal services were far more extensive back then. He estimated that the amount of food that BA loads to feed 14 people in First Class today would have only fed about 8 in years past. Indeed, while some of the reductions in First Class fare are budget related, some of them also reflect changing eating and drinking patterns amongst today’s travelers. For example, alcohol consumption is way down from the sixties and seventies. Brendan estimated that on long international flights these days, a full First Class cabin (14 pax) generally goes through only about 6-8 bottles of wine and very little hard alcohol. I think BA’s meal service, as offered on this Singapore to London route, is just about right.

Scheduled departure from Singapore is 11:20pm. A full dinner and breakfast service are offered over the 13-hour flight. Since local time at our departure is only 5:20pm in London, many passengers elect to eat first, then sleep, awaking two or three hours out of London in time for breakfast. What worked for me last year on this flight was to first knock off six or seven hours of sleep out of Singapore, then awake to dinner and still have five or six hours left to enjoy the flight. By the time I finally get to the hostel in Helsinki tomorrow evening, it’ll be about 9:30pm locally and I’ll get a good sleep and wake up feeling like a local.

Our First Officer advised us that due to heavy incoming traffic into London, we’d been ordered to stand at the gate for another half-hour and could expect to be airborne in another 45 minutes. Flight time was projected at thirteen hours and ten minutes, cruising at 35,000 feet. Our route of flight would take us out over the Bay of Bengal, across central India and northern Pakistan, then directly over Kabul, Afghanistan before jogging north around the Aral Sea and continuing west towards Moscow, Vienna and into London. This must be the longer northern route I’d heard about because my flight out to Singapore from London followed a more southerly route over the Black Sea.

After what seemed quite a long take off roll, we climbed out of Changi and made a big right hand turn to get us onto a northwesterly heading. I got a great view of the city lights and the big bridge over to Malaysia while lightning flashes illuminated the western horizon. What a fine night for flying! As the lights of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur receded behind us, I lowered my seat and prepared my bed. While many passengers choose to use the duvet as a blanket, I prefer to place it over the seat and use BA’s sizeable wool blanket for warmth.

I awoke just south of Kabul. We were cruising along at 534 mph, flying into 37-mph headwinds. The outside air temperature was a frosty –52 degrees. Just like home! Of course, it was still dark and apparently a bit cloudy for I never did see the lights of Kabul.

Right – time for dinner then. Here’s the menu:


Singapore to London

DINNER

Appetizers
Scottish smoked salmon with creme fraiche and lemon
Beef and chicken satay with peanut sauce

Soup
Vegetable consommé

Salad
Mixed Seasonal Salad
Served with blue cheese and chive dressing, mustard and herb vinaigrette or extra virgin olive oil


** ** **

MAIN COURSES

Grilled Fillet Steak with Parsley Butter
Served with a potato cake and wilted spinach

Szechuan Prawns
Presented atop stir-fried rice with Chinese cabbage

Smoked Breast of Duck
Served with cranberry and kumquat compote on fresh salad leaves

Won Ton
Char siu, mushrooms and noodles


LIGHTER OPTIONS

Freshly Cooked Penne Pasta
Presented with your choice of tomato and basil or cheese and parsley sauce. Served with freshly grated Grana Padano cheese

Classic Margherita Pizza
A cheese, tomato and garlic taste treat

Selection of Reception Sandwiches


DESSERT

Orange Charlotte
Flavored with Grand Marnier

Hot Apple Crumble
Served with vanilla ice cream

Cheeseboard Selection
Capricorn, Mull of Kintyre, Gubbeen, Blue Wensleydale and Rustique Camembert Cheese

Fresh Fruit
Chocolates


** ** ** ** **

I had the prawns out of here last year and they were excellent. Although the steak looked tempting, I’ve learned that often the best dishes are those with which the local caterers are familiar. I can get steak anywhere, so once again, I went with the Szechuan Prawns and once again, I was not disappointed. In the Szechuan tradition, the sauce was spicy enough to intrigue, but not so spicy that I required oxygen. I might add that the salmon and satay appetizers were also good, though not memorably so. In all, a tasty repast in the middle of the night.

After dishes were cleared, I reclined my seat and watched as Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry combined to foil yet another psychopathic villain bent on world domination in Die Another Day. The following warning was posted in the movie viewing guide:

WARNING: Please be aware that this movie contains an extended sequence aboard a stricken aircraft which some viewers may find disturbing.

The aircraft was a Russian built Antonev AN-124 cargo jet and I thought the scenes of its demise were quite exciting if a bit difficult to believe. I mean, the aircraft was disintegrating in mid air, engines falling off, etc. and yet, unpiloted, it still managed to maintain a nice gradual descent until our heroes affected a dramatic exit just in the nick of time!

As we approached Moscow, the sun began to rise and I was surprised to see snow covered ground for miles around to the east of Moscow. Some of my fellow passengers were beginning to stir and despite our still being three hours out of London, the wonderful smells of breakfast began to permeate the cabin. Here is the menu:


BREAKFAST

To Begin
Freshly squeezed fruit juice
Our special wake up energizing smoothie

Continental Breakfast
Fresh Fruit
Birchermuesli
Natural or Fruit yogurt
Warm breads and breakfast pastries

** ** **

HOT CHOICES

Classic British Breakfast
Freshly scrambled eggs, grilled bacon, pork sausage, sautéed mushrooms, grilled tomato and hash browned potatoes

Cheese and Tomato Omelette

Brioche French Toast
Served with caramelized fruit and maple syrup butter


** ** **


Brendan mentioned that he’d be happy to serve me whatever I’d like for breakfast up until about an hour out of London. Having just finished dinner over Kabul, I decided to do breakfast over Copenhagen. In the meantime, I fired up my trusty laptop and went back to work on this marathon Trip Report. Any of you who’ve written one of these know that even the most basic ones can take some time, but then what better place to type away from than my lofty perch here 38000 feet over Latvia. Fueled by coffee and water, I’ve managed to finally get this report up to date, including menu transcripts.

Approaching Copenhagen over the Baltic Sea, our airspeed had dropped to 477 mph while headwinds had increased to 72 mph. The air temperature had dropped to minus 83 degrees. That may just be the coldest air I’ve ever flown through.

Breakfast began with a smoothie, followed by a fruit plate and a serving of the French Toast. I’m not a big fan of airline style French Toast which, from my experience with most US carriers, tends to come out dry and chewy, like Navajo bread. BA’s brioche sounded pretty good though and I wanted to try something different than the egg dishes with which I was so well acquainted. Well, I am pleased to report that if you like French Toast, based upon my breakfast today you’d be quite pleased with BA’s version. The toast was moist and flavorful, as if it had been dipped in eggs and cooked just minutes ago. I don’t know how they did it, but well done, BA!

Our First Officer came on, bid us all a cheerful good morning, and then apologized for once again having to be the bearer of bad news. Air Traffic Control had directed us into a holding pattern, adding another 20 minutes to our flight time. Finally, after 13 hours and 27 minutes, we made a very nice landing at Heathrow and I noted that no reverse thrust was employed to slow us down. I found out later that BA’s 747-400s are equipped with carbon fiber brakes that negate the use of reverse thrust except when landing in less than ideal conditions.

Apparently ATC also added insult to injury by directing us to land on what had to be Heathrow’s most remote runway. As a result, we got the Grand Tour of Heathrow as we took a slow, stately meander through the back taxiways of Heathrow. Heathrow is, of course, the world’s greatest airport for plane spotting and on the way to our stand at Terminal 4, I spotted the following exotic aircraft:

Royal Jordanian A340
Syrian Air 747SP
Kuwait Airways A340
Cathay Pacific 747-400 in “Asia’s World City” livery
Egyptair 777
Gov’t. of Japan 747-400


By the time we’d finally chalked our wheels at T-4, I noted that I’d been sitting on board this aircraft for almost exactly 24 straight hours. As aircraft of the world go, I can think of very few others that I’d rather spend 24 hours aboard. Once again, British Airways delivered a stellar service, from check-in at Melbourne to a post flight shower at the Molton-Brown Spa. From a First Class perspective, other airlines may offer wider seats, more extensive menus or better lounges. BA’s real strength, I think, lies in the quality of their crew. I can’t imagine a better trained, more dedicated, capable and caring group of people. They’ve all been just great so far and contribute mightily to BA’s maintaining its perennial status amongst the world’s best airlines.


PART 6: TO, FROM AND AROUND FINLAND
MILE 58760 - 62890
By Air: 2330 Miles
By Rail: 1360 Miles
By Bus: 440 Miles

After touring The Taxiways of Heathrow in BA’s 747, the shuttle bus over to Terminal 3 provided me a tour of The Back Roads of Heathrow. Since I wasn’t driving, I just sat back and enjoyed the scenery, which included passing within less than 100 feet of numerous aircraft, including a beautiful Air Canada 747-400 and an Air Portugal A310. Heathrow Airport really is an amazing place to navigate, be it in a car, in a plane or on foot. I have never seen such a convoluted collection of roads, taxiways or hallways! Consider my journey within Terminal 3 from the SAS check-in desk to the Servisair Lounge. Having been informed that Servisair’s lounge was down by Gate 12, I proceeded through the main terminal commons with all the shops, restaurants, etc., before making a right turn towards Gates 2-55. Of course, this is not a long concourse stringing along 55 gates a la DTW. Rather, the gates are broken up into groups within their own mini-concourses. It was only fitting, then, that when I did eventually make it to the Gate 12 area, I was presented with further options. 12 A-C or 12 B-D if I recall correctly. A sign indicated that the Servisair Lounge, along with Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge and Virgin’s Clubhouse, was down 12C. Fair enough. Everything was very well marked. Here’s where it got interesting, however. Whereas at most airports you’d walk down the hallway from 12C and there would be your lounges, at Terminal 3 I walked down three separate hallways, took a stairway to the next floor up, then walked down another two or three, maybe four hallways until I finally arrived at my destination. After all that, I almost expected to hear a harp glissando and a chorus from the heavens as the lights suddenly brightened and I entered the sanctum of the Servisair Lounge.

I am a charter member of Continental’s President’s Club, having purchased a lifetime membership back in 1980 for the paltry sum of just $300.00. To this day, it remains the single best investment I have ever made. Continental’s President’s Clubs have always been classy lounges and initially, my membership was only good in the fifteen or so Presidents Clubs around the Continental network. After Frank Lorenzo took over Continental and added Eastern Airlines to his collection, I also gained membership to all of Eastern’s Ionosphere Clubs until Eastern’s unfortunate demise. Eventually, Continental formed an alliance with Northwest and America West, and now Delta’s been added. That now gains me entry to all the WorldClubs, Crown Rooms and the two America West Clubs at LAS and PHX. An agreement has also recently been worked out with Alaska Airlines to use their Boardrooms. All of them. Finally, my President’s Club is also accepted at various Servisair Lounges around the world. As such, there aren’t too many major cities in America or Europe where I don’t have lounge access.

Servisair operates at least two or three lounges at Heathrow. This one was tastefully appointed and had a nice big window looking out over one of the T-3 concourses. The view of an Air Canada 747-400, Air India 747-400 and Gulf Air A330 lined up down the concourse was very much to my liking. The lounge also offered a well stocked complimentary bar as well as a decent selection of pre-wrapped cookies, cakes and snack mixes. I poured myself a coffee and perused a copy of the Herald Tribune until my flight was called for boarding at 10:00am.


27 April
LHR-ARN SAS Scandinavian 584 Economy Class
A321-200 SE-REG Seat 9A
1025a – 150p Flight time: 1:56

Until recently, I’d never flown aboard Airbus’s A321. Only US Airways and Air Canada operate the type in North America, unless you include the Caribbean in which case you could also add Air Jamaica and BWIA. In any event, I logged my first flight on one aboard Finnair’s OH-LZD back in December.

Today, A321-231 SE-REG awaited me at Gate 6, looking quite nice in SAS’s livery. SAS names their planes – a practice I’ve always liked. It lends a touch of distinction and identity to the aircraft, like Virgin Blue’s “Barossa Babe” from four nights ago. Some of you may remember a few years back when some US and Canadian airlines used to follow this practice. Pan Am’s jets were Clippers, American’s were Flagships, Piedmont’s were Pacemakers and Canadian Pacific’s were Empresses. SAS names their aircraft after Vikings and today’s plane was dubbed “Randy Moss”. No, no – just kidding there – an inside joke that some of you football fans in America may or may not appreciate. The name was “Svipdag Viking”, who’s acquaintance I was pleased to make as I took my seat in exit row 9A.

I’m sure that “Svipdag” was a nice enough guy but comfort wasn’t high on his list of attributes. The exit row seats were narrow and stiff but the other seats didn’t look any better. Legroom couldn’t have been any more than 31” in Economy. In Business Class, pitch was perhaps 36” and unlike the MD-80 fleet, the seats were not fitted with footrests.

Otherwise, this was a very nice airplane. Each seat was equipped with Empower outlets for laptop connections and I counted 24 drop down television monitors, meaning no one was ever too far from a good view of whatever was being shown. One of the neater things being shown was via a camera mounted down near the nose wheel landing gear. We got to watch from a forward perspective as we taxied and took off. Then the camera swung down and offered a view of the scenery below. Initially it was nice English countryside. Unfortunately, cloud cover soon obscured the rest of the views into Stockholm so the TV monitors switched to a thrilling but silent documentary about the lives of penguins. No headsets were offered and without volume, this documentary was only marginally more interesting than watching the cloud cover. I pulled out my book of the week, Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” and read until luncheon was served.

On last year’s shorter flight between London and Copenhagen, I was offered a nice tray lunch containing a generous variety of ham and salami, some potato salad and a cucumber and tomato salad. On today’s longer flight (910 miles vs. 590 miles) we were presented a styrofoam carton bearing a plastic container of pasta salad with a couple of slices of ham on top. Also included were a coffee cup with creamer, a moist towelette, and a salt and pepper packet upon which was inscribed a droll bit of Scandinavian humor. Something about pepper being called a gift from the Far East, but as the word “gift” translated to mean “poison” in the local lingo, well, use it as you will. Thankfully, the wonderful bread service still remained and I selected a large rye wafer and a wheat roll. From a present day American perspective, this was a fabulous meal service for a two-hour flight in Economy Class. Based upon what I’ve experienced aboard European airlines in years past however, well, it would seem there’ve been some cutbacks. Still, it was tasty enough and I particularly enjoyed the hot and flavorful coffee service that followed the meal.

We landed in Stockholm on a wintry spring day, with cold rain turning to sleet and even snow for a short time. A Thai 747-400 in the King’s Anniversary livery brightened up the ramp considerably. We parked over on the F Concourse and I was surprised to see that all the floors on that concourse were done in attractive dark wood. After clearing immigration, I headed over to the main domestic departures area and took a seat in the gate lounge for my onward flight to Helsinki. I’d been travelling for 30 hours since leaving Melbourne and the experience was starting to catch up to me. With an hour and a half to wait, I dozed for a bit until boarding was called.


27 April
ARN-HEL SAS Scandinavian 704 Economy Class
737-883 LN-RRT Seat 21A
350p – 545p Flight time: :39

I had hoped that this flight would be aboard a 737-600. It is the one variant of the 737 family that I’ve not yet flown. SAS flies the 600, 700 and 800 series though the agents in Heathrow weren’t able to ascertain exactly what type of 737 it was. Still, given my exit row seat assignment of 8A, I felt reasonably good about my chances.

From the gate lounge, it was impossible to see any more than the wing of the aircraft, so I’d have to wait until I boarded. When I handed my boarding pass to the gate agent, he ran it through a small machine which immediately spit out a new boarding pass indicating Seat 21A. Hey! What happened? Ah, well, due to the large number of bookings this afternoon, a larger aircraft had been substituted. Grrrrr… Oh well. At least I got a window seat.

It’s only a short 250-mile flight across the northern Baltic Sea to Helsinki, well within the range of this new 737-800. Interestingly, this aircraft had no flip down TV monitors nor laptop connections. We roared off into the cloudy skies and soon after our flight attendants came down the aisle distributing the afternoon snack. A snack! On a 39 minute, 250 mile flight! Served by a flight attendant who was almost a spitting image Nordic version of the Australian golfer Greg Norman. All he was missing was the Akubra hat! The snack itself seemed appropriate to the length of flight – a wheat roll with a smidgen of shrimp salad inside.

Finland claims to have over 185000 lakes and as we began our descent into Helsinki, I could see that many of them were still frozen. We made a smooth, quiet landing without use of the reverse thrust and taxied briskly to the terminal, parking beside a Lufthansa A320. Lufthansa’s a great airline but I think it’s time they upgraded their color scheme.

Baggage was delivered promptly, and after picking up some local wampum at an ATM, I hopped aboard a waiting Finnair bus that took me directly into the downtown district for 5.00 EUR. A regular city transit bus will get you there for about half the price but takes longer and doesn’t offer a baggage rack. When you’re only talkin’ a couple of Euros, why quibble? Half an hour later, I alighted at Helsinki’s main train station, walked a couple of blocks up to Mannerheimintie and caught the #4 tram out to the Katajanokka district. Fifteen minutes later, I was checking into the Eurohostel, my home for the next four days.


THE EUROHOSTEL

I discovered Helsinki’s Eurohostel through the internet last year while searching for accommodations prior to my first visit. I plugged “Helsinki” and “Hostel” into Google’s search engine and there it was. It’s in an excellent location, just a short walk from the downtown district and an even shorter walk to the ferry terminals and Market Square. Accommodations range from single rooms to triple rooms. There are no traditional hostel style dormitories. Reservations can be made over the internet and I’d reserved a four-night stay in a single room, including breakfast each morning, for a total cost of $135.00 USD or about $34.00 a night. Such a deal!

The reception desk is open 24 hours and the staff are exceptionally friendly and helpful with most anything related to seeing or getting around Helsinki. They also speak better English than half the people south of the Mason-Dixon line. This is my fourth visit here and I continue to be impressed by their command of both the language and the accent.

My room was on the third floor. It had a single bed, an armoire, a big wooden table and a comfy chair. It also had a nice big window overlooking some attractive red brick buildings behind Linnankatu Street.


HELSINKI

Despite May being only three days away, it’s still winter here in Helsinki. A light but cold rain fell for most of my first day here and throughout the daytime highs have only risen into the mid thirties! The hot, muggy days of Adelaide’s Indian Summer seem but a distant memory now. Regardless, life goes on and while I’m not too keen on the rain, I rather enjoy the cooler temperatures.

After taking full advantage of a breakfast buffet featuring cold cuts, cheese, veggies, breads, hard boiled eggs, sliced honeydew melon, yogurt and hot and cold cereals, I set to work getting a hostel reservation booked for my two nights in St. Petersburg. It’s projected to be a busy summer for St. Petersburg as this is that city’s 300th anniversary and there will be all manner of celebrations and events to mark the occasion throughout the summer. Things wouldn’t begin to really pick up for two or three weeks however, so I was confident that I could find a room for two nights at one of the two YHA affiliated hostels there. It’s also worth noting that in order to qualify for a Russian tourist visa, one must first have proof of reservations made and paid for in Russia. So, once reservations are made and money received, the hostel will then issue you a Visa Support Letter at a cost of $30.00 Euros. You then take this letter to your nearest Russian Embassy or Consulate and get your visa issued for an additional $30.00 or so. I had tried to do all this prior to my departure from America, figuring that I could swing by the Russian Consulate in Seattle to get my visa. Unfortunately, I never could get a response from the St. Petersburg hostel. Even so, I figured I could handle things locally without a problem, especially since reservations could be made directly from the Helsinki hostels. I’d also heard that short stay visas, valid for stays of three days or less, could easily be taken care of at the border. Alas, I was wrong on both counts.

On its website and in its brochure, the hostel I’d wanted to stay at in St. Petersburg indicated that it was possible to make reservations for it through the Eurohostel where I was staying here in Helsinki. Eurohostel informed me that this was normally true, though for some reason as yet unknown to their staff, it was not possible for direct phone bookings after May 1st of this year. My first night in St. Petersburg was to be May 1st. Only internet bookings were possible. Go figure. OK, then. I went to the internet site and once again e-mailed all the completed forms to the hostel. I indicated that time was short and hoped/expected to get a response later in the day or at the very least by the next day. Wrong. By my second day, having heard nothing, I looked into a stay with the other hostel in St. Petersburg. This one was not as conveniently located but it could be reserved by phone directly through another hostel in Helsinki. I called that hostel and was told that they could make bookings but it had been a problem of late because only one employee at this particular St. Petersburg hostel spoke English (No one spoke Finnish, there) and that person didn’t work every day. This same person also handled the English language internet requests. Further questioning revealed that nobody even knew what days this person did work. He/she was either there, or wasn’t there. Based upon the information we were given, all one could do was hope for the best. So, a call was placed to find out. Nope, not today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe? Maybe.

This language problem also factored into my decision not to pay a little more and go with a hotel instead. Certainly, at the larger business hotels, English speaking staff would not be a problem. Without Priceline.com however, those hotels were well out of my price range, and amongst the lower cost hotels, everything I’d read strongly suggested that language and security could be an issue.

I called the Russian Embassy where it was reiterated that I’d need proof of accommodation arrangements before a visa could be issued. As well, the policy of making short stay visas available at the border was no longer in effect. For whatever reason it just hadn’t worked out. Also, visa applications required 3-5 working days to process. I was planning to leave in three days and still hadn’t gotten anywhere on the reservations. I was told that if I did get a reservation within the next day, it would be possible to get the visa application processed within one day, but there would be a substantial surcharge for the expedited service. How much? Maybe hundred dollars, maybe more. You call consular affairs, they tell you. It depend what country you from. What country I’m from? Hmm… OK. I called consular affairs, where I got endless busy signals. I kept trying and finally got a ring. Ring–ring–ring. Ring–ring–ring. Thirty or forty seconds later, the phone was finally picked up, then quickly disconnected. I tried calling again. More endless busy signals.

In the meantime, Helsinki offered plenty to occupy my time and interests. During my December visits, I never did get to thoroughly check out the National Museum of Finland. The building itself looks like a small castle, made of stone and graced with an impressive tower. Admission is only 5 Euros, the price of a pint of beer. Anything you want to know about Finland, from prehistoric times to the Bronze Age to Roman times to the Russian occupation to present is all there on three very well laid out floors. Four hours later, I emerged into a cold rain and caught the #4 tram back to the hostel. By now it was near 6:00pm and I was ready for dinner.

In addition to local fare, Helsinki offers just about every type of ethnic restaurant imaginable, from Thai to Middle Eastern to Mexican. Finnish food is mighty fine however, highlighted by delicious fish and seafood, lamb, reindeer and plenty of vegetables, especially root vegetables like potatoes and beets. Katajanamarja’s Restaurant, located right on the ground floor of the Eurohostel, offers excellent meals at an affordable price. Tonight’s special was a salmon fillet, presented atop grilled vegetables and topped with Mercury Sauce (Kind of like a Béarnaise sauce). At only $12.50, it was one of the best deals in the city. Jim and Holly, a couple of Canadian backpackers who’d checked in with me the day before, joined me for dinner. It would be fun to write down their story but it would add another 10000 words to this report. Suffice to say that they’d been on the road for eight months, having traveled from their homebase in Hamilton, Ontario west through Canada and the US, down to Tahiti, Rarotonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and on to Europe, arriving just in time for spring. Or so they thought. The daytime highs in Helsinki have been peaking at about 35-40 degrees. If that.

By the end of my second day in Helsinki, I had gotten nowhere on the reservations and never did manage to get through to the Russian Embassy’s Consular section. I could have just gone over there, but the most important thing was to first have a reservation and I had nothing.

Certainly, I’d heard plenty of stories about Communist era Russian inefficiency as well as the generally glacial pace of their bureaucracy. Even so, I had hoped that this would have improved somewhat in recent times. From my experiences described here however, the situation clearly leaves much to be desired. If Russia aims to promote and improve tourism, the St. Petersburg hostels and the Helsinki Embassy in particular have plenty of room for improvement.

As much as I’d looked forward to a visit to St. Petersburg, along with travelling there aboard the Russian train “Repin” and back aboard the Finnish train “Sibelius”, I finally decided that the extra visa cost and the ongoing standstill on reservations just wasn’t worth all the hassle. There’ll be other trips for me to this region, and I’ll get to St. Petersburg on one of them, of that I’m certain. Well, fairly certain.

There’s an old adage about how when life gives you lemons, you might as well make lemonade. So, I got out my maps and started squeezin’ them lemons. I briefly considered crossing the Gulf of Botnia by ferry and heading over to Stockholm. I’d see those ferries every day as I walked into town and they are most impressive – unlike any ferries I’ve ever seen! The largest ones are operated by Silja or Viking Lines and are more like cruise ships than ferries. The Silja Lines twin cruise ferries “Symphony” and Serenade” have over 12 decks offering a variety of restaurants and bars as well as a shopping arcade, movie theater and a wide variety of accommodations, from 4 berth shared cabins down in the bowels of the ship to luxury suites up top. They are each over 620 feet long and carry 2850 passengers and 360 cars! While all very attractive on the surface, I’m not so sure I’d like to be riding on such a big ship with so many people. The MV Taku of the Alaska Marine Highway is more to my liking. I’ve ridden it many times on the two-day journey between Prince Rupert, BC and Skagway, Alaska. The Taku checks in at 352 feet long and carries all of 450 passengers, though at the times of year I ride it, the number is about half that. And, I can camp out under the solarium instead of being stuck in a seat or cabin. Alright then, the ferry is out.

Finland’s a big country and the Finnish railway network is fairly extensive. After looking over a map of Finland for about ten seconds, I decided to go to the very top of Finland, way up above the Arctic Circle. I consulted my hostel guide book and determined that the northernmost hostel in Finland is located in the tiny hamlet of Kaamanen, pop. 200, about 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, just above the 69th parallel. Further research revealed that getting there from Helsinki would involve an overnight train journey to the town of Rovaniemi, 560 miles to the north. From there, Kaamanen was only 220 miles farther north, accessed by a six-hour bus ride. This sounded just fine to me!

It’s almost as if Kaamanen as a destination were never really in question. Helsinki sits at the bottom of Finland and the country runs much more to the north than it does to the east or west. My eyes just naturally gravitated to the north, and then focused on the very top. I love visiting these far flung places, as much for their remoteness as for the character of those who choose to live in them. As well, one of the best parts about travelling to out of the way places is that you can’t just get on a plane and fly there nonstop. Often, the journey requires numerous connections and modes of transport that make getting there an adventure in itself. And when you do finally arrive (Do real travelers ever truly arrive?) you feel as if you’ve earned it.

The other thing that excites me about this journey to Kaamanen is its spur of the moment, didn’t-know-I-was-going-ten-minutes-before-I-am nature. It’s how I first went to Alaska (I was in line to check in for a flight to San Francisco at the Honolulu airport and ten minutes later I was on my way to Alaska. But that’s another story…) and the willingness to adopt sudden, occasionally dramatic changes in travel plans has certainly served me well through my wanderings.

I set to work getting everything booked and ticketed, going back and forth between the downtown railway station and the city bus terminal. The contrast between these two buildings is substantial. The Railway Station is an impressive structure, built in the grand style of great railway stations the world over. While it’s not as large or ornate as New York’s Grand Central or London’s Victoria Station, it’s got the signature high, sculpted ceilings and ornate walls and windows that grace all the great turn of the century railroad stations. There’s a beautiful, spacious cafeteria at one end, and an equally ornate restaurant and bar at the other end.

The bus station is located just a short distance from the Railway station, across the broad thoroughfare of Mannerheimintie Avenue. Hidden away behind an old city shopping arcade, it occupies a low, two-story building that once served as a warehouse for the Russian military. Its interior is plain and functional – linoleum floors, a few plastic chairs and benches, and a couple of kiosks selling magazines and candy. A small restaurant is located at the far end, though I didn’t see anyone taking advantage of its alleged cuisine. It appeared to offer only sandwiches and pastries. If you have the time, much nicer fare and ambience can be found within a two block radius of the bus terminal.

There are four direct trains each day to Rovaniemi, but the one which offered the best connections to the northbound bus service to Kaamanen departed Helsinki at 7:20pm. This train also offered sleeper services in two or three bed compartments. If you wanted a room to yourself, you’d have to pay the price for both beds in a double compartment. The agent I spoke with was most helpful, and informed me that I could save a bit of money by buying a 30 day railpass good for three separate days of travel during that period. Add to this the cost of my accommodations, sharing a two berth cabin, and my total fare came to $160.00 Euros or about $175.00 USD. The bus fare for the 220-mile journey up to Kaamanen and back came to $85.00 USD and by mid afternoon, I was booked and ready to depart on the next evening’s train.

April 30th is a day of celebration for Finland’s students, and Helsinki looked like Party Central. Alternative culture is well represented amongst the youth of Helsinki and it’s not uncommon to see hair dyed in unnaturally vivid shades or rings showing up on places other than an ear. Today however, people were extra colorful, with lots of gaily dressed high school kids, many of them wearing their white school caps, roaming the streets of Helsinki trailing confetti, carrying large colorful balloons, and generally having a wonderful time being young and out of school. As the day wore on, the celebrants turned to drinking. Lots of drinking. In the streets, in the stores, in the railroad station, it didn’t matter. The celebrations have something to do with the end of the school year approaching and I noticed many adults wearing their old school caps as well. By 7:00pm, the clouds had cleared, the sun was shining and things were starting to get pretty intense downtown. Mere drinking had turned to drunkenness with lots of shouting, running around and casually discarded bottles, meaning lots of broken glass afoot. Being amongst a large crowd of drunken people can be fun provided you, too, are drunk. If you’re not, take cover! Or, head into the local downtown supermarket, pick up a sixer of Lapin Kultas, (Finland’s Budweiser) and pop a couple with the gang while awaiting the next tram to Katajanokka!

The Eurohostel has a very lenient check out time of 12:00n and since the rain had returned, I spent most of the morning in my room bringing this report up to date. My train didn’t leave until later in the evening and as this looked to be yet another good day for indoor activities, I decided to have lunch at a good looking restaurant I’d seen up on Aleksanterinkatu Street. It’s called Raffaellos and has big street side windows offering a great view of the scene on Aleksanterinkatu, one of Helsinki's most attractive streets. This is the street that’s known as the Christmas Street in December when it’s all lit up and shoppers congregate to its multitude of shops and restaurants. Today, they congregated to its restaurants. Today is May 1st, or May Day. It’s a public holiday in Finland and one of the May Day traditions is to eat lunch out. At a nicer restaurant like Raffaelos, unless you’ve made a reservation well in advance, you’re out of luck. Just down the street, a chain restaurant advertised a Carolina Burger for only $2.95. Nah! I headed for the railway station where the detritus of the prior evening’s celebrations were still in evidence with broken bottles and paper streamers littering the perimeters. Even so, somebody had done a pretty good job of cleaning up so far compared to what I saw last night.

The railway station cafeteria offered a great chicken casserole on rice and plenty of free tables. Afterwards, I spent a couple of hours in the Museum of Contemporary Art, located right next door to the railway station. To be honest, I’m not very much of an art museum guy but with the inclement weather, I figured what the heck, let’s check it out. The museum building is pretty extraordinary structure in its own right and if you’re into more contemporary art styles, I could see spending quite a bit longer than I did in there, which was about an hour and a half. Now if the museum had been stocked with Remingtons and Russells… I might still be there.

All that trendy art made me thirsty, so I ambled over to Molly Malones, a lively Irish pub in the heart of Helsinki that offered cold Guinness and good conversation with an international clientele. I only stayed for a couple of beers but had a good chat with Mikko, a university student in town from Turko. He’d spent a year as an exchange student in America and I must say, his English was impeccable. I am consistently impressed by the number of Finns who not only speak English, but also speak it well. I was chatting with a girl who worked as a clerk at a railway station coffee kiosk and she told me that Finnish kids start learning English in third grade. Later, other languages are offered, but English is deemed the most important foreign language to know. Interesting. And convenient, to an English speaker like me. I didn’t start formal study of foreign languages until 7th grade, and then it was three years of Latin. Still, that three years of Latin sure made learning Spanish and French easier later on! While I’ve forgotten most of my French due to lack of usage, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to use Spanish and am still quite passable with it. Now, if only I could learn Finnish – supposedly one of the hardest of the European languages to master.


May 1st
Finnish Railway Train P-61 “The Santa Clause Express”
Helsinki - Rovaniemi
Two Person Sleeper Compartment

Helsinki’s main railway station is a busy place with both commuter and long distance trains departing every 10-15 minutes during business hours. I watched as the 7:04pm to Tampere departed exactly at 7:04pm. Clocks are placed at the head of each platform and not only did the clock show 7:04pm, but the second hand had just passed the top of the clock. That train was moving no later than 7:04:04. Amazing! I was also checking out one of the commuter trains when suddenly its doors shut and off it went. There was no conductor yelling “All Aboard” or blowing a whistle. The doors simply shut and the train departed. Immediately. If you weren’t already on board, you’d be looking for a seat on the next train.

Generally, Finnish Railway trains do not bear catchy names like their counterparts in America. There is no “Lapland Zephyr” or “Rovaniemi Rocket”. Only the “Sibelius”, serving St. Petersburg, is distinguished by a title. My train up to Rovaniemi was listed in the schedules simply as train P-61, and the big departures board showed it to be departing from Platform 8.

At 6:55pm, 25 minutes before scheduled departure time, the train was backed into the station. At the end were two car carriers, preceded by fifteen blue and white cars. There were three chair cars, a diner, a baggage car and ten sleepers. My car was the second from the front. I noticed as I walked past sleeper after sleeper that several had a small placard on the side, by the door, indicating that this train was called “The Santa Clause Express”. Yeah! Now that’s more like it! Ho! Ho! Ho!

I clambered aboard Car 44 and headed down the hallway to my compartment. I was surprised and more than a little disappointed to find that these sleeping compartments were designed as just that – compartments to sleep in. The beds were permanently down. There was no couch for daytime use. It occurred to me though that this run to Romanievi and beyond to Kemijarvi, 80 km further up the line, was one of the longest routes in Finland. Unlike America where many long distance trains covered distances of over 2000 miles, requiring a journey of two or more days, here in Finland the longest route could be covered in a single day. Night services didn’t require a conversion to a daytime parlor room because you’d be arriving in the morning anyway. Even so, I would describe these compartments as utilitarian at best. The floors were an off green linoleum, the walls two tone gray, and the wash basin and mirror cabinets were made of bright orange molded plastic. A small platform folded out of the wall and served as a seat. In the cabinet above the sink were six cups of pre-packaged water and in a holder along the wall were key cards to regain entry to the room should you leave. The keys were not marked so it was important to remember your car and room number. There were no car attendants and I only saw the conductor twice on the whole trip. Most importantly, however, the beds were wide and comfortable. I had no roommate for this trip so I threw my stuff on the upper bunk and stretched out on the lower one. Ahhhh…

At 7:20pm, on the dot, we were underway. There was no jolt as I’ve often experienced on other trains. One moment we were standing still, the next we were gliding smoothly out of the station. The railway lines in southern Finland are electrified and so the engines are much quieter than traditional diesels. I also was impressed by how smooth the ride was. These were big, old heavyweight cars, so that helped some, but I think the tracks were also quite well maintained. Propping my stuffed sleeping bag and a pillow against the wall beside the window, I reclined quite comfortably and watched as we rolled through the suburbs of Helsinki. Within a half-hour, we were out of the city and I decided to pay a visit to the diner.

The diner was twelve cars back and each of the sleeping cars had four doors to pass through. On each end, you would open a door into a vestibule. From there, you’d open another door into the main compartment. This was repeated on the other end of the car. None of the doors were pneumatic, as on current American trains. Each had a handle and each had to be manually opened. I’d noticed all the doors right off the bat and so counted them on my way back to the diner. I opened and closed 41 doors between my car and the diner. Last week, between Adelaide and Melbourne, I was only two cars and four doors away from the diner.

Alas, there would be no dinner in the diner on this train. There was no kitchen. Everything was pre-made and ready to take away, either to a table in the diner or back to your car. Even Amtrak offers a wider variety of hot and cold items in its snack cars! Ah well, I selected a ham sandwich and… OK, a couple of Lapin Kultas, too. I handed 10 Euros and change to the cashier, who in turn offered to heat my sandwich in the microwave she had behind the counter. Her English skills were minimal so she just pointed to the sandwich, then the microwave. Yeah, sure, why not. Kiitos!

Back in the sanctuary of Car 44, Bed 13, I stretched out on the comfortable bed and read for awhile. This far north, the sun stays up in the sky until late. By the time it finally got dark, about 10:00pm, I was just about asleep.
Arrival in Romanievi was scheduled for 7:55am. If you hadn’t already woken up by then, the conductor would make sure you did. I was returning from a breakfast of coffee and a pastry in the diner when I witnessed his wake up call on my next door neighbors. Inserting his door key and turning it as he knocked, he opened their door and said in English, “Good Morning. Half hour to Romanievi!”. Pray there weren’t any couples having a morning go ‘round in any of the rooms he attended to!

It was snowing lightly as we detrained in Romanievi. The station was a big, nondescript three story building, like a larger version of the Helsinki bus station, but with a much nicer restaurant. I had a fifteen-minute connection to my northbound bus and was thankful to see that we were actually a couple of minutes early. In America, scheduling a fifteen-minute connection off of an Amtrak train to anything would be the height of folly. In any event, I had time to run into the restaurant and purchase something a little closer to a filling breakfast – a ham and egg sandwich, along with another cup of coffee.

Outside the station, two modern and spacious Volvo busses were loading, one to Ivalo and one to Kilpisjarvi. Kaamanen’s a pretty small place and so I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t see it listed amongst the towns on either bus’s destination sign. I figured I’d better check with the Ivalo driver to be sure. Despite the apparent national proficiency with languages, I’ve never assumed that everyone in Finland or Europe for that matter knows English, so I always ask in advance. Today’s driver seemed like he’d heard the question a million times before. “Yes, yes! No, this is the Ivalo bus. You’ll need to transfer to Kaamanen there.” My ticket did not indicate a transfer, but no problem. If I can make four flight connections between Alaska and Tasmania, surely I can handle one single connection in Ivalo.

You can take a big, beautiful bus (or an airplane, for that matter) and cram a whole bunch of seats into it or you can emphasize comfort and allow for a little more legroom and recline. The journey is a long one up to the north country and I was thankful for the extra space and recline offered on this bus. Not counting of the Servicio Cama sleeper busses that I’ve ridden down in Chile and Argentina, today’s bus up to Ivalo may well be the nicest coach that I’ve ever ridden upon.

Romanievi is situated just a few kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. As we headed north up Highway 4, I was amazed at how much the land here resembled the land around Fairbanks. The same low rolling hills, the same birch and spruce forests, the same snow flurries rather than blizzards. It looked and felt like home! One big difference however was the quality of the road. This road was nicely paved and well lined. All the way to Kaamanen and beyond. In Alaska, there’s only one road to take you north of the Arctic Circle. The Haul Road. Also known as the Dalton Highway. It’s the old supply road for the pipeline construction crews and it is definitely not paved. Furthermore, the type of crushed rock and gravel used on the Dalton is particularly abrasive to tires and it is recommended to take not one, but two extra tires. Rock guards for your headlights are essential and it’s a rare visitor up the Dalton that escapes without a chipped or cracked windshield. By contrast, Finland’s Highway 4 was a driver’s dream, more reminiscent of the Alaska Highway through BC and the Yukon, over rolling hills and around gentle curves. Our driver kept the pedal down, too, hurtling the big Volvo up the road at 100km/h.

In Sodankyla, we took a twenty-minute break for coffee. This was more of a cigarette break than a coffee break. I was the only non-smoker amongst the six of us aboard the bus. The driver smoked a quick one with a cup of coffee, then spent the rest of his break hitting the video poker and slot machines.
Another hour up the road, we braked suddenly as a small group of reindeer crossed the highway. Although I haven’t seen many of them, the animals that call Finland’s northern forests home are the same ones we see in Alaska as well. Caribou and moose (called reindeer and elk here), bear, lynx, beaver and squirrels. Even some of the birds looked familiar. I could swear I saw I magpie this morning. I’ve seen plenty of pictures of ptarmigans. This time of year, they blend right into the background snow. A huge goose took off across a lake as we passed. Nice.

In Ivalo, I had a short connection to a smaller, though no less comfortable bus. As we headed north, the clouds disappeared and left us with a fine, sunny afternoon. Kaamanen was just another hour up the road. Only three of us were aboard - a lady her young daughter and myself. They got off in Inari, leaving just me and the driver to continue on to Kaamanen.


KAAMANEN

Were it not for the Kaamasen Keivari Resort, there would be little to distinguish Kaamanen other than a few cabins set well off the main road. The population of Kaamanen “village” is listed at 200, but I suspect that’s only when the “resort” is full.

The Resort is comprised of a main building with store, check-in, restaurant and bar along with a few small single cabins and out buildings that offer hostel and suite type accommodations. All of this sits in a forest of birch and pine. Behind the buildings, a small lake could be seen through the trees. I was immediately reminded of the small backcountry lodges one comes across every 40 to 60 miles along Canada’s Cassiar or Alcan Highways. These places offer much more than mere accommodations. For the region’s residents, they are general store, gas station, bus station and regional watering hole all in one.

The receptionist/store clerk/waitress was a friendly middle aged woman named Nikki who spoke only broken English. (Still way, way better than my Finnish!) While I checked in, the driver poured himself a cup of coffee and chatted with a couple of locals in the bar. The bus was to continue on to Karigasniemi, 60 km farther up the road, on the border with Norway. With no passengers and no further stops beyond Kaamanen, he could afford to hang loose. Meanwhile, I was given a key attached to a palm-sized piece of wood and directed to Room 6. Nikki led me into the dining room and pointed out my building through the window – the red wooden building with the white railing – the last building down, about a hundred yards through the trees. Although there weren’t many visitors this time of year, I could see that a well traveled path had been stomped through the snow. I gathered my gear – just a sleeping bag, my daypack and a change of clothes, and headed on down.

For 32.50 Euros or about $35.00 USD, I got a great deal! Outside at the entrance was my own private covered porch with a chair and ashtray. I entered into a sitting room with a small couch, table and television. Along the back wall was a small kitchen, complete with refrigerator, range top burners, a microwave oven and cooking and eating utensils. Around the corner was a bedroom with one single and one bunk bed. A small bathroom and shower were off a side door. Out the windows, the sun shone brightly through the trees and offered a great view of the lake, forty yards distant. Although it was sunny and about 40 degrees, the ground was still snow covered and the lake looked to be a long way from thawing. It was most definitely spring though. Melting snow was dripping off all the roofs and occasionally a big slab of it would crash noisily to the ground below. I liked this place immediately.

All I’d had to eat today was coffee, a Danish and a dinky sandwich, so I was definitely ready for a late lunch. I trudged through the snow back up to the main building and passed by an old man wearing only a T-Shirt. Up here above the 69th parallel, a day like today must be considered a real scorcher! I had on just a T-Shirt and a long sleeved cotton chamois shirt. It was more than adequate.

As might be expected, the restaurant did not offer an extensive menu. There were three different hamburger options: Hamburger, hamburger with cheese, or hamburger with fries. There was something called a Leaf Steak, a steak with onions and the ever-popular sautéed reindeer, served on mashed potatoes with lingon berries. That’s what I ordered, along with a tall glass of Lapin Kulta, proclaimed on a wooden sign as “The golden beer of Lapland”. Fill ‘er up!

I was presented with a large plate of food - more than enough reindeer meat alone to compensate for the day’s earlier nutritional shortcomings. A TV was mounted in one corner of the restaurant and was showing a car race. I enjoy TV now and then, but not while I’m eating. As for car racing, I would find SAS’s documentary on the secret lives of penguins more interesting. As I was eating, a guy came in from the bar and turned the channel to the World Ice Hockey Championships game between Finland and Slovakia. Hockey is hugely popular in Finland. The Finns won the world championship back in 1995 and a good number of Finns play on teams the NHL. “You like hockey?” he asked me in broken English. It’s OK, I guess, much more so if the Avs are in the playoffs. Of course, I didn’t say that to this fellow. Partly because my mouth was full of reindeer. Instead, I pumped my fist, raised my beer glass, and said “Go Finland!!”. He beamed with pride and invited me to join him. We were quickly joined by three more guys and the game was on. We never did dispense with introductions or chit chat because the game was indeed on.

The interest level was intense and when Finland scored first, the serotonin levels in the room soared perceptibly. Lots of whoops, shouts and manly chugging of beer! More beer was ordered and life was good while the lead lasted. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Slovakia scored to tie the game and this cast a slight pall on the merriment. At the end of the first period, I decided to take a break from the game, primarily because it was such a nice day outside and I wanted to have a look around. Given the amount of time to get here and back from Helsinki, I really had only today to check out the area. While there’s a lot to be said for hangin’ with the locals, in the long run it was just too nice of a day to be sitting inside way up here near the top of the world. There’d be more time tonight for a visit to the pub.

During the winter, for those that have cross-country skis (it seems that few people in Finland don’t) this area is heavenly, the terrain well suited for easy and scenic touring. During the summer, there are hiking trails and of course fishing in any of the many lakes. I settled for a walk first down to the lake, then up the highway a couple of miles. Despite the time, about 5:30pm, the northern sun was still high in the sky and the temperature still pleasant.

Sunset wouldn’t be until about 11:00pm. Interestingly, in about an hour and a half of walking north up the highway and back, I was passed by no more than ten cars. That’s my kind of traffic! Unless, of course, I’m hitch hiking.

When I returned, I took a shower before heading up the hill to the main building for more beer and hockey. Sweden was playing Russia and winning at the time. It was a quiet night in the bar and the crowd, all three of them, were definitely pro-Sweden. I asked about Finland’s game against Slovakia. The bartender didn’t speak English but the guy standing next to me could speak a bit. Alas, Finland had lost. People didn’t seem to be too down about it because it was recognized that this year’s team was not the powerhouse that the ‘95 squad was. Tomorrow would be another game. I stuck around for a couple of beers and then returned to a peaceful night down by the lake.

I awoke around 8:00am and boiled up a cup of coffee. The sun was already high in the sky though clouds had moved in and there were occasional snow flurries. I was amazed at how quickly it could go from snow to sun up here. At one point, it looked like we were in a snow globe with big dime sized flakes coming down, reminiscent of a ruptured pillow in a pillow fight. I turned the TV on. There were three channels available. On one was an advertisement for a fitness and toning device called the Abtronic Pro. For only $129.00 Euros, you too could have abs like Ahnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. Without having to do difficult and annoying exercises! A bevy of female models, all of whom sported already trim midsections, were shown wearing the device while lounging about watching TV, ironing, cooking - anything but good physical activity like Nordic skiing or tending to a reindeer herd. A number of other items were then displayed and although the voice over was in Finnish, you just knew the announcer was imploring viewers to order now, because if you do, we’ll also throw in this turnip masher and these amazing scissors! Don’t wait! Call today!

After a breakfast of coffee and cereal, I fired off a few postcards before my bus arrived. I could definitely spend a couple of more days here! I’m sure that some would look at a place like Kaamanen and say it’s a little too sedate for their tastes. For sure, the mindset that thrives on Karaoke nightclubs and reality TV would not be happy up here. Unless you’re looking for a good fishing lure or a hunting knife, the shopping is abysmal and the accommodations, amenities and meals are fairly basic compared to an expensive resort at a trendy destination. English language skills are not as developed way up here in the north of Lapland, but then the situations requiring the use of English are less as well. As a single traveler, my inability to speak the local lingo did isolate me a bit at times. Than again, that’s all the more incentive to learn some Finnish. And as for loneliness, I’ve always been able to entertain myself. I’ve done alot of 5-10 day backpacking trips, mostly solo, if only because nobody had either the time or desire to go out for a week or more on the trail. I never felt lonely. If anything, I enjoyed the solitude. So, I like Kaamanen. It’s not a destination I’d spend two weeks at, but it’s a peaceful and beautiful place and the people seem pretty nice. I’d like to come back here again. I want to go all the way to the end of the road, beyond Finland to the top of Norway and the Arctic ocean.

This morning’s bus provided a thru service all the way down to Rovaniemi. I’d like to see this place in the middle of summer! The huge Lake Inarijarvi is just a few kilometers to the south and it sure would be nice to catch a pike dinner from its waters. The snow intensified as we headed south but it was so dry that rather than stick to the road, it just swirled around on the surface. Four hours later, we approached the outskirts of Sodankyla, a town of about 10000. There were traffic circles, side streets and lots of stores. I got this discomforting feeling that I was back in that other world, where the land has been tamed and life is more complicated. It’s the same feeling that I got upon arriving in Los Angeles after three weeks camping on a beach in Tahiti. It’s the same feeling I continue to get every time I come down to the Lower 48, knowing that it’ll be awhile before I get to return to Alaska. Out of the wild and into the office. Interestingly, we were still 70 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

I had a two and a half hour layover in Rovaniemi and headed into that nice railway station restaurant to find out what a leaf steak was all about (It’s a pretty thin steak – nothing to get excited about.) while awaiting my 9:10pm departure aboard train 68 back down to Helsinki. As I sat there considering the next day’s plan of action, it occurred to me that geographically speaking, my next seven nights would be spent in some extremely diverse locations, not to mention some wildly varying accommodations and comfort levels. Check it out:

May 3: Compartment on board the train down to Helsinki - North Central Finland
May 4: A single room at the Eurohostel – Helsinki, Finland
May 5: On a couch in a friend’s flat – Bracknell, England
May 6: A single room at the Doubletree SFO – Burlingame, California
May 7: On the floor in a friend’s cabin – Fairbanks, Alaska
May 8: On the floor in the airport – Dallas, Texas
May 9: Camped out at a music festival – Suwannee Springs, Florida

Though hardly as geographically far flung or as extravagant in accommodations as the best of B Watson’s travels, it is nonetheless an ambitious itinerary, to say the least.

We had a light load for this Saturday evening departure – maybe thirty people were gathered to board the train as it arrived from Kemijarvi. I could have taken an earlier train that left within fifteen minutes of my bus’s arrival but it arrived Helsinki at 7:00am and as long as I was going to have a sleeper, I wanted to be able to sleep in. Thankfully, I once again lucked out and had a compartment to myself. Despite our 9:10pm departure, the sun was still over an hour away from setting. The long shadows it cast looked very nice as we headed south through rolling hills dotted with farms and small lakes. I stopped by the restaurant car once for a beer but otherwise enjoyed a quiet evening in my compartment.

Arrival in Helsinki was right on time, at 8:40am Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the weather was not good – low clouds enveloped the city and a cold rain was falling. Very gloomy. With the exception of one sunny evening, Helsinki’s been cloudy and rainy since I arrived a week ago. It’s been like visiting a good friend who happens to have a bad cold at the time. It’s good to see them but unfortunate that they’re not at their best.

As originally planned, I was going to use my last full day in Finland to take a day trip over to Estonia. The capitol city of Tallinn is just across the Gulf of Finland, only a short hour and forty minutes away via the fast catamaran style ferries. Unfortunately, the unseasonably cold weather this spring has inhibited the break up and melt of sea ice out in the Gulf so only the larger, slower car ferries are making the trip. Their timing would require an overnight stay and I don’t have enough time for that.

I still had one more day of travel available on my Finnrailpass, so I decided to go to Turko for a chance to ride the pride of Finnish Railways, the Pendolino. It is a sleek, modern electric powered train of the type one often sees in Europe but hardly ever in America. It also speeds along at about 100 mph. The fastest I’ve ever gone in a train was onboard Amtrak’s Southwest Chief speeding west through the desert out of Gallup, New Mexico. The engineers really put the coals to her out there and the conductor said we reached speeds of about 80 mph. Whoa, Nellie! I looked forward to setting a new personal record today.

Given the Pendlino’s prominence amongst Finland’s trains, I decided to ride it in Business Class and return aboard the double decker InterCity train in Second Class. I considered doing the return in Business Class as well but the difference in fares was jaw dropping. It cost about three times as much for the two hour, 120-mile journey. With tickets in hand, I headed off to the restaurant for a light breakfast.


May 4th
Finnish Railway Pendolino
Helsinki - Turko
Business Class

The Pendolino was scheduled to depart from Platform 10 and as I approached, I noticed that all the doors were closed. The train was due to depart in less than ten minutes. How do I get on? A lady brushed by me and, approaching a closed door, casually pushed a button beside the door. It opened and she got on. Ah. Simple enough.

The Pendolino consists of six cars. At each end of the train is a driver’s cabin, so the train can be driven in either direction. There is no separate engine. It’s blended right into the passenger cars, probably sitting behind the cab. Car one has a driver’s cab at one end along with the Business Class seating area. The remaining five cars are Second Class, with the exception of the third car which is the food service car.

Inside, the passenger compartment is more like an airplane cabin than a train. Everything is molded and streamlined. The Business Class cabin was particularly nice, offering wide, comfortable seating in a 1-2 configuration. Laptop power outlets were available at each seat, along with five channels of audio entertainment accessed via a headphone jack. The pitch was generous – about 40 inches, and the recline adequate.

In the middle of the Business Class car was a service console where one could get complimentary tea and coffee, along with some prepackaged biscuits. I later found out that the seats beyond this console are the Business Plus Class, the primary difference between it and regular Business Class being the addition of a complimentary breakfast or snack served at your seat. Beyond the Business Plus section is a private, seven seat meeting room offering a monitor, video facilities, a slide projector and an overhead projector. The designers seem to have thought of it all. Why, there’s even separate seating areas for passengers travelling with pets.

Compared to most trains I’ve been on, the noise level inside the Pendolino was really quite low. TV screens mounted in the ceiling showed the time and our speed. At one point, we hit 162 km/h. Ah… what a nice way to travel. At 100 mph, the land rolls by fairly fast, but not too fast. There’s still time to enjoy, however briefly, that view of a lake or a nice house. Now I wonder what it would be like to ride France’s TGV, which cruises along at over 200 mph. Someday…

Looking over the schedule, I found it interesting that even though one pays a premium to ride the Pendolino, it isn’t really that much faster than the big, double decker InterCity trains. The Pendolino covers the 197 kilometers between Helsinki and Turko in 1 hour 49 minutes vs 1 hour 57 minutes for the InterCity.

I had two hours in Turko and managed to find a decent restaurant/bar where I got a decent burger and a pint for 10.00 Euros or about $11.00 USD. Were it not such a miserable day, I could definitely see spending more time here. Turko is the 770-year-old former capitol of Finland. Of course, it is also the oldest city in Finland. Amongst its leading attractions are a beautiful medieval castle and its 700-year-old cathedral, described as the national shrine of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland. Museums are in abundance here as well. Turko is definitely a place I’ll spend a few days on my next visit to Finland.

Back in Helsinki, I spent my last night in town eating Mexican food at a restaurant called the Santa Fe Grill. I guess it’s become somewhat of an inadvertent tradition of mine to check out Mexican restaurants in places about as far away from Mexico as one can get. I’ve quaffed Margaritas and snarfed burritos from Rarotonga to Santiago to Bar Harbor, Maine. While all of them have been good, none of them have tasted particularly Mexican. Tonight’s chicken fajita was no different. I recommend fresh jalapenos, cilantro and more cumin to all aspiring Mexican restaurants.

I like Helsinki and I like Finland. The Finns are a friendly and well-educated people and there’s certainly no shortage of beautiful women. The country is quite pretty and besides, I’m a sucker for those northern latitudes. The poor spring weather notwithstanding, I think I like Helsinki more in the winter, though. The whole city looked like something out of a Currier and Ives painting when I was here in December and despite the cold temperatures, I found the people and the city to be very warm indeed. Whatever the season may be, I’ll certainly look forward to my next visit to Finland.


05 May
HEL-CPH Air Botnia 584 Economy Class
Avro RJ-85 OH-SAH Seat 6F
110p – 150p Flight time: 1:37

Wouldn’t you know it - the day I leave Finland, after a week of gloomy weather down in Helsinki, we finally get a beautiful spring day. Sunshine, temperatures in the 50s… Why couldn’t this have happened last week? Ah well, take these days as they come and enjoy ‘em, I reckon.

At Helsinki’s airport, the International Terminal was only sparsely populated, as if many travelers had put off their travel for a bit just to stick around and enjoy the fine day. I strolled right up to a waiting agent, asked for and received the seats I wanted, breezed through security and was on my way to Gate 22. Just like that. This entire process was so smooth and efficient that it could be every Economy Class passenger’s fantasy. In my case today, it was real. Bravo to SAS, the Vantaa airport staff and all those passengers who weren’t there when I arrived. You’re the best!

I’m not sure what the relationship is between SAS and Air Botnia, but it’s a close one. Air Botnia’s aircraft bear the SAS livery minus the titles, and the food service appears to be SAS issue.

This 1:10pm departure was only a third full, thus boarding was accomplished and doors were locked up with considerable alacrity. So much so, in fact, that we departed the gate five minutes early.

The seats on Air Botnia’s RJ-85 are as comfortable as any coach seat I can remember sitting in. Pitch is about 32 inches and the recline is decent. Regional jets just don’t get much finer. I’d asked for the bulkhead seat because there is no actual bulkhead, just a small curtain over the seat backs in front of you. Best of all is the view. The wing is mounted above the passenger cabin, so you get a great view of both engines just outside your window in addition to a clear view of the scenery below. Aside from those slightly forward facing windows in the nose of a 747, this is certainly one of my all time favorite window seats.

Take off was short and swift, lasting all of 21 seconds. You detail freaks will be pleased to know that I had a meal at my seat a mere 16 minutes after takeoff. It was a snack and was served in SAS’s trendy red cardboard food box embossed with the following bit of wisdom: “Gastronomy is like astronomy – one feeds your body, the other your mind”

Upon opening the box, I wasn’t exactly starry eyed over the contents. The only food item was a soft roll with salami, cheese, lettuce and tomato. A cup of spring water and a coffee cup with creamer completed the consist. The sandwich, though small, was better than nothing, which is exactly what I’d receive were I flying on the other side of the Atlantic. Thankfully, I’d thought to grab a couple of extra packets of Finnish mustard while dining at the train station up in Rovaniemi.

I had a three-hour layover in Copenhagen and headed straight to the Servisair Lounge. The receptionist took my CO President’s Club card, looked at it quizzically, flipped through a couple of manuals, and finally told me to take my sorry ... elsewhere. Well, not in those exact words of course, but she might as well have with the people standing behind me giving me that look – the same look reserved for people who try to withdraw funds from ATM machines only to be denied with the brutally devastating response “Insufficient Funds”. I averted my eyes and quickly slunk from the premises, heading directly for the nearest bar to drown my embarrassment in $6.00 pints of Danish beer.

Truth be known, Continental doesn’t fly anywhere near Copenhagen so there’s no reason for them to pay Servisair to provide it’s Presidents Club members lounge access here. I figured it couldn’t hurt to check, however. As it was, I had a productive afternoon at the bar where I scored a table next to an electrical outlet and despite the considerable potency of the beer, managed to once again bring this report up to date.


05 May
CPH-LGW Maersk Air 584 Economy Class
737-500 OY-API Seat 9F
450p – 545p Flight time: 1:44

Boarding for Maersk Air 117 to London-Gatwick was way out at Gate D102, accessed via the C Concourse. Getting there from the bar meant a nice stroll through the heart of Copenhagen’s main terminal. It is a beautiful terminal, done in light colored stone and wood with lots of windows allowing in plenty of natural light. In the center is an attractive shopping arcade flanked by a variety of bars and eateries. The restaurants run the gamut from cafeteria style to formal dining. With or without lounge access, it’s a nice airport to pass through.

This was to be my first flight with Maersk Air, a small but well-established Danish carrier that’s been in business since 1970. In recent times, their partnership with British Airways has resulted in some of their aircraft being painted in BA’s colors but I was happy to see that the aircraft for today’s flight, a 737-500, was wearing the full blue Maersk Air livery. Despite this being a full flight, boarding was not done by row number. It was simply announced, people formed a line, and we slowly made our way onboard the aircraft.

Maersk Air offered the closest thing I’ve seen to decent Business Class seating in Europe. The wide blue leather seats are arranged in a 2-3 configuration and each seat is individual, not one of those cheap 3-3 set ups where folding down a couple of arm rests on one row turns it from three seats into two. The Business Class cabin for today’s flight required only two rows, as noted by the full divider with curtain between cabins. However, the 2-5 seating arrangement continued all the way back to exit row 9. Hey! That’s my row! With the extra leg room afforded the exit row, plus a window, I had in my opinion the best seat on the plane!

Our Captain welcomed us aboard in both Danish and English, then informed us that this afternoon’s flight down to London would be a quick one – an hour and 45 minutes, cruising at 36000 feet. Well alrighty, then!

Service began about 30 minutes into the flight with the presentation of a full hot dinner. It featured an entree of Beef Burgundy accompanied by mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli. Dessert was a slice of spice cake and the flight attendants came through the cabin on two separate occasions with a big tray of plain looking yet surprisingly tasty dinner rolls. By current standards, I’d consider this a pretty good meal, especially for such a short flight. I spent the remainder of the flight watching the green English countryside and wondering what the folks in Business Class had for their dinner.

We landed at Gatwick on a beautiful spring evening. This was my first ever flight into London’s “other” airport and I was surprised at how much smaller it is compared to Heathrow. I was met by an old friend and we spent a nice evening catching up over dinner and ales at an old country inn. Spring is a wonderful time to be in England, with its wide variety of trees, fields and beautiful old houses. It’s a shame I can’t stay longer. I’ve always been rather taken with the country and people of England. It’s high time I planned a proper visit, something I’ll look forward to hopefully sooner rather than later.

mad_atta

Another great report, Elton! I'm already exhausted and I've only read part one...

I really must get around to heading down to Tasmania one of these days!

B-HXB

What can I say except... WOW!!

Seat 2A, you are the master of Trip Reports!

flamboyant 1

hey,

how much time did that take you Seat 2a ?
Great, but too much for me now!
Thanks anyway!

Seat 2A

Wait! There's More!

PART 7: LONDON TO FAIRBANKS
MILE 62890 - 70630
By Air: 7740 Miles

This flight between London and San Francisco will be my 3000th. Lots of people have flown 3000 times, but how many were aware of it at the time? How many even cared?

People have always quantified the things they care about. How old am I? How long have I been married? How much money do I have? How many times did the Mariners beat the Yankees last season?

I’ve loved air travel for as long as I can remember. I filled out my first flight log when I was in 7th grade. At the time, I’d flown a grand total of sixteen times aboard four different airlines. As the number of flights and airlines flown grew, it became interesting to consider statistics such as how many times I’d flown on 727-200s, how many miles I’d flown on Continental Airlines, how many flights and miles I’d flown aboard Continental 727-200s, etc. As the total number of flights grew larger and larger, the numbers began to take on a life of their own.

I flew my 1000th flight on July 17th, 1982. It was in First Class aboard a Western Airlines DC-10 between San Francisco and Honolulu. I flew my one-millionth mile on September 4th, 1985 aboard a United DC-10. I flew my 1000th flight with United Airlines on April 24th, 1997. It was on an Anchorage to San Francisco flight and United made it a memorable occasion. They put on a little party at the departure gate with cake and Starbucks and then the Anchorage station manager and sales rep presented me with a plaque and a nice leather travel bag. Six days later, I flew my one-millionth mile with United.

Originally, I’d planned my travels so that this 3000th flight would take place four weeks ago aboard British Airways between London and Singapore. A First Class suite aboard a world class airline on one of their premier routes – I couldn’t have choreographed it any better. Unfortunately, the ear infection that forced me to cancel one of my Seattle to Nashville Mileage Run tickets changed all this and it was only sheer luck that my 3000th flight should now occur on this British Airways flight to San Francisco as opposed to on, say, Air Botnia yesterday between Helsinki and Copenhagen.

I’ve had a great run so far! Three thousand flights on one hundred seven different airlines through forty-three countries and 289 different airports. Over 1300 flights and 1.2 million miles of that have been in First Class. Here’s looking forward to the next 3000 flights!

** ** **

British Airways has a wonderful First Class check in area at Heathrow’s Terminal 4. It is completely separate from the main check in area and access to it is authorized by an agent at the entrance whose job it is to redirect any idle curiosity seekers, aimless wanderers, Club World scammers and other terminal variety riff raff . Today’s guard agent was trim of figure but stern of stance. As I trundled towards her with my big old backpack and recently trimmed beard, I had to stifle a chuckle as she stiffened in anticipation of exercising her authority.

On trips like this, my travel outfit consists of a pair of black Levi 501s, a nice blue button down oxford shirt, my nice tweed jacket with leather elbow patches that I scored on sale in a thrift shop for $10.00, and my tweed cap that I bought in Ireland some years ago. I’ve been told that I look like a deranged English professor in this get up, which may well be true. Even so, it’s comfortable and more presentable I think than some of the attire I see in First Class cabins these days.

After receiving clearance to proceed, I was quickly checked in and given a Fast Track clearance sticker on my boarding pass. This allowed me to bypass the substantial queue at the main security area and go through the much less crowded Fast Track lanes. All carriers that offer an international First Class product should make arrangements with airport security to offer this service at their larger gateways. It’s amazing to me that some still don’t.
An International First Class boarding pass on BA entitles the bearer to enter the refined elegance and sanctuary of the Concorde Room. I’ve detailed this wonderful lounge in previous reports but allow me to reiterate that amongst Heathrow’s numerous First Class lounges, the Concorde room has few, if any peers. Light classical music was playing as I entered. As a former chamber group musician, it was quite nice to settle into a comfy chair and sip champagne to Bach’s Air On A G String.

I had a couple of hours before my 1:25pm departure and decided a bit of a snack would be in order. While most First Class lounges provide a food service area offering a variety of hot and cold hors d’oeuvres and finger sandwiches, the Concorde Room offers an entire menu from which you may select everything from a light breakfast to delicious sandwiches and salads. Many people have asked about this menu in response to past Trip Reports, so here it is.


CONCORDE ROOM MENU

BREAKFAST ITEMS

Chilled freshly squeezed orange juice
Freshly prepared smoothies

Natural Greek Yogurt
Topped with cereal, organic honey or strawberries

Selection of Cereals
Cornflakes, Branflakes, Rice Krispies or Alpen

Plain, Cinnamon and raisin or Poppy seed Bagels
Served with garden herb or organic blueberry cream cheese

Hot Toast
Selection of Pastries
Orange marmalade, honey and preserves

Grilled Back Bacon Baguette

Sauteed Mushroom and Tomato Baguette

** ** **

Fresh Soup of The Day
Served with a variety of continental breads

** ** **

SANDWICHES

Egg mayonnaise and watercress on white bread

Traditional prawn Marie Rose with mixed leaves on whole meal bread

Pastrami and horseradish on rye bread

Flaked tuna in mayonnaise with cucumber on whole meal bread

Chicken in Caesar dressing with Parmesan and salad leaves on olive bread

English gammon with plum tomatoes and mustard dressing on white bread

Smoked salmon and soft cheese on whole meal bread

Port-salut, spinach and pine nuts on tomato bread

** ** **

SALADS

Caesar Salad
Cardini’s traditional dressing, curls of Parmigiano Reggiano, croutons and crisp cos lettuce

Chinese Prawn Salad
Fresh prawns on rocket and Chinese leaves with julienne of peppers and dressed with sweet chili sauce

Mediterranean Garden Salad
French beans and red chard with red onion and feta cheese, dressed with olive oil and vintage balsamic vinegar

Dip Platter
Fresh vegetable crudites and tortilla chips, accompanied by a selection of dips

** ** **

Dessert
Seasonal fresh fruits with a piquant raspberry sauce

Cheeseboard
Stilton, Cheddar, Cheshire and Wensleydale with biscuits, celery and grapes

** ** **

AFTERNOON TEA
Your choice from a range of tea sandwiches and traditional English cakes served with a pot of freshly brewed tea



Although it certainly was tempting to order a sandwich or a salad from off this menu, I also wanted to save room for whatever culinary delights awaited me aboard the ten-hour flight out to San Francisco. The champagne was Pol Roger, 1986, Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill. This being the occasion of my 3000th flight, I ordered a glass along with a plate of the Chinese Prawn Salad. Cheers!

At about 12:30pm, an announcement was made that due to a problem with our aircraft’s toilets, our departure would be delayed. At 1:15pm, we were advised that the problem had still not been corrected and might necessitate an aircraft switch. At this time, the siren call of a nice cold Guinness became just too alluring to ignore.


06 May
LHR-SFO British Airways 285 First Class
747-436 G-BYGG Seat 1A
125p-515p Flight time: 9:56
3000th Flight

The call to board finally came at about 2:25pm and as I approached the gate and the aircraft came into view, I recognized the Chinese calligraphy on the tail and the registration number of my old friend, G-BYGG. I flew this aircraft last year between Melbourne and London. Today’s flight would be my third aboard G-BYGG, for a total of 15,860 miles. It is positively uncanny how despite having flown 19 flights with BA totaling 84,430 miles, 59,660 miles of that have been flown on just four different aircraft. BA’s fleet totals well over 300 aircraft.

Today’s First Class cabin crew was certainly a cheerful bunch. Our cabin purser, Caroline, made a point of stopping by each seat to introduce herself and chat for a bit. Upon learning I was from Alaska, she immediately recounted how much she’d enjoyed the long Anchorage layovers from “the good old days”. The FA working my side of the cabin was Linda and she was a real charmer as well. The load was light – only seven of us were making the trip in First Class today - and the mood amongst both passengers and crew was happy and relaxed. I accepted a glass of Krug and a plate of nuts, reclined my seat a bit and checked out the movie selections. Hey! Scent Of A Woman with Al Pacino! One of my all time favorite movies! Well, that that would be something to look forward to after lunch.

Our captain welcomed us aboard and explained that the delay was due to a clog in the toilet system. No doubt we’d all agree, he continued, that with a ten-hour flight ahead of us, it was imperative that the system be functional. The cause of the problem was a plastic bag that some knucklehead had flushed and getting to the point of the clog had required considerable effort. In any event, we were now ready to go and could look forward to a speedy crossing of the Atlantic as headwinds were so minimal as to be irrelevant. Flight time was projected at ten hours and three minutes, cruising at 35-39000 feet. Plates and glasses were collected and hot towels were dispensed with as we made our way over to Runway 27R. After a take-off roll of just 32 seconds – surprisingly short for a 747 loaded with enough fuel to fly over 5000 miles - we were airborne at 3:05pm.

It was a beautiful afternoon in London – sunny with a few scattered clouds. Perfect flying weather! We climbed out of Heathrow and headed northwest, flying past Manchester and Glasgow before taking a more westerly tack across the North Atlantic towards Iceland and southern Greenland. After crossing over the top of Hudson Bay, we’d adopt a southwesterly course across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, crossing into US airspace just above Malta, Montana. Arrival in San Francisco was planned for 5:10pm and we were informed that the weather was very much like London’s – sunny and about 60 degrees. Just perfect!

Menus were handed out, along with a small plate of canapés. These canapés, though insubstantial in size, are one of my favorite parts of the First Class meal experience. They’re a wonderful teaser for the gastronomic pleasures that await. I munched on them at leisure and perused the menu selections.


London to San Francisco

LUNCHEON

Appetizer
Richard Corrigan’s foie gras terrine with fig compote and toasted brioche slice
Or
Baby peppers filled with roast Mediterranean vegetables, lemon and oregano dressings

Soup
Chilled cherry tomato soup

Salad
Mixed Seasonal Salad served with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette or Caesar dressing

** ** **

MAIN COURSES

Roast Cannon of Lamb
Accented with wild mushroom and mint stuffing, natural jus

Vineet Bhatia’s Crab Coconut Cream Curry
Served with fragrant rice

Grilled Spatchcock Quail
Presented with citrus dressing

Freshly Cooked Pasta
Offered with your choice of tomato and basil or creamy mushroom sauce
Served with freshly grated Grana Padano cheese

Lemon and Herb Chicken Caesar Salad

** ** **

CHEESE, DESSERT & FRUIT

Cheeseboard Selection
Fountains Gold, Stilton, Bougon Chevre, St. Nectaire and Kirkham’s Lancashire

Dessert
White chocolate, dark chocolate and caramel torte with Earl Gray créme Anglaise

Vanilla panna cotta, almond wafer and summer berries

Selection of fresh fruit
Chocolates


** ** **

ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Sandwich Selection
Smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber on whole meal triangle
Gammon ham, spinach and tomato on malted triangle
Sliced mature Cheddar cheese and Branston pickle on croissant triangle

Warm Fruit Scones
Presented with clotted cream and strawberry preserve

The Great All Day English Breakfast

Chicken Tikka Masala

Hot Bacon Roll

** ** **

I love foie gras! The last time I remember having it inflight was in First Class aboard a Continental DC-10 between Sydney and Honolulu. The flight attendants were serving massive slabs of it from the cart and we gorged ourselves like French royalty. BA’s portion was substantially smaller but no less tasty. I also ordered the chilled tomato soup. Linda stopped by to advise me that while the menu said chilled, the soup really was much better heated. I heeded her advice and was quite pleased – as I always am with BA’s soups – to enjoy a soup that was both hot and spicy. Good stuff, that.

For my main course, I chose the Roast Cannon of Lamb. The wild mushroom and mint stuffing sounded too good to pass up. Chef Bhatia’s Crab Coconut Cream Curry sounded quite sublime but after my experience with his Pan Fried Spiced Halibut on the London to Singapore flight, a dish that wasn’t very spicy at all, I decided to go with something that would likely be more flavorful. As it happened, the lamb was not only flavorful but tender and juicy as well. A good choice. Ah, dessert. Jeez, they both looked so good! I went with the torte, which was simply sublime with a cup of BA’s fine black coffee. A glass of port and a small plate of cheese, grapes and celery brought this repast to a delicious conclusion. The SkyMap indicated that we were just south and a tad west of Iceland, cruising along at 38,000 feet. I reclined my seat and savored the fine old port. Now this is First Class!

By the time the final credits rolled on Scent Of A Woman, we were just passing over the southwest coast of Greenland. Although the cabin was darkened and people were sleeping, I just had to raise my shade for a moment to check out the amazing views of rock, ice and water. The landscape was harsh yet strangely beautiful and I found myself wishing I could someday see those icy fjords from a boat.

Iqaluit, near the northeastern entrance to Hudson Bay, was the half way point of this flight. Although there’s never been a scheduled service between Iqaluit and San Francisco, if there were you’d be looking at a flight of about five and a half hours. Cruising along at 584 mph whilst battling a 4 mph headwind, we’d make the journey in about five hours even.

For an Economy Class passenger, ten-hour flights seem much longer. The meal and beverage service is over before you know it and you still have eight and a half more hours to go, squeezed into your little seat surrounded by a sea of people. Movies and books offer some distraction but sleep is probably the best thing you can do to keep from going stir crazy.

Not so in First Class. For starters, the pace of the service is so much nicer. In BA’s First, you choose the pace at which you’d like to dine. While meal trays are being distributed back in Economy, and appetizers in Business, you’re relaxing over a nice glass of wine and munching on canapés. While trays are being cleared and movie selections perused back in Economy, you’ve just finishing your soup or salad and are looking forward to the main course. By the time you’ve finished your meal, you’d be about three hours into the flight. Perhaps some cheese and port with the movie? But of course!

High clouds covered all of the Hudson Bay. In fact, I didn’t see land again until we were over Lake Winnipeg. While flipping through the 18 channels of prerecorded TV shows, documentaries and movies, I settled on a movie called Maid in Manhattan with Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes. Maid in Manhattan is what most guys would call a “Chick Flick” and is not a movie I would normally make an effort to see. I’d never seen a Jennifer Lopez movie before. She has beautiful eyes and a sweet voice. And that butt certainly is prodigious in its proportions. Still, the movie had a nice story line and I found it surprisingly enjoyable. By the time it was over, we were just over southern Saskatchewan, approaching Montana. It was 10:00pm back in London, 2:00pm in San Francisco. Only three hours to go.

The second meal service began for me about an hour and a half out of San Francisco. BA offers an “Available Anytime” menu, which for this flight included the traditional afternoon offerings of tea sandwiches and scones with jam and clotted cream. However, if there are any leftovers from the main meal service, they too are available. As such, for my second meal I tried out the stuffed baby peppers for an appetizer, followed by a plate of the grilled spatchcock quail. Truth be known, I wanted more of that terrine of foie gras but it was long gone. Linda explained that it was one of the most popular appetizers that BA offered. The baby peppers were OK, though nothing special. Bring on the spatchcock! Alas, I’ve had some bad experiences with inflight meals featuring small game birds, most notably a serving of pheasant on Aerolineas Argentinas that was drier than old shoe leather. Today’s quail was quite good though. What it lacked in presentation, it more than made up for in flavor. Really a delicious entrйe. Too bad it appeared to have just been dumped on the plate amidst the vegetables.

Our approach into San Francisco was a little bumpy but we made what felt like a textbook landing and parked at gate A4. I said my good byes and thanks to the crew and headed off the aircraft. I had no more First Class flights with BA to look forward to and despite an enticing itinerary for the upcoming week that included First Class flights back to Alaska followed by a weekend in Florida and a quick visit to the Nevada and Utah, my immediate travel future still felt a bit bleak. BA’s First Class is that nice! If only I could relive the past month!

I’ve got enough miles in my Alaska Mileage Plan account to book another BA First Class Award to anywhere and believe me, I was sorely tempted to get right back in line to take that ride again. Still, Cathay Pacific has joined the Alaska Mileage Plan and I’m looking forward to checking out their vaunted First Class service on a trip to South Africa. And, if I should perhaps win big on a game show, I’d even like to take a ride on the famous Blue Train. Ah well, that will be fun to dream about and plan in the months ahead.

In the meantime, I was exhausted and ready for bed. Thankfully, one awaited me at the Doubletree SFO where I’d gotten a room via Priceline for a bid of $31.00 on what must’ve been a slow night. I slept for almost ten hours!


07 May
SFO-SEA Alaska Airlines 589 First Class
737-4Q8 N779AS Seat 1A
1255p-315p Flight time: 1:43

While Priceline may have been helpful in procuring a great room rate, they were unable to help me out in the hotel restaurant where breakfast prices were in the $10.00-13.00 range. So, I walked across the street to the café next door at the Red Roof Inn and ordered one of the finest Eggs Benedicts that I’ve ever eaten for a mere $7.50. Including coffee.

As I was waiting for breakfast to arrive, it occurred to me that two days ago at this very same time, 9:05am PDT, I was eating dinner aboard a Maersk Air jet between Copenhagen and London. Yesterday at this time, I had just finished lunch somewhere between Iceland and Greenland. Tomorrow at this time, I’d be eating breakfast in the Bush Pilot Grill while awaiting departure of my flight between Fairbanks and Seattle. Two days from now, at 12:05pm EDT I’d probably be eating lunch in Florida. The arrival of my breakfast snapped me back to the present, so I stopped thinking and started eating

*** *** ***

“Excuse me, sir? Excuse me? Can I just have a moment of your time?” begged the starry eyed religious convert from behind her desk.

“Please report any unattended baggage or suspicious activity to the airport police. Unattended vehicles will be impounded at the owner’s expense.” intoned the voice from the airport loudspeakers.

Welcome back to the world of air travel, American style. I don’t recall ever having been approached by Hare Krishnas or other religious types at airports outside of America. As for the airport security announcements, they just seem a bit more insistent here in America. I know it certainly can’t hurt to be a bit more alert and vigilant these days, but I find the insistent, prerecorded reminders a tad annoying.

At the gate for my flight to Seattle this afternoon was my old friend N779AS, the same aircraft upon which I started my South Pacific odyssey last year. This was my seventh flight for a total of 7210 miles on this aircraft. There was one empty seat in First Class and thankfully it was next to me. It was a nice sunny day in the Bay Area and as we followed a United 777 out to the runway, I thought man, those colors sure are gloomy. If and when United gets out of bankruptcy and starts making money again, I would hope that they’d change that horribly drab color scheme into something a little brighter and more promising.

Though I have no idea what runway we took off on, we took an easterly heading as we climbed straight out over San Francisco Bay. As we approached the eastern side of the bay, I watched with interest as a Fed Ex DC-10 climbed out of Oakland International. The aircraft was maybe 3000 feet below us, its markings clearly visible. I also noted the time it took us to reach the shoreline of the east bay after from take off from SFO: 2 minutes and 48 seconds. To date, the shortest flight I have ever been on was aboard an Alaska MD-80 between San Francisco and Oakland. I believe the route is credited at 9 miles, which may well be once ATC Oakland gets through with you. In a straight line however, I think it’s more like 5 miles. Regardless, if Alaska still flew the route you’d receive a minimum of 500 miles to your Mileage Plan account. Applications can be found in –

Right – where was I… Ah, lunch time! Alaska is the only airline offering meals in any class between San Francisco and Seattle. Today’s choices were described as either a Club Salad or a Chicken Sandwich with wild rice. What’s a Club Salad? Well, it was described as a club sandwich without the bread on top of a salad. OK, I’ll take it. Alaska’s sandwiches have always been more bread than filling anyway.

In a word, the Club Salad was excellent. Basically, it was a big bowl of salad topped with generous portions of bacon, turkey and tomatoes accompanied by shaved Parmesan cheese. With the addition of Lite Ranch dressing, it was probably the best salad I have ever had on Alaska Airlines, and I’ve had a few.

Although MacTarnahan’s Ale was offered, an offer which I accepted by the way, the flight attendant returned with a can of Tecate beer, a poor substitute for the Mac but still superior to the other choices of Miller Lite and Budweiser. No nuts of any kind were offered.

This was a fairly quick flight up to the Emerald City. Cruising at 35000 feet, we were treated to a very nice view of 14,110-foot Mt. Shasta, the southernmost of the Cascade volcanoes. Clouds obscured the rest of the Cascades and we landed nicely in Seattle after a flight of just one hour and 36 minutes. As we taxied to our gate we passed N784AS, the Disneyland promotional plane. This was my first sighting of this aircraft and I must say it certainly brightened up the tarmac!


07 May
SEA-ANC-FAI Alaska Airlines 91 First Class
737-4Q8 N774AS Seat 1D
449p-901p Flight time: 3:18/:44

I was already at the gate when the aircraft operating our flight up to Fairbanks arrived late from Oakland. It was N774AS, the Alaskaair.com aircraft. I flew this plane just last November. Despite the colorful exterior, there is nothing to distinguish the interior from any other Alaska jet. Some of you may remember N308AS, the 727-200 also known as “Seahawk 1”. There were several small plaques denoting the player’s names on the seatbacks. The Seahawks were a good team back then. The current crop of players may wish to remain anonymous.

My seatmate arrived with headphones on beneath a white baseball cap. The headphones stayed on for the entire flight except when he once got up to use the lavatory. Interesting…

Awright, what’s for dinner:


Seattle to Los Angeles

DINNER

Salad
Seasonal mixed greens complimented by carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers. Offered with Creamy Cilantro Dressing

Entrees

Chinese Prawn Stir Fry
Ginger-soy marinated shrimp and vegetables served over noodles

Southern Chicken
A breaded and fried chicken breast topped with a zesty Fiesta Sauce.
Accompanied by a corn and polenta cake with spinach and carrots

** ** **

Dessert
Wedding Cake with Marion Berry Filling


Orders were taken from the front, starting with 1A. All of us in row 1 ordered the chicken. The two people immediately behind me also ordered the chicken. I’m not sure what percentage of this flight’s First Class passengers were MVPs, but I’m tellin’ you informed passengers know to stay away from Alaska’s prawn entrees. They’re just too skimpy! Meanwhile, the aroma of fried chicken wafting through the cabin only served to heighten the anticipation of the meal to come. Indeed, it did not disappoint. The polenta cake was a nice addition and I would rate this chicken dish second only to Alaska’s Breast of Chicken Baked in Puff Pastry with Bordelaise Sauce, which seems to be served only out of Washington Dulles.

The so-called wedding cake dessert is also one of my favorites. Light and delicious as opposed to heavy and delicious like the cheesecakes, it made a nice ending to a large meal like tonight’s.

A bit of residual jet lag got the best of me for the remainder of this flight up to Anchorage and on into Fairbanks. I slept off and on until about fifteen minutes out of Fairbanks. I was glad to have awoken because I always enjoy the approach into FAI over the Tanana Flats. Despite the late arrival at 9:50pm, the sun was still an hour away from setting. It was good to be home, if only for ten hours.


PART 8: FLORIDA MUSIC FESTIVAL, NEVADA AND BACK TO ALASKA
MILE 70630 - 80540
By Air: 9380
By Car: 530 Miles


May 08, 2003
FAI-ANC-SEA 834a-244p Alaska DC-9-83 N947AS Coach Class * Lunch
SEA-DFW 520p-1101p American DC-9-82 N274AA Coach Class * Snack
DFW-JAX 651a-1009a American DC-9-82 N000XX Coach Class

It is not possible to fly from Fairbanks straight through to Jacksonville, Florida in one day unless you take one of the late night departures to Seattle and connect from there the next morning. Flying at any other time of day will involve an overnight layover enroute. I have flown that 1:00am departure from Fairbanks because it’s less expensive than using the daytime departures. It’s only three hours down to Seattle and if you’re lucky you’ll get two and a half hours of that quality sleep one gets while strapped upright into an airline seat. You arrive in Seattle at 5:30am a complete wreck.

Whether Seattle is your destination or you’re connecting onwards, you’re in a poor way to deal with the rest of the day. Not for me, thanks. I’d sooner pay more for the daytime flights and overnight enroute along the way, even if it means crashing on the airport floor.

Despite having gotten only six hours of sleep on the floor of my friend Rich’s cabin, I still felt surprisingly good when I checked in this morning at 7:00am. After being deemed safe and secure by the local TSA folks, I grabbed a cup of hot coffee and one of Marie’s mushroom and onion omelets at the Bush Pilot Grill. Properly sated and ready to take on the day, I boarded my waiting MD-80 and headed back to exit row 22.

Although I’m traveling on an award ticket, as an MVP Gold I still could have purchased an upgrade to First Class for this flight. A seat was available. Still, it’s hard to see $100.00 worth of difference between the space and comfort of Alaska’s First Class vs. an aisle or window seat in the Economy Class exit row. Add to that the fact that Alaska’s First Class luncheon offerings on the 1448 mile Anchorage to Seattle run are no different than what you get on the 678 mile San Francisco to Seattle run and it was an easy decision to keep my exit row seat.

We took off behind an Evarts Air Fuel DC-6 and made it down to Anchorage in 42 minutes. Coffee and orange juice in the Boardroom were followed by a chef salad lunch 35000 feet above Glacier Bay. Interestingly, there was no choice of meals like there usually is on Alaska’s flights between Alaska and the Lower 48. Oh well. The salad was OK as tiny chef salads served in cardboard containers go. Meanwhile, our Captain kept us entertained with occasional commentary on the various mountains, glaciers and communities clearly visible along the way. As we passed by the Malaspina Glacier – at over 2000 square miles, the largest in North America, the captain did a nice job of putting its size into perspective. The Malaspina is bigger than Rhode Island, he informed us. Unfortunately, it was just a bit hazy or I’d have added a couple of pictures to this report.

The same tail winds that slowed us down on last evening’s flight into Anchorage pushed us down to Seattle in just 2 hours and 49 minutes. We pulled into Gate C-12 at 2:15pm, almost half an hour early.

With a three-hour layover in Seattle, I had plenty of time to catch the 174 bus down to Larry’s Market (An excellent Seattle supermarket chain featuring regular and gourmet foods) where I created a great blend from their wide assortment of coffees. I also picked up a small salad to compliment whatever AA was offering in their infamous Bistro Bag on this evening’s flight down to Dallas.

I arrived at the gate twenty minutes prior to departure and found it deserted except for the two gate agents. Where is everybody? Onboard. Cool. Perhaps the load would be light. I grabbed a Bistro Bag and headed down the jetway. Although I had scored an aisle on the exit row, I was surprised to find all five seats of the bulkhead row wide open. Could one of those be mine? I asked the FA. No problem. We’re talking serious legroom here, folks, plus an unobstructed view of the First Class cabin and service.

We pushed back early and, with nobody ahead of us on the runway, left the ground at 5:28pm, two minutes before our scheduled departure time! I was hungry so as soon as we’d leveled out, I pulled out my Bistro Bag and examined the contents:


BISTRO BAG DINNER
· Turkey and Cheese Sandwich (Made with Perdue Turkey!)
· Small packet of Bunny Luv Classic Cut and Peeled Baby Carrots
· Lays Classic Potato Chips
· Love and Quiches Double Chocolate Crunch Bar


In conjunction with my small deli salad, this constituted a reasonably filling meal. For an airline that’s been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, I was surprised that we were fed at all. Where American really impressed me though was with their First Class meal service. American no longer closes the curtain between First Class and Economy, thus from my perch in Seat 7C, a bulkhead aisle seat, I was in the perfect position to observe the proceedings.

The service unfolded as follows:

· Drinks were delivered along with a ramekin of mixed nuts
· Hot towels were distributed
· The dinner tray was presented with a nice looking salad in a large glass bowl
· A bread basket containing two types of bread was offered
· A choice of three entrees was delivered. The entrees were:

Fillet Mignon with mashed potatoes and sauteed vegies
Chicken Breast with rice and vegies
Something that came in a big bowl – A stew of some type perhaps?

· Dessert was served. The choices were an ice cream sundae or a fruit and cheese plate


The portions were large and the service gracious. The flight attendant had a pretty smile and she smiled often. Certainly, this service looked to be every bit as good as Alaska’s First Class transcon service. Considering the ramekin of nuts, the hot towels, a choice of three entrees and two desserts, I would say it’s better. Add to this more comfortable First Class seats that offer better leg room, MRTC, laptop connections and IFE for all passengers on most of its long distance fleet and I’d say American makes Alaska look like a bit of a pretender in the transcon market. Thankfully for Alaska, the only transcon market in which it and AA both offer nonstop flights is SEA-BOS.

Arrival in Dallas was right on time. Despite the late hour, the temperature was 84 degrees and the baggage claim area was not air-conditioned. By the time I’d claimed my pack, it was almost 11:30pm. My connecting flight on to Jacksonville wouldn’t depart for another seven hours. Getting a room at an airport hotel was a consideration, albeit a brief one. By the time a van would deliver me to the hotel and I’d get myself checked in and asleep, it’d be 12:30am or later. I’d have to be up the next morning at 5:00am in order to be back at the airport and checking in an hour before departure. Shelling out $50.00 for four hours of sleep just didn’t seem like good value for money.

Any of you who’ve read some of my earlier reports know that I’m completely shameless about sleeping in airports and am better prepared than most to get a good night’s sleep what with my Thermarest pad, sleeping bag and a pillow. If people see me camped out on the floor and think I’m a bum, let ‘em. Getting a good sleep and living within my means is more important than impressing a few people I don’t know and will likely never see again.

The next morning’s flight into Jacksonville was inconsequential. No meal service and I slept through most of it. I did however find it interesting that I managed to travel 4290 miles from Fairbanks, Alaska to Jacksonville, Florida entirely aboard DC-9-80s.


MAGNOLIA BALL

”Let’s go get high and sit under a tree”
Overheard as I was walking from the amphitheater back to our campsite. Ah… the simple life.

If you drive one hundred miles west on Interstate 10 from Jacksonville, Florida to the town of Live Oak, then proceed north on US 129 for about seven miles, you’ll come to the Spirit Of Suwannee Music Park and Campground. The park is administered by the Florida Parks and Recreation Department and is one of the finest music venues I have ever been to. At its center is a beautiful amphitheater set amidst a forest of oak trees. For the big festivals, the park offers a total of three separate stages, including the amphitheater. The northern boundary of the park is the Suwannee River and camping is available either by campsites with hook-ups or primitive camping, as in find yourself a spot in the forest somewhere. There’s a small general store selling things like ice, cigarettes and your usual sundries. A couple of big bathhouses supply toilets and hot showers.

In a big meadow you’ll find food vendors selling everything from alligator stir-fry to vegan veggie burritos. One stand, selling basic hamburgers and hot dogs, advertised itself as the place where vegetarians go when they cheat. Beyond the food vendors are folks selling everything from imported clothing made in Indonesia and Guatemala to beautifully carved woodwork to paintings to the ever-present tie dyed clothing. We’ve got everything we need to survive here for the weekend and beyond.

I’ve made six or seven pilgrimages down here for two big festivals called the Magnoliafest and the Suwannee Springfest. The Magnoliafest highlights local and national jambands. The Springfest is more bluegrass, newgrass and jazz grass. I meet up with a couple old friends of mine who live over towards St. Augustine in a trailer on five acres that they call the “Four Winds Ranch”. I also meet up with about a dozen other friends who I’ve come to know over the years – folks that drive down from Georgia, North Carolina and Mississippi as well as Tallahassee. I’m the only person that comes all the way from Alaska. Heck, that’s nothing though. Back in 1987, I came all the way from Bangkok, Thailand on a whim to join the Grateful Dead in Worcester, Massachusetts for the rest of their Spring Tour. Once, I came up from Chile. And, since I was in northern Finland only a week ago, one could say…
This is the inaugural Magnolia Ball and it is a tribute weekend to the Grateful Dead. Although the bands here won’t be playing only Dead tunes, you would definitely expect to hear more Dead covers than anything else. The featured band is the Dark Star Orchestra, a band that recreates past Dead concerts in their entirety.

People attribute a lot of different things to the Grateful Dead but above all else, they were a band. They weren’t interested in being cultural icons or leaders of any hippie movements. They just wanted to play their music. Garcia put it best when he said “If you get confused, listen to the music play.” While mainstream America has never really been able to see past the name, the drugs, the tie dyes and the hippies, the Dead’s contemporaries in the music industry certainly recognized and applauded the band’s incredible talent and versatility. There is NOTHING like a Grateful Dead concert! As a veteran of almost one hundred fifty Dead concerts between 1976 and 1990, I consider myself most fortunate to be a part of this big happy family of free spirited, creative folk.

In any event, I’ll spare you all any further explanations of my musical and cultural tastes or why I go to these events. Like Mileage Runs, you either get it or you don’t. I grew up with this music and I’ve been on the road since I was sixteen. I’ve no intention of ever living any differently, though I’ve certainly had plenty of experience on both sides of the tracks. What a long strange trip it’s been.

My friends Paul and Patti always park in the same area – a nice little clearing about 50 yards into the woods in the primitive camping area. Paul drives a bright yellow Volkswagen van, one of a few that he’s reconditioned over the years. He always comes out early to get a good place and that van is easy to spot. Since this isn’t a full weekend festival – only Friday evening and all day and night Saturday – the crowds are less and there’s a lot more room in the woods. We all camp in the woods. It’s way nicer in there. The numbered sites with water and electricity are better suited to the motor home crowd, some of whom stay in the park all winter. As such they are located on the far side of the park, away from all the music. Rich and Kelli showed up in their old station wagon with a great new bumper sticker: One nation under God with a side of fries and a large coke. My vehicle was a brand new Ford Taurus from Budget Car Rental. Not too many of those parked out in the woods.

This being a Trip Report and not a music review for Relix or An Honest Tune, I won’t bore you with all the musical details. Suffice to say that we had an excellent weekend and I’ll most certainly be looking forward to my return in mid-October for the Magnoliafest.


May 11, 2003
JAX-MIA 123p-307p American Eagle ATR-72 N499AT Coach Class
MIA-LAS 350p-619p American 757-223 N696AN Coach Class * Snack

My AS/AA award ticket between Fairbanks and Jacksonville allows me one enroute stopover, so I decided to take it in Las Vegas. I’ll only have about twenty hours there but that’ll be more than enough time to pick up a rental car and drive up to southwest Utah. I love the desert around Las Vegas and I particularly like speeding across it in a big car at sunset.

I only recently managed to find award space on this early afternoon connection through Miami to Las Vegas. I originally booked this itinerary through Alaska’s Partner Desk in January and the only available space was on an 7:55am departure through Dallas. Having to drive one hundred ten miles at the crack of dawn after a long night of music didn’t sound at all appealing to me and I tried early and often to get a later flight. Although AA showed most flights between JAX and LAS to have a fair amount of seats available, none of those seats were allocated to Alaska Airlines award travel. Finally, last Wednesday, on the day I arrived back in America, I called and got this later departure.

Normally when I’ve flown out for these visits to north Florida, I fly into Miami, spend a couple of days in the Everglades, then drive up US 27 past Lake Okeechobee and on through Kissimmee and Deland. I hadn’t flown into Jacksonville since 1980 and I must say that today’s JAX is a very nice medium sized airport. The access from the city is excellent and the terminal is open and spacious with plenty of shops and restaurants. I bought a sandwich at the Budweiser Lounge and awaited my 1:23pm departure.

An ATR-72 was scheduled to take us down to Miami today. American Eagle operates a huge fleet of Embraer and Canadair regional jets but alas, most of the intra Florida operation is with the ATRs. As propjets go however, the ATRs certainly beat a seat on a Beech or a smaller Embraer prop. Especially if you score an exit row seat as I did. Our route of flight took us right down Florida’s east coast, about two miles off shore all the way so we got excellent views of the coastline. I watched with interest as we passed by the clearly visible airports of Melbourne, West Palm Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. After landing in Miami, we taxied by the cargo area where DC-10s from Gemini, Varig Log and STAF were parked amongst L-1011s from Fine Air and a UPS 757 sporting a new color scheme. I only saw the rear half of the aircraft but I liked what I saw. That thick brown cheatline was getting kind of old.

American Eagle parks out amidst an orgy of ATRS at the end of the D Concourse. A bus took us across the tarmac to gate D-8 and from there it was only about a half-mile walk through a labyrinth of Heathrow like hallways to my connecting flight at A-7. I’d never been in Miami’s A Concourse before. It looks fairly new – lots of steel and glass, not to mention air conditioning. I liked it. TACA had four Airbuses parked at the gates, Avianca three plus a 767. Down the hall were 747s from Air France and BA. Tossed in amidst this potpourri of foreign jetliners was my 757 bound for Las Vegas.

If American has refurbished the interiors of any of its 757s a la its 737 and MD-80 fleet, I’ve yet to fly on one. This aircraft bore the same bland beige leather seats in First and robin egg blue seats in Coach that served American through the 90s. The flight was about 80% full and as we taxied out, I saw three 727-200s bearing the liveries of Aeropostal, Sol Air and Miami Air. Also of interest was a Polynesian Airlines 737-800 parked over at the Miami Air hangar. The highlight of my MIA plane spotting was a big, beautiful DC-8-71 from cargo stalwart Tampa Colombia.

Once we got airborne, everything about this flight was fairly ordinary. Flight time of 5 hours and 10 minutes, cruising at 39000 feet. Interestingly, despite the long flight, there was no hot meal offered in economy. The same Bistro Bag that sustains you on the 2 hour 50 minute LAX-DFW run also has to do the trick on this near transcon length flight. A movie was shown – some medieval tale starring William Hurt. Not today, thanks. High cloud cover along most of the route prevented any worthwhile viewing out my window as well, so I closed my shade and worked on this report. Be it work or play, having a power source that allowed me nonstop use of my computer during this five-hour flight was very much appreciated. Thank you, American Airlines!

We landed on a pretty evening at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport. I picked up a nearly new Chevy Impala and sped off into the desert.


May 12, 2003
LAS-SEA 140p-416p Alaska 737-4S3 N786AS Coach Class
SEA-ANC 552p-821p Alaska 737-4Q8 N782AS Coach Class * Dinner
ANC-FAI 938p-1035p Alaska 737-4Q8 N783AS Coach Class

Yesterday at this time, I was driving along Interstate 10 through lush Florida greenery enroute to Jacksonville. Today I was cruising along an unnamed two-lane blacktop climbing up through the Mormon Mountains out of Littlefield, Arizona. The Impala performed admirably as I accelerated through 85 mph at one point before noting the speed and backing off a bit. These big new cars are so quiet compared to my little Mazda pick-up. Anything over 65 in “Old Blue” and I know it! The Allman Brother’s Brothers And Sisters CD offered fine accompaniment as I blasted along through the clear desert air. Lord, I was born a ramblin’ man! This is the life!

Although I had hoped to have time to get up to Zion National Park, I only managed a brief visit through the Utah towns of Virgin and Toquerville, I returned to Las Vegas on Interstate 15 via the beautiful Virgin River canyon. To only have one day out here is just torture! I love the desolation of this region! Buttes, washes, shady canyons, bright sunshine and big skies. I’ve driven all over the west to the point where there aren’t many roads west of Kansas that I haven’t driven but Nevada, southeastern California and Arizona are my favorite areas. Ah well, hopefully I’ll be able to return here in just a couple of weeks.

Don’t be late for your Alaska flights out of LAS! Boarding for this flight had begun a half-hour in advance of our scheduled departure time of 1:40pm. There would be no meal service so I grabbed a big chicken burrito at the Taco Bell next to the gate. A couple of gates over, a US Airways 757 was in the final boarding process for Philadelphia. If facial expressions were any indication, the remaining passengers in the gate area didn’t look too happy over the prospect of returning back east. I think it was raining back there. Better them than me. Poor devils!

Push back was at 1:31pm – nine minutes early! It was a relatively cool day in Las Vegas – only about 85 – and after a takeoff roll of less than half a minute we were airborne right at 1:40pm. Departure times take on a new meaning down here! Two hours and seven minutes was the plan to Seattle where it was cloudy and 56 degrees. So what else is new? True to their name, the Sierra Nevadas were snow capped, in striking contrast to the dry brown desert below. We landed at 3:51pm, twenty-five minutes early, and I headed on down to the Boardroom for the layover.

When I’d made this reservation five months ago, this flight was a DC-9-80 and I was assigned an exit row window. Alas, now it was a 737-400 and seat 22C was back in the pack. As well, the flight was jam-packed. And, despite having an aisle seat, I was jam packed as well. My seatmate was huge woman whose bulk caused her arms to overflow into my seating area. While it seemed terribly unfair that a person of her size should end up crammed into a middle row, I wasn’t about to offer my aisle seat because in the window seat beside her sat her daughter who, while not quite as prodigiously proportioned as her mother, was hardly a svelte creature herself.

For a short time, Alaska was the only airline offering coach passengers full tray meals with hot entrees on non-transcon flights. All the majors had gone to Bistro Bags or hot sandwiches, if they offered anything at all. Alas, such is now the case at Alaska as well. Gone are the hot dinner entrees like pesto pasta or whitefish with dill sauce. Tonight’s choices were:

Cheeseburger with pickle relish
Or
Turkey and Pesto sandwich

Both entrees were presented in Alaska’s wicker basket with potato salad and a lemon Snicker Doodle cookie. I went with the turkey pesto and washed it down with a can of Sprite. Although the pesto part of this sandwich required some imagination, it was nice to at least have something hot.

Clouds obscured the beautiful coastal views for the entire journey and this flight was mercifully over after three hours and twenty-two minutes.
Although I’d been told in Seattle that the flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks was also full, I found plenty of seats open, including both exit rows. I took a seat in 14A and enjoyed not one but two chilled apple juices as we whisked up to Fairbanks in what may have been my fastest time ever – only 37 minutes. The forecast for this evening in Fairbanks was scattered showers with snow above 2000 feet. Ah… it’s good to be home!

Tomorrow, I throw my life into the back of my truck and relocate to my summer home of Denali National Park. It’ll be nice to have my own bed again, not to mention regular paychecks. I’ll have the next nine days on the ground and then, depending upon how the first and second period route bids go, I may be adding the final chapter to this trip report. I’ve already bought the non refundable tickets and if I can’t get off and must work, I’ll make up their value by working days I would not have otherwise planned upon working. So, we’ll know in the next few days if there is to be an epilogue to this story.


PART 9: FENWAY PARK, MILEAGE RUNS AND SOUTHWEST ADVENTURE
MILE 80540 - 106960
By Air: 24850
By Car: 1570 Miles

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 was 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 passengers 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 just went from good to 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 weeklong 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 that 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 and I feel 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 lead 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 okay.


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 soundproofed 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 most 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!

Service began with drinks followed by dinner. The entree choices were 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 got to be a real treat to be a pilot flying for Alaska or 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 Class 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 basis, 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 are the 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 boarded 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 delivered to 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 a pillow and blanket when I arrived. I was out soon after take off and didn’t awake 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 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. 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 hoagie 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 wineglasses. 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 gotten me into 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 fair 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 on 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 by 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 the 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. 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 Fairbanks

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 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. I rode busses for a further 890 mi9les and hitched only 110 miles. Not including my Maria island trip, I boated only 10 miles.

Frequent_Flyer1

I DO know what you are speaking of ... a really fantastic trip report. Very detailed and enjoyable to read!!! I'll definitely read all three parts.



[This message has been edited by Frequent_Flyer1 (edited 05-26-2003).]

Seat 2A

xxxxx

alexwuk

Incredible. You must publish these; I for one would pay good money to buy these in Hardback form (finally - something appropriate to read on a plane!).

Thank you for the time you've put into these reports. Really the best I've ever read.

Regards,
Alex

mymiles2go

Awesome report as usuall!

Canista

Sorry to read this!

Another truly brilliant report, all 107 pages of it (so far, in Word)!

flamboyant 1

Hey,

many magazines would pay money for these reports!
Excellent quality.
Randy should publish them ( one at a time ) in his Insideflyer. A great read.