Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Thanksgiving '24 Travelog #16
Back Home - Mon, 2 Dec 2024, 12:15am

Hawk and I got home late this evening from our Thanksgiving trip to the east coast. We always knew it was going to be a late evening as our flight was scheduled to leave Baltimore at 7:10pm and land in Oakland at 10:10. Best case we'd be home a bit after 11, we knew.. For a few hours at the airport our flight showed on time, with the inbound aircraft flying on schedule. But then....



Then Southwest changed our aircraft. The one that was due to land 90 minutes ahead of boarding our flight was swapped over to another flight and we were assigned an aircraft that couldn't possibly get to us in time for our scheduled departure. We left 30 minutes late. We landed 30 minutes late, too. The upshot was that we got home-home, as in walked through our own front door, a few minutes before midnight.

Turning Around Tomorrow Morning

Coming home at midnight would be one thing if all I had to do was work from home in the morning. I'd be dragging but I'd manage it. Instead I have to get up early tomorrow morning to pack another suitcase and go back to the airport! I'll be headed off to a big trade show in Las Vegas for 3½ days.

Of course I planned ahead for this so I don't have to do laundry before going back out... but I do have to ready a bunch of specific things. Thus I'll be busy in the morning. And I planned for that with my flight time, too. I booked at 11am-ish flight instead of one leaving around 9am. That'll give me time to do the things I need to do... though I will be busy and there won't be time to spare.

About the Parking Gambit...

Recall when we embarked on this trip 9 days ago we had trouble getting an Uber or Lyft ride in time. We punted on waiting for a car and drove— which meant we had to park. And airport parking at OAK was more expensive than I expected. I thought it'd run us about $180 for the trip. It ran $236.

Part of the problem with Uber and Lyft, though, was that not only were there no drivers nearby, the fares were ridiculously high. We'd have had to pay around $100, maybe more, for a ride. We imagine that our ride tonight, when an after-hours surcharge would apply, would make it another $100 proposition. The prospect of spending $200 on rides softened the blow of spending $236 on parking. Well, I checked when we landed at the airport near 11pm. Lyft would've been about $80 coming home tonight. So driving our own car cost us about $56 more in parking than the rides would've cost. Is there a value in the convenience of having our own car instead of a potentially cramped and smelly back seat of someone else's car? Absolutely. But is it worth $56? Enh. Next time we fly OAK we'll plan ahead of time on driving and make a parking reservation, which lowers the daily rate.

Thanksgiving '24 Travelog #12
Outside Harrisburg, PA - Fri, 29 Nov 2024, 11pm

Today is Black Friday and I've stayed home. I haven't gone shopping— either in brick-and-mortar stores or online from home. Though technically I'm not home. I'm 2,400 miles away at my inlaws'. But Hawk and I are here for 4 night, as we often do around Thanksgiving nowadays. Let's call it our home away from home.

I got up at a leisurely hour of 8 or 8:30 this morning, went downstairs for some breakfast, and chatted with MIL a bit as she was the only one up and about. She was busy in the kitchen, as usual. We keep offering to do things for her so she can take a break from doing all the food-related work, but she's happiest doing it herself. The kitchen is her happy place.

The plan had been for my sister and her family to come over from their hotel nearby to say goodbye— and have a rich, freshly cooked brunch— before starting their drive home to Savannah, Georgia. My sister was feeling ill, though, and didn't want a big meal or the pressures of long family goodbyes before hitting the road. Instead I drove over to their hotel and chatted with them in the lobby after they'd loaded their bags in the car.

After seeing them off I returned to the house and socialized with my inlaws, who were now all up. After a bit I went back up to my room to hibernate and do not-job work on my computer. Family is relaxing but also frustrating because it's the same three conversations over and over.

By midafternoon I felt tired from even hiding in our room so I took a nap. Hawk woke me in time for dinner. It was... kind of leftovers from the 60th anniversary dinner when we visited here three weeks ago! "Kind of" meaning it was chili made from the short ribs we ate back then. I understand there are even more short ribs awaiting Second Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. 😟 Two things about my MIL are: 1) she cooks for no fewer than 40 so there are always lots of leftovers, and 2) leftovers are never thrown out; you will eat them until they're gone.

After dinner was more conversation with my inlaws, but again, the same three topics. There's definitely more we could talk about, things I know are pertinent to everyone present and not at all landmines like trying to talk politics with a MAGA person in the room, but no  matter how many times I try to change the subject to one of these it gets changed back within 2 minutes.

Thanksgiving '24 Travelog #1
OAK airport - Sat, 23 Nov 2024, 6:20am

Hawk and I were up early this morning, like alarms set at 4:30am early, to begin our Thanksgiving trip. It was still pitch dark out when I checked Uber and Lyft at 5:10am to roll to OAK airport. The fares were ± $100. I chose Lyft and... waited. It was still pitch dark out at 5:15am when I gave up waiting on their shenanigans with how long it would take for a driver to arrive, even after trying the more expensive "priority pickup". It was still pitch dark out at 5:17am when we decided "Fuck it, we'll drive our car to the airport and pay for parking," as I backed our car out of the garage. The enshittification of everything.

It's mostly pitch dark out now at 6:20am as I write this, sitting comfortably in the airport gate area. The first light of day has just appeared over the trees. Actual sunrise isn't for another 38 minutes.

Oh, and the decision to park at the airport was not quite the over-under I thought it would be. When Uber/Lyft cars were running ±$100 each way I figured that parking, 9 days at $20, would be cheaper. Nope, parking is now $26/day. So driving is not cheaper, even at eye-watering ride costs. Well, at least we have certainty about our schedule. And don't have to wait for pickup-time shenanigans when we arriving home 9 days from now, late at night and tired.

Our flight departs at 7:30am. Tracking shows the inbound aircraft operating on schedule. So chances seems good we'll depart on time. The airline is even estimating we'll arrive on the east coast 20-25 minutes early. This is Southwest Airlines, though. I'm all but certain they'll find a way to leave 10 minutes late and waste that 20-25 minute buffer somewhere.

Thanksgiving Travelog #14
BWI Airport - Sun, 26 Nov 2023. 2:45pm.

We started wrapping up our Thanksgiving trip this morning when we packed our bags and said goodbye to Hawk's parents. That was only the start of wrapping up as we still have to travel home— clear across the country.

The drive down to the airport went smoothly. We planned extra time in our schedule in case of Sunday-after-Thanksgiving traffic slowdowns. I remember driving home from Thanksgiving visits years ago and Sunday traffic being awful. Well, it was smooth sailing this time. I think a big part of that was us hitting the road at 11am. The worst slowdowns probably occur mid-afternoon.



Arriving plenty early to BWI airport seems ironic because our flight out is delayed. At first it was 5-10 minutes, then 15-20, now just over 30. Meanwhile our connecting flight at BNA (Nashville) is showing on time. Thankfully we picked a routing with an 85 minute connection instead of a faster one of 55-60 minutes. So even if we're late 35 minute on arrival we won't miss our connection or even have to run to catch it... though we will have to walk quickly.

Thanksgiving Travelog #12
Camp Hill, PA - Sat, 25 Nov 2023. 11am.

Yesterday I quipped that Black Friday 2023 was no worse than Medium-Gray. It turns out I wasn't the only one who arrived at that opinion— although the colorful turn of phrase remains uniquely mine, AFAICT. Various news articles in financial and mainstream media noted the same thing.

"Shoppers are tired out; Black Friday deals started last weekend," some explained. "Shoppers are choosy and not seeing great bargains," others opined.

I see both from my own POV. Though I'd note that Black Friday deals actually started before last weekend. Stores were decked out for Christmas sales over a week before Halloween. My email has been full of "pre-Black Friday" sale spam since at least mid-November. And sales while we were out visiting various stores yesterday were hit-or-miss. Some seemed like just the normal level of everyday discounting. Bigger-than-usual deals were mostly the kind that have been available for at least a week. Truly door-buster deals, where current-model electronics are on sale for, like, half price, were extremely few. In fact, I saw just one. And I'm kicking myself now for not scooping it up! 🤣

Thanksgiving Travelog #10
Camp Hill, PA - Thu, 23 Nov 2023. 11pm.

Another Thanksgiving is in the record books. There was a big meal. Whatever. Thanksgiving isn't a big deal for us, per se. We don't cook huge meals. We don't celebrate traditions or mythologize the day's history. We do travel for Thanksgiving. We travel to visit family most years[1], family whom we otherwise see only once or occasionally twice a year. It's seeing that family we celebrate. Family is what we're thankful for.

The big meal today was at the house of my inlaws' close friends. They and my inlaws both love to cook and host dinners. Thus, they take turns for Thanksgiving (and Passover). And by "take turns" I mean they both cook for each holiday. Today was Thanksgiving dinner at the friends' house; Saturday is Second Thanksgiving at my inlaws'.

[1] Since traveling to visit family has become our Thanksgiving tradition I checked back through my blogs to see how often we've done it. Across the previous 5 years we're at 3 out of 5. Last year and the year before we traveled to visit our parents and other relatives. In 2020 with the Coronavirus pandemic raging Thanksgiving was canceled. We cooked a meal for ourselves at home. In 2019 we traveled to visit family. In 2018 we traveled but it was for hiking trips in California. That year we ate Thanksgiving dinner at a Denny's restaurant.

Thanksgiving Travelog #1
SFO Airport - Fri, 17 Nov 2023. 10:15pm.

We're headed out tonight for our Thanksgiving vacation. Yes, Thanksgiving is still 6 days away. And yes, it's late at night for starting a trip. We're taking a red-eye flight tonight.

We'll spend the next few days in the Washington, DC suburbs. A bunch of my relatives live there; we'll be visiting them. A few of Hawk's friends from college live there, too; we'll see them also. And we'll spend at least one day visiting museums in DC.

Wednesday night we'll drive north to central Pennsylvania, where Hawk's parents live. We'll stay with them for a few days, enjoying Thanksgiving dinner(s) with them and family friends. Yes, I pluralized dinners because they have two. Thursday evening is the big, main Thanksgiving dinner, at the friends' house. Friday evening is Second Thanksgiving, smaller and slightly less formal, hosted by my inlaws.

That's all in the more distant future, though. In the immediate future is this red-eye flight. Flying overnight isn't my favorite thing, as I'll be lucky if I get even 4 hours of sleep and I have a full day of visiting relatives and friends planned for tomorrow. But spending all of tomorrow flying instead of visiting, which is the alternative to spending all of tonight flying, is not my favorite, either. All I get to choose is the lesser evil. Red-eye flying, it is!

Thanksgiving '22 Travelog #9
Near Harrisburg, PA - Sat, 26 Nov 2022, 1am

As I explained yesterday, my inlaws don't just do one holiday meal, they do two. They pair up with family friends to celebrate with big meals twice. It's an outgrowth of how they celebrate Jewish holidays such as Passover and Rosh Hashanah. Second Thanksgiving, at least, is less elaborate than First Thanksgiving. Instead of having two meat dishes and 7 sides we only had 1 meat dish and 5 sides. Oh, and a table of appetizers and several desserts.

Dinner was early, with appetizers at 4:15 and the main meal at 5. Even though we ate leisurely and had lots of conversations, guests started saying their goodbyes at what felt late at night— yet it was only 7:30pm! With the switch away from Daylight Saving Time a few weeks ago it always feels like it's late night already at 7:30pm, as by then it has already been full dark for a few hours.

After the guests departed I helped MIL clean up in the kitchen. It seemed like Friday would be another going-to-bed-at-9pm day. But then we all found second winds. With the table cleared, leftovers packed away, and dishwasher running, we stayed up chatting until after midnight!

Thanksgiving '22 Travelog #7
Near Harrisburg, PA - Fri, 25 Nov 2022, 9am

For Thanksgiving I switched sides of the family I was visiting. Early Thursday morning I left town where my mother, my youngest sister, and her family live, and drove to central Pennsylvania, around Harrisburg. Along the way I stopped at Dulles airport to pick up Hawk, who'd arrived on a red-eye from San Francisco. It was 40-45 minutes to the airport for me, then a bit under 2 hours from there to Harrisburg.

Hawk was ready for a nap when we arrived at her parents' place. She had gotten about 4 hours of sleep on the flight, which is nearly the max possible, but that still wasn't enough. That's okay; we all plan for things like that when taking these red-eye flights. I chatted with my inlaws for a few hours while she slept it off. ...Okay, I napped for about an hour, too. 😅

My brother in law arrived later in the afternoon. Around 3:45 we all headed over to a family friend's for Thanksgiving dinner. MIL and this friend always split holiday cooking/hosting. By "split" I mean they take turns. And by "take turns" I mean they both do it. One hosts Thanksgiving dinner, the other hosts Second Thanksgiving dinner, on Friday. 🤣

Thanksgiving dinner was great. There were 14 people there between our family, their family, and a few additional family friends. The food was delicious— as it always is with MIL and her friend. And we get to do it again tonight!

Thanksgiving '22 Travelog #1
SFO Airport - Fri, 18 Nov 2022, 10:15pm

Tonight I'm flying east for Thanksgiving. I'm taking a redeye flight tonight to Virginia, where I'll visit with relatives tomorrow through Wednesday. Thursday morning I'll pick Hawk up at the airport (she's taking a Wednesday night redeye) and we'll spend the holiday weekend with her parents in Pennsylvania.

The trip so far today has been easy. Of course I've only gotten as far as the airport, 35 minutes by car from home! And now I'm in one of the United lounges enjoying a gin and tonic.

The journey hasn't been all smiles, though. After I booked this tip six months ago United Airlines changed the schedule, then canceled the flight and booked me onto another, then changed the schedule on that flight, then inexplicably kicked me out of the nice seat I'd reserved six months in advance and into an inferior one. I was able to get back into a better seat, though not quite as good as the original.

For all that fuss, the hard part comes next. In 20 minutes I put down my gin and tonic(s), board the aircraft, then try to see how many hours (or minutes 😰) of sleep I can get while crammed aboard a 5 hour overnight flight in coach class.

At least there's free food and drink to relax with for now. And the flight's not delayed— yet. 😅