By Air
Saturday, December 27th, 2008Went to San Jose for Christmas with my daughter and family. We flew from Providence to there thru Las Vegas. Never did get a chance to play the slots at the airport. The flight out hit a 150 knot headwind and we only had a few minutes to make a connection - so missed that time. Southwest Airlines still got us to San Jose on time.
On the way back we had a 2 hour layover - so figured we would have planty of time. When we got in we looked at the departure monitor and found out that instead of a 2 hour layover, our flight would be delayed for 4 more hours - arriving at around 4AM. There was a lot of snow in the north and the northwest. We went to a desk and signed up for standby for a delayed flight that would get us to Providence via Baltimore. Since we figured we had a small chance to get on, we decided to grab lunch - by the time we got back to the gate we got called and made it… Good lesson - always check the monitor immediately. The people that grabbed a beer and lunch before checking the monitor probably didn’t make the standby list.
Of course with Southwest’s open seating, we were close to last in line to pick out seats. I really like the aisle seats - there were none in sight. I spotted what looked like a young couple with a coat in the middle seat and told them the plane was full and would they mind if I sat in that seat - she moved over so I had an aisle seat - SCORE!! Another lesson - look for a couple.
We did get to see the Grand Canyon from the air on both flights - pretty impressive with the snow on the tops. Las Vegas is interesting from the air. I have not spent much time in deserts. Arond here - if land is vacant there are trees. Out there - it just seems vacant. The town seems to be built block by block. There are full blocks next to empty space. In New England - people seem to spread out more - of course water is not as much of a problem.
We got into Providence at around 1:30 AM - that was 10:30 Pacific time - not too bad. Home and in bed by 3AM. Some jet (sleep) lag today. Got up on time to pick up Effie at 9. She stays in a kennel with some friends that raise Newfoundlands - some of the best show dogs in the country - including my buddy Jimmy. They like her and treat her well. She was still very happy to get in the car and come home - big walk and some treats—.