Scott wrote this around lunchtime:
Yesterday was a day of travel, and like most days of travel for me, it had its share of problems. And not the ordinary “hydroplaning on the highway” kind of problems. Things leaned more towards the “Ok, Alaska, you prominently refer to your visitors that you only a very limited number of highways, so, maybe you could put an exit off of one of them for the airport? Or perhaps a sign saying where to exit to reach International Airport Road? I can see the street sign for from the highway, so obviously the highway passes fairly close.”
The airport in general wasn’t too bad, possibly some extra people at the baggage checkin would have been helpful so that it wasn’t two stations for every one person working, but it didn’t take too long, and the flight left more or less on time.
And since I didn’t have to change planes (cue beginning of quiet yet slightly ominous music) at my stop over, for once, there wasn’t much concern of missing my connection, or losing my luggage. After reboarding the plane, the pilot announced that an actuator was stuck, so the mechanics were adding fluid to it, and it should start moving in a few minutes (ominous music gets louder). 20 mintues later, the next announcement indicates another 20 minutes and it should be repaired. At this point, the pilot and co-pilot exit the plane (Increasingly ominous music). 20 minutes later, a flight attendent announces that we will be disembarking the plane, and they will try to find us a different one.
After a half hour or so, they find us one, and we head out to a different terminal, where we kick some people off of their gate and seize it as our own and paint the Republic of Alaskan Flight 92 flag on the wall, as we are starting to feel very unified and family-like. We do, however, get to board the plane at some point. And wait, and wait, and wait a little more for our baggage to make its way to the new plane. We don’t want to lose it after-all.
At last, about 2.5 hours delayed, which isn’t too bad really, we push back from the gate and begin our journey, and perhaps the pilot is a bit too eager, as there is a squealing noise everytime the plane takes a corner. Probably just the brakes were a bit worn though.
We arrive at LAX, and a group trying to make a Quantas connection are stacked up at the front of the plane to try to make the sprint as soon as the door is opened. The rest of us go about our business. I personally head to down to the baggage claim. Where people are stacked about 5 deep around the claim watching the baggage from at least 4 flights pop out at around 1 bag every 15 seconds.
At long last, my luggage comes out. In a somewhat more extended form than I remember it going in as. So, I scoop up some lose pieces and try to take an inventory of what should be in a bag, vs what is in the bag. At that point, it appears that only 5 of 6 bottles of water have fallen out and did not come through the baggage handling system and that the sheet packed at the top of the bag held most things in.
The final inventory post-unpacking shows the loss of my rain suit pants and associated bag they were stuffed in, and the pants and shirt that I had slept in the night before. With the pants and shirt, there is an equal chance that they fell out or that I left them in the bathroom after changing in the morning. I’m pretty sure the pants were packed though, since I never unpacked them.
I’m glad I took today off too though, since I slept in until 10, and should really start on the laundry for those things that did come back.
Filed under: Geek Love,General
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