10:30 p.m. local time, Sunday, Sept. 9th
We are at the Quality Inn in Aurora, CO for the night, having arrived just a few minutes ago. The familiar smell of Lysol permiates the air. I can't get the sink to stop dripping. The trucker next door has his TV blaring. Luxurious accommodations! I had thought $55 was a good deal until i saw the $43 neon Motel Six sign flashing next door. I'm talking to the manager in the morning. A continental breakfast awaits me at 6 a.m. I'm wondering whether Eric will join me before they close it down at 10.
I like to get to airports early but today was ridiculous. It was halftime of our soccer game, around 1:55 p.m. and Eric refused to wait til the end of the game to join me for a ride to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 6:13 (it ended up leaving at 7:15) and the drive was 15 minutes. Eric says he had a mild case of traveling anxiety. My diagnosis was a little more severe, closer to full blown psychosis. Four hours early for a flight? What else is in store for this week?? Lord please look over me.
Our four and a half hour flight left an hour late. They said it was because of mechanical problems. I have my doubts. I looked out the terminal window and saw a large United Airlines Air Bus land and then get immediately surrounded by fleet of yellow fie engines. Smoke was coming from the left engine. I think they had cleared the runways of all take-offs and landings. They just didn't want to tell us so.
Back in the terminal Eric was making a scene. Our flight was full and he didn't want his assigned middle seat. Whaa whaa whaa. Cry me a river. Rather than hear about it all trip I decided to swap seats with him. He gave zero recognition to the fact that I recently had a full hip replacement.
As for our itinerary, here we go again. For months we've been talking about taking our large touring bikes from Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park, then heading southwest through Vail, Silverton, Durango and beyond. Yesterday I received a text message from Eric saying "Let's get smaller dual-sport bikes instead. We can spend the week in the mountains on dirt and rocky back roads? This could be the best trip ever or we could die." Hmm, way to sell it Eric. You may recall this is the same guy who led me on to Interstate 15 in Utah (Google it) for my first motorcycle ride. He also took me down black diamond slopes my first time skiing. There is a pattern here.
Privately, I must say, the back roads are tempting. I just flipped through Eric's paperback "The Complete Guide to Motorcycling in Colorado." There are many rarely traveled trails through old ghost towns and rocky canyons, and over mountain passes with sweeping views. I'm not sure we can pass them up. We'll decide for sure in the morning.
My eyelids are heavy. Time to call it a night.
I can't wait for our adventure to start. No matter the weather and destination, it's sure to be a blast.
Goodnight.
-George
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These trips start with great expectations and excitement. I have the feeling that this will be the best one yet, as all the others were (as they were at the time, until, of course, the next trip).
There are always glitches and we have had a few here already. Northeastern women's soccer is, of course, the reason why we can't take a full week or ten days. George is now the "voice" on radio for those rampaging Huskies so he could not leave until the very end of the game, which caused me to have significant anxiety about getting to the airport at least three hours before the flight is scheduled to take off.
So I took a cab at halftime. It was a US Airways flight with a US Airways flight number so I thought I foolishly thought I should go to the US Airways terminal. After standing in line for a while, a helpful attendant told me that notwithstanding the above, I should go to the United Airlines terminal. After waiting half an hour for a terminal shuttle bus, I walked the short half mile to Terminal C carrying 100 pounds of luggage. (George packs lightly as it is understood that I will carry (and buy) all communal equipment. In the past, "communal" has been defined quite broadly and includes many items, (gloves, rain jackets, etc.) that a careful reader might justly conclude were "personal" to the individual rider. But let's not be negative). Thoughtfully, I texted George to tell him to go to the United gate as he was still busy doing the play by play.
I arrived at the United Terminal but could find no trace of United. It appeared to be just a Jet Blue terminal. But there was in fact a small United ticket counter. I then proceeded to security. Our little conveyor belt line came to a complete halt for 30 minutes because of an absence of plastic luggage bins, causing a meeting of high level TSA employees about what to do about the problem. After much deliberation and apparent debate, it became apparent that the problem could be fixed if the luggage bins are actually taken from the "after screening area" and brought back to the start of the conveyor belt.
After clearing security, I went to my gate and waited for about an hour. I then noticed it was a Jet Blue gate. Was the original US Airways flight, which had become a United flight, now a Jet Blue flight? It seemed possible. But no, my final destination was not Ft. Lauderdale and I should have been at gate 20, not 26. While the numbers were close, the gates were not. One half mile later, I arrived at the right gate and George was right behind me, wondering why I was still so anxious.
So there has already been adventure and unexpected events and we are off to a good start. There is confusion and some disagreement on the route we should take, but I own the GPS and the map.
- Eric
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Quality Inn, Aurora, CO
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