Road Trip: Up The Middle Of The Country

Day 20: Thursday, May 23, 2024 - Travel to DE

Day's statistics:
Weather: low 60°s
Steps: Steve 7,938; Linda 5,974
Travel: 1,655 miles

Today's breakfast was delayed.
We got ready and headed down to breakfast. There wasn't much available at this early hour - it was 6:10. So we decided to just get something at the airport - not something we usually do...

We had never dropped off a car so early in the morning before - and frankly, this was the first non-Philadelphia car rental we were dropping off (and certainly won't be our last).
The airport was less than six miles from the hotel.
Though there was an Avis facility all the way over there, there was a car rental drop-off lot next to the terminal.
But all the spaces were full... so I parked on the yellow slash lines at the end of the row.
I took pictures around the car, and then we headed into the terminal.
The Avis counter wasn't personed, but there was an envelope drop box, But there were no envelopes. I dropped the keys in anyway. It was only 6:30.
Then we walked across the terminal to the ticket counter. Check-in was a breeze and Linda's bag weighed 34 pounds, and mine weighed 45 pounds.
We made our way upstairs.

We breezed through security because we had TSA preCheck.
Our 8:00 flight was on time. While our final destination was Philly, we had to transfer in Minneapolis.

We arrived at gate 3 - pretty much the only gate open this early (it is a small airport) - at 6:50, and had over an hour before we took off. So I went to the café on the other side of the gate area.


Though they had grab-and-go sandwiches available, I wanted two that weren't there. So I special ordered Linda an ham and egg on a bagel, and I had a sausage, egg, and cheese on a bagel. We shared a coffee.
Boarding began at 7:20.
Our group was called at 7:30.
When we got to our row, 17, someone was sitting in a seat belonging to the third person in our row.
The buy belonged in the row in front of us, at the end.
So the two of us had to get out, this guy had to get out, then the guy that belonged there had to sit. Then the mis-seated buy had to move to the row in front of us - while more people were coming on the plane. So they had to be stopped. Then the two people in that row had to get out and the culprit sat, then everntually everyone was able to sit, and passengers could continue to board.
The plane started to move at 8:00, and we took off at 8:10.
Linda had water and chips for snack, I had cookies and a coffee.

At 9:07 we landed and were at the gate at 9:15.
We deplaned and made our way to gate D4.

When we arrived, there was a fifteen minute delay in our flight. Eh, no big deal.
It didn't take too long before that delay was extended. To an hour...

Oh come on... At least we had phones to play with.
Over the PA system we could hear that the group on the other side of the section where we were sitting had delays as well. It turns out there was bad weather in the greater New York area that was impacting the arrival of their plane. Eventaully they called for boarded and the crowd erupted into cheers.
But for us, we had to wait. And then the delay was extend another fifteen minutes. Boy this sounds like it is turning into our train delay when we were in Hamburg...

While we idled in the airport, we took a selfie.

We eventaully boarded and at 11:30 we were seated.
Nearly a half hour later, at 11:57, we finally started moving - but then sat for 8 minutes.
Take off was 12:10.
We watched the movie Equalizer 3.
We had another snack in flight. Linda had a coffee and cookies and I, again, had coffee and cookies.

During the flight, we didn't do too much looking out the window.


At 3:05 local time we landed, and in 8 minutes we were at the gate.
We had our luggage at 3:35.
We made ouor way to pick up location 3 and called the parking lot to be picked up.
At 3:50 we were on the shuttle to the lot.
On the way to the lot, the driver called in to ask about the traffic on i95. He was told it was still backed up, so he stayed on the access road.

As traffic was reported to be backed up, rather than take i95 ourselves to go home, we too took the service road - aka route 13, aka Governor Printz Blvd - all the way to 495. We took 495 for a couple exits and then took Route 9 the rest of the way.
As our drive took us into New Castle, we decided to stop at Food Lion to buy all the perishables we needed - especially milk to replace the quart that was accidentally left in the fridge before we left.
And that's also when we realized our vacation was over, and we were back to reality.

Shortly - twenty or so minutes - after our shopping was complete, we were back at home.
Linda took the groceries, and I dragged the luggage in. We unpacked, put clothes into the hamper, and put the groceries away.
Our vacation was over and our life started to return to normal - Linda was going to go to work tomorrow.
Now we can look forward to our Viking Cruise this fall.

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