September 6, 2023
Lost Day
Why is it that no matter how far you fly, an entire day is lost and even though you spend most of the day sitting on an airplane, you end the day exhausted?
I was up at 3am and Jim shortly thereafter. An hour later we picked up Jim’s brother, Jon, and headed for the Sacramento airport. With light traffic we made great time and we were checking in by 5:30 for our 7 am flight. Jon drove our car home.
The last time we flew was pre-pandemic. The Sacramento airport has grown considerably since we were last there, and it was pretty crowded. Very few people were masking, say 10%, in spite of recent increases in viral cases. We wore masks in the airport and only took them off once the plane was in the air and the ventilation system was on.
We had a connector flight from Chicago. Our Sacramento plane arrived at gate C20, way at the end of one terminal, and we had to walk all the way out to gate F20, at the end of another terminal. Walking fast, it took us about 20 minutes! We arrived at our gate about 15 minutes before boarding began.
The flight from Chicago to Rochester was fast. The Rochester airport is small and not very crowded. We had a cart, our baggage and car keys within 20 minutes of landing. Finding our hotel was easy thanks to Google maps, in spite of a detour around the road on which it is located.
Roughly 5 hours of flying time translated to almost 15 hours of travel time.
The Rochester Holiday Inn is pretty dated and is undergoing major renovation. But right now it is very torn up and the adjacent road is closed. We are on the 6th floor and even though the AC is set to less than 60, the room is 78 degrees warm. However the staff so far have been very accommodating. Our bike boxes were waiting for us in the lobby. They are fine with storing them while we are riding. Hopefully that will make up for the weak AC and the general mess that is the hotel right now.
As I write this, Jim is picking up Amber, Rich and their bikes and luggage at the airport. It will probably take 2 trips to get them, and all their “stuff” to the hotel.
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