Volaré, oh-oh, cantaré, oh-oh-oh-oh

October 19, 2023

With an alarm set for 6am (travel day jitters? it wasn't my idea but I rolled with it) and most things packed, the day began with waiting. It was good practice for all the waiting that would follow.

More than anything, I think we were waiting for something to go wrong. That's what causes the jitters in the first place: you really have to give yourself a lot of time, you really have to make sure you have everything in its proper place, you really have to rely on others to help you succeed in getting from point to point. There are a lot of gauntlets to run. It's stressful.

Our taxi driver arrived a few minutes before 8am, which was awesome, but boy did he wake up on the wrong side of bed. He muttered under his breath a lot, and you could tell he was making an effort to be nice to us. That's to his credit. Everyone's entitled to have a bad day now and then.

The ticket counter agents all appeared to be greenhorns. There was a lot of scratching of heads and asking co-workers questions and shrugging of shoulders with each customer. We'd secured our place in line just before the crowds appeared, but even so, it must've taken a half hour to check in. We brought the bikes over to the big x-ray machine and got the big thumbs-up within a minute. TSA, are you taking notes?

The plane was late arriving to the gate, and the various delays added up to about 40 minutes. Thankfully airlines pad their schedules to allow for such stuff, because we had a fairly tight connection at Dublin. The nice thing about Dublin is that they have a pre-clearance arrangement with the U.S. We go through immigration and customs at the connection, freeing us from the drudgery of dealing with it after the longer flight. The downside is that you do need some extra time to complete it. By the time we got to the Dublin-Seattle gate, they had already started boarding.

Other than these little delays, everything went off without a hitch. The overseas flight was pleasant. Our luggage was among the last to appear, but it was all very much intact. Yay!

Taxi to plane to plane to train to bike to train to bike. Fun times.

We have maintained a 100% success rate with assembling our bikes in the airport and riding home. I have to admit that sometimes I dream that our bike boxes get lost, only to be delivered directly to our home the next day. In a way, that would be sweet. Not worth the worry it would cause, though. I think about how we can just flag down a minivan cab and be home much sooner. I think about how comfortable it would be to put the bikes together at home with the right tools and a nice bike stand.

There's something satisfying about this method. It's a survivalist thing, I think. It's like doing a good field repair, the kind where you don't feel any need to hurry up and get to the next town with a bike shop. If I can assemble our torn-down bikes with my multitool and frame pump in a crowded, noisy airport after a long flight, it means I've got the process down pat.

If we ever had to stay overnight at SeaTac, we'd have a pretty comfy setup, what with our sleeping bags and such

There was no damage to the boxes nor to either bike. We test rode the bikes in the airport parking lot on our way to the light rail station. They performed admirably. Lucky for us, the train wasn't crowded, and the weather was pretty good. We got off the train, turned on our lights, and set our sights for home once again.

Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 2,170 km (1,348 miles)

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