Western Trip #2 Day 10: Going Home-July 17, 2019

A long day ahead of us and mine was off to a lousy start. My left knee had me in absolute agony for a good chunk of the night.
My daughter J and I got up at 6 and went down to the ground floor for breakfast 25 minutes later. The choices were very limited and none of it was hot food. I made a bowl of cereal and got a yogurt, but neither the milk nor the yogurt was low cal. This hotel definitely expects people to stay only one night, so they don't put themselves out. We'd noticed that the room really had nowhere to unpack your bags.

 By 7:05, we had the car packed up and we were checked out of the hotel. The odometer read 43975, when we set off looking for a gas station that was easy to get into, that is, that was easy to access. At 7:10 (43976), we found a Chevron down the street from the hotel. The car only needed 1.502 gallons @$3.599. That, of course, took no time at all, and we set off for the airport.
At 7:27, we dropped the car at Hertz and the final reading on the odometer was 43979. After a pit stop, we caught the bus to the SeaTac terminal at 7:40. The ride took only 9 minutes. Even more astounding was that our bags were checked at 7:55. And, amazingly, we got through security at 8, thank to TSA Precheck.
Gate D8 was a ten minute walk away. In spite of the fact that we were flying across the country, we would not be given lunch onboard. So, we picked up a garden turkey sandwich and a chicken pesto wrap for $9.99 each. However, tax here was almost 10%, so the bill came to $21.98. Ouch!

We had plenty of time to kill and before settling in to read my Smithsonian magazine, I decided to do some math. I found that I'd driven 2,447 miles on this trip! The distance from Orlando to Seattle by car is 3,073.3 miles, so I'd driven more than 2/3 of that distance. Wow! And, J had had time to get a lot more of the needlework done. She was not able to finish it all, but will hand off the rest to me in October, when she comes down to Disney with friends for a bachelorette weekend. Meanwhile, what she's given me will be great.
Just before 10:30, I realized that our plane was out there. I noticed that it was pretty gray, too, which seemed appropriate for Seattle.

At 10:40, we were seated across the aisle from each other in seats 12 C and D on American Airlines flight 560 to Charlotte, North Carolina. The pilot announced a 10 minute delay due to aircraft in the "alleyway", a term I had to look up. It means the space between two rows of jetways that has only enough room for one plane at a time. Something learned.
The plane pushed back at 11:05 and took off at 11:30. I was glad to see that there was an entertainment console. I watched the new A Star is Born, which I'd meant to go see in theaters. It was really good.
The plane landed  at 6:32 pm EDT. It took a while to actually get to the gate and deplane. Finally, at 7:10, we got off at gate C12. Since J's flight would depart after mine and her gate was not far from mine, she went with me and carried my carry-on. She really is a terrific traveling companion and thoughtful daughter.
As we were heading for the gate, we passed this restaurant from Maryland and I was really sorry that we had no time for it. Evidently, it has opened only recently.

I was onboard AA 1879 at 7:58 in seat 19D, already missing J. The plane pushed back at 8:15 and took off at 8:32, sounding like it was chugging. That is disconcerting.
We landed at Orlando International 9:37, but it took so much taxiing to reach Gate 50, that it was 9:45, when we got there. My husband was waiting and we got my bag at 10:11 and headed home.
Another great trip! I have just three days to get ready for the next one!!!