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April 6
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Thursday, April 6, 2017 I got up about an hour early. We left for airport at 6:30. The drive was straight into the sun the for almost the whole drive to the airport. That made it really hard to watch the road. So, Carl watched the road and traffic, I watched the signs. The outside of the airport looked reasonable for that time of day when he dropped me off. Inside was a different story – it was a zoo! Delta had had to cancel several flights because of weather in the Atlanta area (which didn't affect me, for once). The lines were very, very long. Luckily, I had booked a business class ticket, so I could head for the shortest line. It was still about 10 people deep, but better than the other three lines. I got checked in fairly quickly, then headed for security. The closest security line was snaking around like a popular Disney ride. I happened to notice the sign pointing to the other security line as being shorter, so I headed to the other end of the terminal. The line there was definitely shorter. They've sure changed security screenings over the years. It had been seven years since my last flight, so I was a bit amazed. Not only did shoes have to come off and computers out of bags, but I also had to remove my vest, empty my pockets (I always was able to leave my wallet in place before), and remove my belt (something that only applied to the men in the past). Everyone got scanned. After my scan, I got a small patdown, partially because I still had my belt on. Then they checked two other areas that the scanner had picked up. My left wrist (watch) and my left ankle????? Never did figure out what the scanner saw there. Anyway, I was soon on my way to the gate. I grabbed a paper and a bottle of water and just chilled for a while – even worked the crossword puzzle. No, I didn't look for the Delta lounge that I was entitled to go to. It just didn't seem worth it. Anyway, my flight was soon called and I boarded with the rest of the first group. The seats were as wide as I remember them being many, many years ago on regular flights. Now, those seats are more expensive... Soon we were on our way to Minneapolis. As we made our approach, I finally understood why that state is called the Land of 10,000 lakes. The landscape below us was heavily dotted with lakes, both small and large. What a dump of an airport! It's old. It's poorly planned. Its signs are inadequate. Restrooms are impossible to find. I wound up asking a sales clerk at one of the little shops where it was... I finally found my next gate (after walking through a shop area and into an area that looked like a nice restaurant. The gate was in the middle of the restaurant area!!! Since I was tired by this time, I went looking for the Delta lounge to see if I could chill there for a while. Nope. They were full. So, I grabbed a bowl of soup at a restaurant, then settled down near the gate. Looks like I could have gotten on line there – but didn't want to haul the notebook out. So I just sat and read until they called our flight. It's my first time flying business class on an international flight and it was interesting... This was one of those wide body airbuses where the business/first class seats could fully recline. They were arranged in a herringbone fashion so that nobody sat next to anyone else. Very interesting... However, there was no place to put a bag under the seat in front of you. So, my camera bag rode where it wasn't supposed to. One of the stewards mentioned it when I was getting settled, but the overhead at my seat was full of pillows, so there was no room there, either. My briefcase and jacket were in the next space over, but there was no more room in that one, either. She said she'd make a space for it, but promptly forgot, so I just left it were it wasn't supposed to be. It rode fine there until time to stretch out. At that point, I moved it to the little shelf by my left elbow and that worked, too (until it was time to land). We had a good dinner on board, for airline food. My main course was the ravioli (only a little dried out on one side), but that was all right. I was full after the initial courses. Of course, I saved room for the ice cream sundaes for dessert... There was a good selection of movies on the flight. I wound up watching Rogue One for the first time. We definitely need to add that one to the collection (so I can watch it with closed captioning on). Once the movie was over, I thought I'd try the stretch out features of the seat – all through dinner and the rest of the movie, the seat was configured like a decent recliner. It's better than trying to sleep in coach, but still not all that comfortable. I don't think I really got to sleep at all, but I did rest a bunch. It was like trying to sleep in one of those old style mummy sleeping bags (narrow space) with a very firm surface under you. I finally gave up about 3/4 of the way to Amsterdam and returned to the recliner configuration. That worked better. I even dozed a bit with some soft soothing music playing in the headphones. |