4.280 travel

Thursday 09/07/2023

Travel day. By 8:39 I had eaten a good breakfast in the dining room, tidied my apartment for the cleaning lady, and was ready to go. The scheduled Lyft came on time at 9. Shortly before I got a text from Alaska: your 11am departure will be an hour later. So I had lots of time in the airport. One thing I did there was to buy a charger for the phone since I had forgotten to pack one.

The plane took off at 12:15 and touched down at SEA at 2pm. I had forgotten that the standard approach to SEA, when the wind is from the south anyway, involves flying up the sound over West Seattle, turning, and descending right over downtown, with a fabulous view of the Space Needle etc.

Before I had left I had a text from Budget saying to go direct to Zone 1 (wherever the hell that was) and pick my car. On turning on my phone after landing, another text: your zone assignment has expired, please visit the rental counter where an agent will assign you another car. So at SEA you ride a shuttle bus a mile or more to the rental car center and there I find: a line of at least 75 people, no joke, lined up at the Budget counter. I join it. It moves very very slowly. It grows longer behind me. At 3:15 (remember touchdown at 2?) I am standing in front of the Alamo counter where there are no customers. I say “Fuck this,” and I walk over to the Alamo guys, and in 5 minutes I have rented a car. Downstairs to pick it up, they give me a nice blue Corolla, and I’m off, with my phone for navigation.

The drive down I-5 and across the Narrows Bridge has a lot of very slow stretches on a Thursday afternoon. I had been reading on my phone on the trip and it was at 35% battery at the start of the drive. The new Corolla has a USB-C port, and all I have is a USB-A cable. Will the phone battery last? Or will I be somewhere in Bremerton when the navigation gives its dying direction?

It does last. When I shut the car down in the hotel parking lot, there is 4% left on the battery, and I give the phone a big sloppy kiss. After resting I walk to a local restaurant, Hops and Drops, for beer and a huge bowl of Mac&Cheese.