No Frills

So, I decided to make a last minute trip to Los Angeles.  My beloved Denver Nuggets were in the NBA Finals with the Lakers.  Why the Nuggets you ask?  Here’s why.   Plus, my son Josh and daughter in law Shelby are staying there for about a month.  So, that made the decision easy.  I wouldn’t need a hotel and I managed to get a ticket to the game.  However, the flight was another issue.  Given, that it was the last minute, flights were very high.  So, I might the decision to use one of the low-cost, no-frills airlines - Spirit.  I was able to get a reasonable price out of Louisville.  So, I booked my ticket.

This difference with these type of airlines is everything costs extra.  It costs for both checked and carryon luggage.  You can bring one personal item – a small bag of purse but they are very strict that the size is below their requirement.  If you want to choose your seat, that costs too.  You can see how if you are not careful, you can start to approach the cost of a  full fare airline.  I went ahead and paid for a carryon (I was glad I did later) and got an aisle seat (which I prefer).  The cost was still much less than full service flights.

I headed to Louisville.  About 45 minutes in, I get an alert from Spirit that my flight was going to leave a couple of hours late.  That meant I could take a more leisurely drive.  I stopped at Clarkson church of Christ to worship that morning.  I made a planned stop at the city park in Elizabethtown.  I ate the lunch I had brought.  As I prepared to leave, I get a new alert from Spirit.  The flight wouldn’t leave til after 10:30pm now!  I called their support.  The issue was the original crew had now exceeded the number of hours they could work.  So, they had to bring in another crew.  I wasn’t going to go sit at the airport for hours.  So, I hung out at the park reading.  Then, I went to a couple of stores.  I had dinner at the Culvers there and finally went to evening services at Elizabethtown church of Christ. 

I then headed for Louisville.  I arrived at Muhammed Ali airport.  I’d never flown out of there before.  An interesting thing is just about all its parking is within walking distance of the main terminals.  It’s also about half of what it costs to park at the Nashville Airport.  I have PreCheck, but there wasn’t much of a line so we were all herded into the same line.   I got to my gate and saw it was going to be almost ELEVEN before we were to leave (on what would be a four hour flight).  Spirit had sent me a voucher to buy food.  Unfortunately (with it being Sunday and later), nothing was open.  I did have the forethought to bring snacks.  There are several areas throughout the terminal where you can sit and plug in all your devices and set up a laptop or tablet.  I did that and watched some of the Heat/Celtics game.  The new crew finally arrived and I got on. 

The seats seemed a little smaller but it wasn’t awful.  I tried to sleep a bit and managed to.  There is no in-flight entertainment or chargers.  You even have to pay if you want a snack or soda or water.  Keep that in mind.  We arrived about 1 AM. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been out that late.  Since I just did carryon, I could head right out to the pickup area.  Even though it was that late, it was still bedlam.  Josh and Shelby pulled up and I threw my stuff in their car.  I got to their Air B&B and crashed out.

My return flight went much better.  One other thing you can do with Spirit is put in a bid for either what they call “The Big Front Seat” or an exit row seat.  I bid on the exit row seat and won!  The flight was on time and that exit row seat made all the difference in the world in a much more relaxing flight home.   I’m a tall guy and could easily stretch out.  I got to the airport and had an uneventful flight home.

What did I learn?  One, Louisville is another option to fly out of.  It was only about an hour further than the Nashville Airport.   Two, I might try Spirit again.  I’d sure bid on an exit row and I might not fly so late in the afternoon just in case of a delay.  It’d have to be a lot cheaper than the full fare airlines for me to do it again though.

Coming Home from The Land Down Under

Sorry for the delay in this last post. I’ve been on a “Facebook Fast” for the past week. And if you think you know why, unless you’ve heard it from me – you are probably mistaken in your surmise of why. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…

As the old saying goes “All good things must come to an end”, so we finally had to come home from our trip. We got up at 4:30 am to head home since we’d been told to arrive at the airport 3 hours before our flight was to depart. We met Josh’s co-worker Owen in front of our hotel. Our plan was to try and catch a cab from there and if we couldn’t try to get an Uber. Within a minute a cab drove by and we hailed it for our trip. We actually go to the airport a little more than three hours early. We found out though that international check in didn’t actually open til precisely 3 hours before our flight (which must have been the first one of the day). We checked our baggage and headed for security. We made it through security with little pain. My passport was looked at several times. Finally we reached what I thought was the last found where they reviewed my electronic visa. The guy looking online said there was an issue. I couldn’t figure out what it could be, I had gotten into Australia with no problem. Turned out when I applied for my electronic visa – I had put my full name in my Family Name and my first and last name in Given Name. Turns out you should put your last name in Family Name and first name in Given Names. So, I was shuffled off to a separate counter where another official looked over my info and finally let me through. We headed to our gate and sat down to wait for our flight.

I gave Donna a call to let her know all was well. I then got up and went to look for something to eat. I went light and only got a doughnut and a Pepsi Max. I worked a bit and rested a bit. We boarded the plane with little difficulty and then things started to go south as we say. Even though it was morning, they served a dinner of chicken teriyaki with ice cream for dessert. I know I should have known better from our trip down, but I ate it. Within an hour, my stomach felt bloated. I tried to sleep on the way back but it was very difficult. They served breakfast later and Josh said he knew something was wrong with me since I had fruit and yogurt. Somehow, I survived the trip and we made it to the Los Angeles Airport (LAX). Once you get to the US, you have to go through customs and immigration again. You have to pick up your checked baggage. You then take the card you filled out on the way there and go to a kiosk and input your info and have your passport scanned. You drop off your checked baggage at the proper place and then pass through one more security checkpoint. We exited the International Terminal to head to the United terminal. Theoretically, you should be able to shuttle there. We waited about twenty minutes and saw every shuttle imaginable except the intra airport one. We finally just gave up and walked. It was a nice little walk since it was on the opposite end of the airport. We got to security only to find that with construction there was a line that stretched out on what felt like a temporary catwalk up in the air. We finally got through and looked forward to heading to the United Club.

We headed into the first club we reached. Josh had a one time pass his company had given him. He gave it to the woman at the desk and started to head through. I mentioned that I wanted to buy a one time pass (like I had at O’Hare). She then said “Oh, we are not selling one time passes because of construction”. I was dumbfounded. I mentioned that my son had just used his one time pass and we’d now be separated for almost four hours. She just simply shrugged her shoulders and said “I can’t do anything to help you!”. So, I just told Josh to go ahead into the Club and I’d meet him at the gate later. I walked to the gate and sat down to wallow in my pity. I worked a bit on my laptop when a woman walked by in a Cardinal jacket. I remarked that it was nice to see another Cardinal fan in LA (showing her my Cardinal jacket). She said “I’m the mother of one of the Cardinal players”. I asked which one and she said “Randal Grichuk”. Randal is a young player for the Cardinals that they acquired from the Angels before the 2014 season. He looks like a good young prospect. I told her I thought he’d be a good player for the Cardinals if he got enough playing time. She said her and her husband were in town to watch him play against the Dodgers. I remarked that she must be very proud of him and she told me she was. She then went to sit with her husband. Later, they lined up to wait to board their flight right in front of me. I met Mr. Grichuk and told him I was glad his son had gotten the only hit off Clayton Kershaw the day before to keep the Cardinals from being no-hit. He remarked how tough Kershaw was and I mentioned I’d just settle for us continuing to beat him in the playoffs (which he laughed at). I told him I thought his son was a good player but he (like most dads would say) said “He needs to hit more consistently”. They got on their plane and I must have ended up falling asleep because Josh finally surprised me by showing up at the gate. We got on the plane and headed for O’Hare. My stomach still felt horrible. I even took the precaution of pulling out the air sickness bag just in case. I made it OK though.

Once we got to O’Hare, we found Owen still there. It turned out his flight to Madison had been cancelled. There was a huge line of thunderstorms south of the airport. The issue was that a lot of flights couldn’t get in to O’hare to then head to other destinations. Josh went to get something to eat. They have a lot of great places to eat at the O’Hare Airport but I still felt too unsettled to take a chance. Josh brought me a banana which was perfect. He then found out his flight to Madison was delayed because the plane couldn’t get there. It kept being later and later. He finally decided to just to ride home with Owen (his wife was coming to get him). I told him I’d be fine there and to head on out. I finally got the idea to go to a store in the airport to see that I could find for my stomach. I finally found some Gas-X pills for an outrageous price (10 pills for 10.00). I took a couple of those and that seemed to fix my issue. I kept checking my flight to Paducah and it was still showing at leaving on time (the plane was already at O’Hare). I scoped out some hotels close to O’Hare just in case I needed one. We left on time though. The pilot ended up having to fly east all the way to Dayton Ohio to get around the line of storms. We didn’t get back until midnight (an hour late), but I was just glad to get home that night. I personally thanked him when we were exiting the plane for getting me home. My lovely wife was waiting to pick me up – I’d missed her so much. I got my baggage when it came out and we headed for home. I crashed until 9:00am the next day.

The amazing thing was I actually lost weight on the trip. That has never happened to me in my adult life. I spent the next few days getting my sleep pattern regulated but it really wasn’t that bad. Would I ever go back? Yes, armed with new knowledge (bring my own food on the plane with some Gas-x tablets and know how to fill out my Visa application correctly). Even with the plane issues, I still had a lot of fun with Josh and it’s one of those unforgettable experiences I’ll remember my whole life.

Flying to the Land Down Under

The big day to head out on my trip had arrived. I would be able to fly out of our local airport (Barkley Regional) which would leave at 6:25am. So, I wanted to get there about 5:30 which required me to get up about 4:30am. I got there no problem. I checked my bag and the young man very kindly explained how things would work once I got to Melbourne. I got through security with ease (one of the nice things about Paducah) but we waited after security for about 20 minutes before boarding. I am constantly reminded by Josh that I get to Barkley too early every time. We got on the plane, took off and got to O’Hare on time.

When I got to O’Hare, I headed straight for the United club in the F concourse. I’d heard it was one of the nicer new ones and I had over 5 hours to kill so I went in to buy a one time visit pass. They are normally 50.00 but because I got there before 8, I got a pass for 35.00. The new lounge is beautiful. There are plenty places to sit and relax with plenty of outlets and free wireless Internet. They also give you all the soda you want (I filled up on Coke Zero). They supply breakfast with various items – I got some scones and bagel sticks. I relaxed on a large couch and did some work and just rested. They brought out lunch about 11:00. I had vegetable soup and crackers and even tried some hummus. They had something called Brownie Brittle for dessert. Since Internet costs 9.99 at O’Hare plus I got breakfast, lunch and soda for free, it really ended up not being a bad deal. I finally had to pack up and head for my flight to LAX.

My flight to LAX went fine and I got there about 4:00 LA time. I grabbed a bottle of soda and a candy bar and started looking for TVs. The Cardinals were playing the Dodgers (in St Louis) so I figured someone there would be showing the game. I figured incorrectly, no one was. I ended up keeping up with the game on my phone while waiting for Josh and his co-workers to get there. It was very good to see him when he arrived. We went to dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s for our last “American Meal” before our trip. Josh and I bought a couple of candy bars for the trip to Melbourne. It was going to be a 15 hour flight.

We got on our plane and headed out. There was in-flight entertainment on the back of each seat. Josh and I played Yahtzee against each other and I started flipping through TV shows. Then I made a mistake. For the first time I can remember in many years, the flight provided airline food for free. I ate the dinner they provided thinking that even that I’d had trouble with the food years ago, I’d be fine today. Well, the food disagreed with me and I had an unsettled stomach all the rest of the way. I watched several shows (including a pretty good mini-series about Harry Houdini) plus listened to Mike Matheny’s book “The Matheny Manifesto”. I put on a mix of 80’s music to try and sleep. I dozed a bit but never could sleep. Too many people would jostle me when they walked the aisles. They offered us additional food (a snack and breakfast) but I could not eat much of it. While you are on the flight, they give you paperwork to fill out. You have to fill out a customs/immigration card stating they you are not carrying in things like explosives, fruits/vegetables, meat, etc. I had also had to say I was carrying in medicine. You fill out a separate form questioning you about Ebola – they want to know if you’ve been to Africa recently. You need this to get through Immigration/Security.

We finally landed and started the process. The automatic passport readers were out so we had to have our passports manually scanned. I handed the officer my Ebola paperwork. He glanced at it for a split second and we headed on. We came to another group of officers who looked at my passport and then my card I had filled out. They asked about medicine and I told them it was prescription. As I tried to get it out of my laptop bag, she said it wasn’t necessary and waved me on through. So much for needing that letter I got from my doctor. We went to baggage claim to reclaim our luggage and showed our passport one last time as we walked past a young man looking at our luggage for anything suspicious. We got by no problem and were finally officially in the country!

Josh and several of the young men with him stopped at the local location of Optus (one the local phone carriers in Australia) to get a Sim card for use while in the country. My company had graciously upgraded my phone plan to international while I was gone. Once that was finished, we haled a large cab (there were six of us) and headed for downtown Melbourne.

That’s plenty for this post. My next post will tell you of our first adventures in the city of Melbourne.

Prepping for the Land Down Under..

As part of his job, my younger son Josh has to travel to various hospitals. I had gone with him when he did some work in Sacramento. His next assignment took him much further away. He went to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne Australia earlier this year. He encouraged me to get my passport so I’d be ready to go with him on his next trip. I put it off and put it off but finally decided this spring that I needed to go for it.

I found out from Josh that you actually go to the Post Office to get this done. Not every Post Office does this though. The only one in Paducah that does is the downtown Post Office. You can go to the usps.gov to find this out. It will also tell you if you need an appointment or not. You don’t at Paducah. I went ahead and filled out my paperwork (available online). You can also figure out what the passport will cost. The cost can vary from 110 to 140 based on whether you get just a passport or also get a card you can use to get into Mexico and Canada. I went ahead and applied for the card as well. You then need to make sure you bring proof of your US Citizenship – either a previous passport or your Certified USA Birth Certificate. You also need some sort of Photo ID. You’ll also need a photo for the passport. You’ll need a very specific size and specification for the photo (it’s explained on the website). You can get them taken at CVS or Walgreeens. I opted to get mine done at the Post Office. It would be a few dollars more, but I could do everything done in one place. So, armed with my birth certificate, driver’s license, my filled out application and my checkbook, I headed for the Post Office.

When I got there, there was only one poor lady waiting on customers. There was a good sizde line. When I got to the front, there was a good sized line behind me so I offered to go to back of the line. I did this another time before she finally told me to just stay this time and get it done. She looked over my applications and pronounced it OK. She then took my birth certificate, it turns out it has to be sent with the application. Finally, she took me to the side to get my picture taken. This area looked a lot like what you see to get your driver’s license picture taken at the courthouse. Finally, she took my payment and told me it’d be four to six weeks before I got my passport. Amazingly enough, it showed up within three weeks. My birth certificate came back in a separate envelope.

I also had to buy my airline ticket. Josh’s company had booked him on United which was fortunate for me since the two commuter flights out of our local airport (Barkley Regional) are with United. I priced a few flights and got one almost exactly the same price. We wouldn’t meet up til we got to Los Angeles. We’d be together on the flight to Melbourne from there and together all the way to Chicago on the way back. So, I purchased that one. I had a 5 hour layover at O’Hare and a 6 hour layover at LAX. The flight to Melbourne would be 15.5 hours, I wondered how I’d handle that. The flight back was faster only 13.5 hours with a 5 hour layover at LAX and a 4 hour layover at O’Hare.

I then started to research any specific requirements for going to Australia. I found out that ANYONE entering the country needs a visa even if you are not working while there. You can go to the Australian government web site to apply. Since I was visitor, I could apply online and it would cost me 20.00 Australian (about 16.00 American). This gets you an electronic visa that is linked to your passport. I also read about paperwork needed for entering the country. You have to fill some out on the plane on the way over (I’ll talk about that later). I saw several web sites that recommended a letter from your Doctor explaining why you were taking certain medications. My Doctor (Dr. O’Bryan) very graciously did this for me for free. I also checked my health insurance and found that it didn’t necessarily work in Australia. So I went to Anthem’s Geoblue web site and was able to get a policy to cover me on the trip for about 45.00. So, I finally had (so I hoped) everything I needed.

But, there was one thing more. I have a single credit card strictly for use in renting a car (don’t tell Dave Ramsey). When I checked online, I found that it charged a 3% foreign transaction fee. I had heard from Clark Howard about several no fee cards that had 0% foreign transaction fees from Capital One that gave cash back. So, I applied online and got one.

So with all that, I was ready to go. In my upcoming blog posts, I’ll let you know how each part of the trip went.

If you're going to San Francisco - Getaway Day

My trip home was pretty uneventful, so I'll talk a bit about the hotel and airports.

Hilton Garden Inns are OK, but I am not sure what their Niche is in the Hilton chain. Hampton Inns are the entry level, Homewood Suites are the long stay, and Hilton the higher end. They also have Embassy Suites, Doubletee and Hilton Garden Inn. The HGI has a small restaurant and bar in it but it's not open all day long that I can tell. They have a breakfast buffet plus they'll cook you an omelet or eggs like you want them (like Embassy Suites). The buffet is a bit expensive (8.95 to 9.95) to me. I've never tried other meals there and would never go near the bar. I guess the closest hotel in type would be a Courtyard by Marriott.

I have discovered a new problem with flights in general. Now that most airlines charge for all checked luggage, people carry on more than ever. On every flight I was on (except those leaving and arriving at Barkley), the overhead bins were crammed full. The flight attendants spend a lot of time and effort cramming everything carried in into the bins.

Paducah's airport is very easy to get into and get through security since it's smaller. They have free wireless internet. It's only 10 minutes from my house too. What I don't like is there is only one carrier (Northwest) with three 30 or so passenger flights a day to Memphis. Departures are at 6:30, noon and 4:50. Arrivals are at 10:50, 4, and 8:30. American used to go from there to St Louis, but dropped out a couple of years ago.

Depending on where you are going, it can be hard to get flights unless you make them way in advance or with multiple connections. I occasionally have driven down to Nashville to fly when the options are really bad at Barkley. I hope when the Delta merger goes through, we'll get more options.

The Memphis airport is OK too. All of it is behind one security point which is nice (more on that in a bit). They are a bit limited on restaurants (in my opinion) although they have opened a few more places (notably a Popeye's and a few more Starbucks).

The San Francisco airport is spread out. You have to ride a railway to get to your garages and rental car area and back again when departing. They do have a BART line right to the airport so its conceivable (depending on where you stay) that you could do without a car when there.

On the way back I had to go American from San Francisco to LA (LAX). LAX has separate security points for their terminals. I arrived on American so I had to hike about 10 minutes to another terminal. Their signage doesn't do a good job of explaining that. Fortunately, there are numerous employees all over the place with notebooks of maps who seemed eager to help people find their way. I had a 1.5 hour layover and needed the bulk of that to go through security there (per several of my fellow travelers in line, the security there is always slow). I had enough time to grab a sandwich, chips, water and a brownie which cost almost 17.00!

The rest of my trip went fine (I grabbed Popeyes at Memphis) and caught the last flight home. Donna and Jonathan were waiting for me which was very nice and make me feel important and missed. They took me home and I went to sleep comfortably in my own bed.