Our morning started at 3:45AM. In order to do all we wanted to do, we needed to leave no later than 4:25. For the first time at the lake, it was raining while we were up (there was that one mini-storm, but it had happened in the wee hours of the morning last week). It was an added kink to my driving plans. Still, at 4:23, we were off. Within 500 feet of exiting, a low tire pressure warning went off. I pulled into the one motel on our side of the lake to inspect the tires. Yup, the right front was a little soft, but it had no obvious punctures. Rather than head back to my dad’s house to use his compressor, I decided to push on. If the tire got too low, I’d fill it at a gas station. The tire was just fine the whole trip. We blasted through all the back roads to get to Canandaigua, where we stopped one last time at Dunkin’ Doughnuts for breakfast, then headed on to Rochester. Just before hitting the airport, we topped off the gas, got some bad directions from Greta, then made it to the airport on time despite her directions (hey, I can still read the signs that point to the airport). The National Car Rental lot was full so we parked it on the Alamo lot and told the guy inside the airport where he could find it. He said that it wouldn’t be a problem. As always with Rochester airport, security was a breeze and the TSA folks were downright delightful. I love this airport! Gee, we could have had Dunkin’ Doughnuts or Starbucks inside the terminal as well!
Our first flight was nice easy, and low-key. Hey, we got our assigned seats; that’s a good start! In Atlanta, we had to walk and train some distance to get from terminal C to the brand-new terminal F, which was stunning. Not many people in the F terminal, and everything was so new that my airport maps app didn’t even have a terminal F. The food court upstairs was nice. We had Chinese rice bowls for “lunch” at 10AM. The flight to SFO was packed, but once again, it was without incident. Kristi had gotten trapped in Palo Alto on the way to pick us up so we enjoyed about half an hour of car watching just outside the terminal. Man, those traffic cops that monitor the pick-up zone are angry all the time. Their job must suck. Kristi did eventually get to us, and then we hit Friday traffic on the way home. Even the commuter lane was stopped. When we got home, we had a note on our toilet that it was broken, so I went to the hardware store to get the replacement part. It was such a strange experience to drive in the morning on the East coast, then drive in the afternoon on the West coast. Alas, the part that needed to be changed wasn’t actually the part that needed to be changed. I was too tired to go back. I’ll get the part in the morning. The evening was spent trying desperately not to go to sleep. After 7PM, this was hard to do. Courtney made it to 9PM; Jeffrey to10PM, Barb and I to 10:30. My guess is that none of us will have an issue with sleeping in tomorrow morning. We will not be up at 3AM ready to go.