Rough Start to LA
Shortly after posting to my blog about the trip to Los Angeles we'd be taking this weekend I got an all-too-familiar text message: our flight was delayed.
At first the delay was 32 minutes. "Not too bad," I thought. Moments later the delay increased to 40 minutes. Then 50. By the time we arrived at the departure airport it was up to 60. Minutes later as we sat down at the gate it had been extended to almost 70 minutes. Then it increased to 86 minutes.
The telescoping delay was annoying because our flight was already a late-ish departure, scheduled for 8:40pm with arrival just before 10pm. "We'll be winding down in our hotel room by 11," I figured, unlike so many trips where we get in at midnight or later. Nope, this would be another one of the late ones.
Even worse, the delays pushed us back to arriving after 11, when all the rental car agencies at BUR airport are closed. Would we be able to get our car?? I tried calling ahead multiple times but the rental desk didn't answer. Rental depots barely ever answer their phones anymore. The companies don't staff enough workers to handle both calls and customers waiting in line.Have Car, Will Travel
I rushed to the rental area as fast as I could after landing. Wouldn't you know it, we docked at a gate that was, like, half a mile from the exit of the terminal building.Then another half mile over to the rental desks. I arrived just as the staffers had turned off the lights, locked the doors, and were going to their cars- and were very studiously not making eye contact with me. But it turned out okay because my car was preassigned and the guard at the vehicle exit gate was on shift until 2am.
Once we had wheels rolling it was an easy drive from Burbank Airport over to Glendale- one of the benefits of arriving so late in the evening. Oh, the freeways weren't empty. There's no such thing as empty freeways anywhere around the clock in LA. At 11:30pm traffic was flowing freely in all 5 lanes in each direction.
We stopped at a grocery store before checking in at the hotel. We grabbed drinks and light food for breakfast the next few days, in case the hotel's breakfast isn't to our liking. I bought some frozen microwaveable food as a breakfast backup... only to discover our room has neither a) a freezer nor b) a microwave.
Well, here it is getting on toward 1am and we're winding down in our hotel room. Finally. I wish we'd been here 1.5 hours earlier.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/129657.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]
At first the delay was 32 minutes. "Not too bad," I thought. Moments later the delay increased to 40 minutes. Then 50. By the time we arrived at the departure airport it was up to 60. Minutes later as we sat down at the gate it had been extended to almost 70 minutes. Then it increased to 86 minutes.
The telescoping delay was annoying because our flight was already a late-ish departure, scheduled for 8:40pm with arrival just before 10pm. "We'll be winding down in our hotel room by 11," I figured, unlike so many trips where we get in at midnight or later. Nope, this would be another one of the late ones.
Even worse, the delays pushed us back to arriving after 11, when all the rental car agencies at BUR airport are closed. Would we be able to get our car?? I tried calling ahead multiple times but the rental desk didn't answer. Rental depots barely ever answer their phones anymore. The companies don't staff enough workers to handle both calls and customers waiting in line.Have Car, Will Travel
I rushed to the rental area as fast as I could after landing. Wouldn't you know it, we docked at a gate that was, like, half a mile from the exit of the terminal building.Then another half mile over to the rental desks. I arrived just as the staffers had turned off the lights, locked the doors, and were going to their cars- and were very studiously not making eye contact with me. But it turned out okay because my car was preassigned and the guard at the vehicle exit gate was on shift until 2am.
Once we had wheels rolling it was an easy drive from Burbank Airport over to Glendale- one of the benefits of arriving so late in the evening. Oh, the freeways weren't empty. There's no such thing as empty freeways anywhere around the clock in LA. At 11:30pm traffic was flowing freely in all 5 lanes in each direction.
We stopped at a grocery store before checking in at the hotel. We grabbed drinks and light food for breakfast the next few days, in case the hotel's breakfast isn't to our liking. I bought some frozen microwaveable food as a breakfast backup... only to discover our room has neither a) a freezer nor b) a microwave.
Well, here it is getting on toward 1am and we're winding down in our hotel room. Finally. I wish we'd been here 1.5 hours earlier.
[This entry was cross-posted from https://canyonwalker.dreamwidth.org/129657.html. Please comment there using OpenID. That's where most of the action is!]