Worldcon Trip Day 4: Denver to Reykjavik
I was able to get our check-out time extended to Noon. After breakfast, we both got cleaned up and we repacked out luggage for the benefit of the TSA and taking into account that we didn't get the Saga upgrade, so we can only have two checked bags.
About 11:45 AM, I got the luggage cart, we moved out of the room and checked out. The hotel called a taxi to Union Station, which took its sweet time getting there and charged twice as much as the taxi from the train station two nights earlier. I'd never bought a Denver RTD train ticket here, and learned that tickets are sold from kiosks on the platform. An "Airport Day Pass" is $10/person. We took up our positions on the platform waiting for the next train to the airport.
From announcements, I saw that trains were running behind schedule. An RTD driver (who was waiting for the arrival of inbound equipment that he would take out to Denver Airport) explained that the every-15-minute schedule had been disrupted by a crew member not showing up, meaning that the train before the one we were expecting to catch had been cancelled. This also meant that the train had extra passengers, as as we headed for DIA even more people were trying to cram their way onto the train. Worse, DIA had generated extra traffic to the airport by holding a concert at the airport, which seems like a crazy idea to me. Fortunately, as we'd boarded as soon as the terminating train emptied at Union Station, Lisa and I had seats all the way out to the airport.
We checked in for our IcelandAir flight (my checked bag came in a mere 400 g short of the 23 kg limit) and headed for Terrorization. We were traveling very heavy, including me carrying three laptop computers. We stepped out of line to unload everything into TSA bins, but it still took quite a while to clear. However, despite all of the delays, we still had plenty of time.
We boarded and took out seats near the rear of the plane and hoped nobody showed up to fill the row. Just before departure, I asked a flight attendant and she said we'd lucked out. I moved over to seat C and Kuma Bear got a seat of his own. This was perhaps not as good as a Saga upgrade, but still much more pleasant than rubbing elbows with another passenger.
We enjoyed our pre-ordered hot meal on board. I could tell that it was unlikely that I'd get any sleep on this flight. The 6 1/2-hour flight was scheduled to arrive around 6 AM Iceland time, which would be Midnight Mountain Time. I took advantage of the flight to watch Dune Part 1. I also reset my watch to Iceland Time and looked forward to being somewhere cool, which Denver certainly was not.
Once again, pictures of today's travel can be seen on my Mastodon account.
About 11:45 AM, I got the luggage cart, we moved out of the room and checked out. The hotel called a taxi to Union Station, which took its sweet time getting there and charged twice as much as the taxi from the train station two nights earlier. I'd never bought a Denver RTD train ticket here, and learned that tickets are sold from kiosks on the platform. An "Airport Day Pass" is $10/person. We took up our positions on the platform waiting for the next train to the airport.
From announcements, I saw that trains were running behind schedule. An RTD driver (who was waiting for the arrival of inbound equipment that he would take out to Denver Airport) explained that the every-15-minute schedule had been disrupted by a crew member not showing up, meaning that the train before the one we were expecting to catch had been cancelled. This also meant that the train had extra passengers, as as we headed for DIA even more people were trying to cram their way onto the train. Worse, DIA had generated extra traffic to the airport by holding a concert at the airport, which seems like a crazy idea to me. Fortunately, as we'd boarded as soon as the terminating train emptied at Union Station, Lisa and I had seats all the way out to the airport.
We checked in for our IcelandAir flight (my checked bag came in a mere 400 g short of the 23 kg limit) and headed for Terrorization. We were traveling very heavy, including me carrying three laptop computers. We stepped out of line to unload everything into TSA bins, but it still took quite a while to clear. However, despite all of the delays, we still had plenty of time.
We boarded and took out seats near the rear of the plane and hoped nobody showed up to fill the row. Just before departure, I asked a flight attendant and she said we'd lucked out. I moved over to seat C and Kuma Bear got a seat of his own. This was perhaps not as good as a Saga upgrade, but still much more pleasant than rubbing elbows with another passenger.
We enjoyed our pre-ordered hot meal on board. I could tell that it was unlikely that I'd get any sleep on this flight. The 6 1/2-hour flight was scheduled to arrive around 6 AM Iceland time, which would be Midnight Mountain Time. I took advantage of the flight to watch Dune Part 1. I also reset my watch to Iceland Time and looked forward to being somewhere cool, which Denver certainly was not.
Once again, pictures of today's travel can be seen on my Mastodon account.