Wednesday, November 20, November 20, 2013
We were both up a little before 5am. We got right about our
business and got packed up and checked out. Our total bill here for 2 nights is unknown to me. Clay said he had checked out on TV or something while I was in the shower. For all the other hotels, they sent a paid invoice to email but not the Venetian. So, we expected to pay $461.44 and we prepaid it when we booked online. We stopped and filled the rental
car’s gas tank and then returned it. The rental car ran about $26 per day. We had a short wait there and then walked
right out and got on a shuttle bus to the airport. We went to an American
Airlines self-check kiosk and got our boarding passes and checked our two rolling
suitcases. We had TSA PreCheck on both our boarding passes this time, so we
were through TSA security quickly and painlessly. We’re not sure how that
happens but we have only had it on both once before leaving LAX and they didn’t
have the line going or something. This time it worked well and we appreciated
it. We stopped for breakfast at Cinnabun. I had an egg, sausage and cheese
sandwich and Clay had a cinnamon bun. We went directly to the gate and didn’t
wait long to board. We were on the same plane and the same seat as inbound.
Smooth flight.
We got to DFW and wanted to eat but there was only 1 restaurant
in the gate area. It was a Mexican place so that was fine but it was packed and
they couldn’t seat us in time for our flight. We went and sat at the gate and
ate Nabs and protein bars. While we sat there they changed our gate, so maybe
it was good we weren’t eating in a restaurant! The flight to RDU was oversold
and they were offering $500 to bump people. They were offering to check bags
for free because they weren’t going to have enough space. Finally we got to
board and after they scanned our boarding passes they gave us new ones and told
us because of equipment change they had to reseat us. Instead of 8 A & B
which we had all 3 previous legs, now we were 8 D & E. We got onboard and
it was the exact same S80 we had flown on this segment inbound. The 8 row was
the bulkhead and instead of the 2 seat side, we’d been moved to the 3 seat
side. We had the middle and aisle seats and some guy had the window. Two men
who did not know one another had our original seats. The first guy who was
sitting in our row on the aisle acted a little put out when the window seat guy
arrived, so we guess he must have thought he had displaced us for the row to
himself. Anyway, I had to put my purse and backpack overhead since it was the
bulkhead and my and Clay’s bags took a lot of abuse as several people and a
couple of stewardesses tried to jam wheeled bags on top of them or crush them
to the back and slam the door on theirs. It was ridiculous. It was a good thing
we had checked our bags because there was no space for them on either flight
home.
We were about 5 minutes late leaving because they were
moving bags around so they could pull out from the gate. We ended up arriving
home about 10 minutes early though. Then we lost that time waiting 20 minutes
to reclaim our baggage. We missed the 6:10pm TTA bus 100 to downtown and got out
about 8 minutes before the 6:41pm bus was expected. It was a couple of minutes
late. We were the only people riding and that is the first time that has
happened. The bus did not return to Moore Square Station, instead he let us off
on Wilmington Street nearby. According to the schedule I had printed off the
website before leaving home, there should have been 3 more buses to and from
the airport last night. I hope he was just going off duty and some other bus
went into Moore Square Station to pick up people waiting to go to the airport
and back. Clay said he didn’t think so, he said he checked the sign posted at
the bus stop at the airport and it said that 6:41pm was the last departure. It
doesn’t make sense that they would change a sign and not a website. Anyway, we
got home after 7pm and had a pizza and went to bed. Clay had told the people at
work that he would be working today, in error, since he was flying all day.
Anyway, that means he has to go back into work tomorrow.
Clay has told me that he updated his travel spreadsheets and
that now Las Vegas is our most expensive trip per diem.
