Day 1 – To Monterey
N36º 35.029' W121º 54.089'
So as it turns out, I suspect — once again — I spoke too soon. Raving about the service on one airplane only dooms you to regret every utterance once you get to the other plane. Of course, ‘once’ would be the operative word in that sentence.
Theory said that I was to land in San Francisco at 9:30 local time, and head for Monterey at 10:30. Upon landing I discovered my plane was delayed until 11:30pm. Which, admittedly, gave me time for dinner — no bad thing — but also meant I’d be getting in late. How late, however, remained to be seen. The restaurant I was in closed at 10:00pm, so after inhaling a Panini and a glass of wine and ordering an Americano to go, I was summarily turfed out into the departure lounge. One gate change later, and I could be found wandering back up the terminal to my new gate. Settled in with a book to wait for my flight. And wait. And wait. Departure time came and went, twice. Finally, it was indicated that we’d be taking off around 12:15am. They hoped. This would put us in to Monterey around 1am.
At this point, it is probably useful to provide some context regarding the air traffic system in the United States. Once upon a time, in a primitive and early year, some bright spark in the aviation administration decided that a hub-and-spoke model was really the most efficient way to go. Meaning that there are a handful of really big airports that everyone tries to get to, in order to turn around and go somewhere else. Do this right, and you can fly half way across the country in order to fly almost all the way back towards where you left.
It will surprise no one that the US population has continued to grow, and it is an article of faith that most American’s are dissatisfied with where they are and would really rather be somewhere else. As a result, most of them can be found sitting around on airport floors waiting for a flight to take them to said other destination. The hub airports spend lots of time with too many passengers and not enough planes. The spoke airports are often disturbingly empty. Mostly because the people are all at the hubs, trying to get out.
Just as I was about to board, there was an announcement of a ‘weather advisory’ in Monterey. Didn’t really know what this meant, but the implication was that we’d try to get there, but if the pilots couldn’t land we’d just come back to San Francisco. The yo yo implications of that statement not being lost on me, I nonetheless boarded the plane with desperate anticipation of a warm bed at the other end. Turns out that ‘weather’ was code for ‘fog’, and visibility was at about half-a-mile. That may have been generous, because I just saw the runway moments before we touched down. Nonetheless, we did touch down. Cab to hotel, check in at (thankfully still open) hotel, and fall into bed just before 2am. Must sleep, for tomorrow I ride.