Red Flags In The Morning

It was all planned out, a mid-morning  morning run to Spokane with a 2 hour stop in the infamous Seattle.

On Our Way To Experience Our Transportation System 

The plan was working too. No messages of the sky carriage being late. Check in was a breeze,  and at the theater TSA I didn't even need to be patted down, like last time  only scanned in the walk-in freezer size scanner.

The Alaska lounge wasn't busy, and had some much-needed koffee, and tasty first breakfast items, including hotel style scrambled eggs. 

Only The Freshest Eggs Make It To High Class Alaska Air

Our carriage wasn't boarding till 8:20 but we took a leisurely walk down to the nearby  plane entrance. We had extra time and decided to take a ride on the moving walkway.

The Exciting Moving Walkway

f you have never taken this ride, it's quite exciting. It's really just an escalator that doesn't go up or down, just north and south with no elevation gain or loss.

 North bound the view is pretty good. You can view the under-reconstruction parking garage, the Chugach front range that were obscured in clouds, and part of Anchorage. 

 The south bound trip you can view the back of the heads of fellow travelers who are sitting in the chairs . One vibrating chair was going off without anyone aboard.  The most interesting sight was the fellow that my traveling compadre pointed out. He had a rather large bump on the back of his neck, and my pal pointed out that he should go visit Dr. pimple popper. I agreed but was laughing so much I had to walk to the end of the ride.

 We boarded the Boeing and were treated to boxes of water.

Fresh Mountain Spring Water

The waitresses were nice but when one announced that our 3-hour flight was shortened to 2 hours and some change I thought red flag. The jet way pulled away and the driver announced that because of a tail wind we should be in sea in just a couple of hours. Another red flag.

I was sitting in the window seat port side in my favorite row 2 so when the jet way started rolling back to our carriage my red flags were valid. 

I Only Thought We Were Leaving

Apparently, someone way back in the tail was having a medical issue and had to get off. I knew once they got off, we would have to wait some more as they filled the two seats,  and sure enough the driver announced that we would be flying as soon as the new rider list was published.

 New riders on board, and  the jetway pulled away, and we were off, slightly delayed but off and reassured by the drivers that making connections would be “No Problem” Another red flag.

Looking South Down Turnigan Arm

The flight was pretty routine. The breakfast omelet was good, Just a few bumps, and I napped most of the way .

 Looking at the Alaska app I noticed that not only was time was tight, we were going to have to do the famous SEA N-C shuffle.

 At first it looked like we would just be able to have enough time to use the terminal toilet, but then on final approach the drivers retracted the gear so we could go around and do another approach.

 We made it to the ground on the second try. Raced through the shuffle along with 8 other riders making the same trip.

 We made it to the Embalmer. Made it to Spokane with just a few more bumps.

Our bags didn’t make it with us but were on the next plane.

 

Ah the joys of air travel.