Today’s flight was about as straight-forward as you can hope for - a nonstop three hour flight from Portland to Minneapolis. Everything went to plan, beginning with a drive to the airport and an enjoyable conversation with our driver who was raised in Mexico and is hoping to resettle there one day soon.
No complaints about checkin or the flight itself, but somehow I still ended up stressed by it. This is the first time we’ve stitched a layover into the middle of a flight like this, and the jury is still out on whether it’s a good idea or not. It will help to break off a part of the time change adjustment, and of course we’re glad to be stopping to visit Shawn’s family; but I’m tired already thinking of starting all over again in three days.
I love this view. To the right is The Dalles, to the left is the mouth of the Deschutes, and in between is some of our favorite cycling country in Oregon.
Another favorite cycling area. This is Sherman County, with its miles of wide open fields and a forest of wind generators. You can see the lines of generators snaking across the land like giant Frankenstein stitches.
The Midwest was mostly under a solid cloud blanket except for this small window into what must be southwest Minnesota, the country Greg Garceau raved about on his recent tour there.
We arrived in Minneapolis about 4:30, and after collecting our luggage proceeded to the car rentals to pick up our vehicle. We had made a dinner reservation for 6:15 at a nearby Italian restaurant, Nonni’s Trattoria - plenty of time we’d thought, but it took us a full hour to get our vehicle. I was third in line when we arrived at the desk, but the agent was still working with the same customer nearly a half hour later. As a result we were ten minutes late for dinner, but fortunately they held out table for us and we enjoyed an excellent meal.
‘Pesci di Mare’: grilled salmon with tomato basil brood, zucchini, sun-dried tomato and arugula.
Checking in at our hotel in Ramsey was a minor fiasco, as Rachael discovered in the room that she had brought up a mismatched pair of walking shoes for herself - her left walker, and my right bike shoe. We had used a luggage cart to bring up our duffel bag and panniers, so I went back to the car with the shoe on the cart and returned with the two bicycles and a shoe. Unfortunately though I somehow picked up my same bike shoe again and didn’t notice until I was in the room; so a third round trip was needed. Not a good omen for the trip, really.
Really, I didn’t need this cart to transport one of my bike shoes. Didn’t need it the first time, much less the second.
Steve Miller/GrampiesWe sometimes break up our flghts to Europe to visit in Montreal with the three Grandkids (and their parents) which we find helpful with minimizing jetlag, and enjoyable with seeing family, but at the same time it is costly and hard to manage packed bikes and luggage getting on and off and on and off more planes. Looking forward to following you thtough Spain, have fun. Reply to this comment 7 months ago
