June 13, 2023
America again
Just a few words about the flight, which was pleasantly uneventful. We’re up at 3:30, and at the airport by 4:15, two hours before departure. We’re checked in and on the way to our departure terminal forty minutes later, something over $200 the poorer for baggage fees for our three pieces: the bikes and large duffel bag. We elected the cheapest seats which didn’t include any baggage, so it’s not as bad as it sounds. After our fright about finding our flight had been cancelled, we’re just happy to be going home on schedule.
Our first flight not only doesn’t include baggage, it doesn’t include food either, unless you count a glass of water and a small bag with about six pretzels in it. We’ve got good seats though, with me having a window seat and good visibility for the flight north to Frankfurt.
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10 months ago
We have more than five hours in Frankfurt: enough for us to grab a modest meal (Frankfurt’s not one of those airports with a broad selection of eateries to choose from) and then settle into a chair to work on the blog, read a book, and totally lose track of the time. We weren’t that far from missing our departure, which after having such an abundance of time to work with would make a good story for the blog but be pretty embarrassing. We really are almost getting too old for this business.
Our plane for the ten hour flight to Vancouver was a 747-400, a huge plane with triplets for seats. We lucked out though and we’re seated in the next to last row, where because of the tapered rear of the fuselage there were only two seats in our row, with extra legroom.
We were never told why our flight sat idling on the tarmac for nearly a full hour before finally departing - a worrying situation, because we only had two hours in Vancouver for our final flight. About half of the delay was recovered in flight though, and we had plenty of time in Vancouver. We arrived in Portland just after six, right on schedule, and were checking in to our studio apartment by seven. Afterwards we walked over to Elizabeth’s (only about six blocks away) to pick up the Raven, Rachael ransacked the nearby Safeway for essentials for the first day or two, and it was lights out by 8:30.
So, no drama or particularly good stories from the flight- which is of course just what you want. We’ve had our drama on this tour already, and didn’t really need any more.
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10 months ago
So this would be the spot where I might say something insightful about the past three months, or say how it feels to be home, or discuss costs or lodgings or highlights, or present some statistics. I’m thinking I won’t though, because something came up today that convinced me that I might as well open a new chapter for the next three months back in America (spoiler alert: it’s bird #161!) so I’ll cut this short. I’ll just leave you with the first few statistics that come to mind, and express our heartfelt thanks for joining us once again. Your feedback and involvement mean so much to both of us, and make all the difference. Family.
- 0 flat tires!
- 1 lost wallet
- 3 CycleBlaze meetups
- 11 regions of Italy
- 48 new bird species
Well, one more thing just because it pleases me for no obvious reason: we’ve now set a wheel down in 19 of Italy’s 20 regions, leaving only little Aosta up in the northwest corner next to the Alps. On this trip we hit 11 of them:
- Sicily
- Calabria
- Basilicata
- Apuglia
- Molise
- Abruzzo (barely)
- Marche
- Emilia-Romagna
- Lombardy
- Trentino-Alto Adige
- Veneto
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