For some reason I thought it would be brilliant to teach music lessons right up until time to leave for the airport. Somehow I thought I’d be so organized in advance that I wouldn’t need any time to get ready. I fully confess that was not my most brilliant ever idea. I ended up feeling a little stressed while teaching. I also ended up with one lesson that was scheduled a half-hour later than I’d thought so I ended up eating lunch during a lesson (thanks for putting up with my chewing, Eric.)

Since I was taught by my mom to make lists for everything, it didn’t take very long to confirm I’d done everything needed before leaving. My bags were already packed from last night. The hardest part was actually just saying goodbye for three weeks to my cats. Poor guys have no idea what’s happening. It’s been nearly two years since they slept alone at home. 

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Rachael AndersonWhat cuties! I look forward to having cats again when we aren’t on the road all the time. Fortunately, we got our cat fix when staying with our nephew and his wife.
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My ride was very punctual and got me to the airport quite quickly. After the bike box debacle of 2019 I left myself a ton of time to get to the airport and checkin. I was there and checked in 3 hours before my flight. If the TSA can’t get my suitcase through in time this year then they have some serious problems. 

My suitcase, which is 4 linear inches over size, was not questioned at all. I also managed to come in a pound or so under the 50 lb limit. Guess I could have brought the kickstand after all. I also was able to check a second bag for free because Iceland Air is trying to get people to not have stuff to put in the overhead bins. That saves me hauling one of the panniers around with me. It also means I don’t have to find out if security objects to my pedals or Allen wrench multi tool. The lady manning the checkin counter was quite entertaining as well. Overall a very easy checkin process. Hardly anyone in line, though I imagine that will change closer to the flight. 

Security line was also very short. My bags went through security easily. They did object to the little clip in my pants pocket that I think is for securing keys. It’s plastic but must have looked somehow threatening on their X-ray scanner thing. 

I’m now sitting at the gate waiting for the next couple hours for my flight. The majority of people here are properly masking, but you do see the occasional person with an uncovered nose or talking on the phone with their mask off, like the gal sitting several rows away from me. You would think there would be someone wandering through the airport checking for mask compliance, but I guess that’s not a thing here. 

If anything interesting happens between now and München I’ll update this entry. Otherwise I’ll next report from München. 

So something more interesting has occurred. I normally leave my SIM card in an old phone at home. When I went to do that today I get a message saying it wasn’t supported. Something about 3G being phased out. Anyway, I put the card back in my current phone and thought nothing more about it. I went to use my data service and discovered I couldn’t get network access. Turns out my account is locked because of putting the card in an old phone. Seems rather stupid to me. I don’t recall my pin code so they can’t access my account and because my account is locked I can’t access it to change the pin code. So if anyone tries to text me in the next three weeks (highly likely actually), I probably will never get their message. So that’s a fail. Even iMessages sent to my phone number will not go through. And yes, I called att and went through every possible option with them. So that will give me something to do when I get back. Except for the part where I think I’m supposed to quarantine for a week when I get back so....

Midflight update:

Well, there’s free WiFi, but that’s about the only thing so far I’ve been pleased about. For some reason I was not offered beverage service. Not sure if she addressed me and I didn’t realize she was addressing me or what exactly happened. I’m a little thirsty, though I am not at all inclined to remove my mask. It’s also really warm on the plane. I’m not sure why they have it so warm. It’s bordering on uncomfortable. But the worst is that we’ve reached the bedtime part of the flight. The people in the seats across from me are not properly masking. The husband has his mask dangling from his ear and the wife has hers halfway up her chin. I alerted the flight attendants to it and someone went up and spoke to the people in that row, but for some reason the mask was not adjusted. I’ve seen some others with masks below the nose or masks that don’t fit tightly. I was expecting airlines would strictly enforce masking given some of the news reports I’ve seen. I’m inclined to add Iceland air to my list of airlines I avoid flying at all costs. Condor is already on that list after the great lost bicycle debacle of 2019. The only way to complain to corporate is by telephone too which is a bit hard to do from an airplane.