All packed up and checked out of the hotel on time. Just as I get to the platform, the MARTA train to the airport rolls into the station.
That turns out to be the best part of my travel day. United’s much vaunted mobile boarding pass elicits a beep and a flashing red light when I hold my phone over the TSA’s scanner, which reads it as an “invalid carrier.” The TSA guy says United’s electronic boarding passes never work here. But they let me in again at the scanner when I come back with a printed boarding pass, so I don’t have to zigzag through the whole line again.
Boarding is on time. I doze through the safety talk and am only vaguely aware of take-off, but then I never fall completely asleep because of a precocious four-year-old behind me with a voice like Margaret O’Brien’s in Meet Me in St. Louis, who narrates her complete stream-of-consciousness for the entire flight to Denver. She kicks, too.
In Denver I eat a leisurely lunch, and even manage to read a little. The flight to Sacramento is completely full, but at least there are no kicking children behind me this time.
At some point on the way home, it occurs to me that Tanya and I should have switched off as chair every two or three days—we might have held up better. When I email her this after I get home, she says she thought the same thing on the last day. We’re writing it down, so we remember for next time.
Stats:
- Number of individual competitors: 69
- Number of teams: 8
- End time: Around 1:00 pm, I’m told
- Hours worked today: 0
- BC hours cumulative total: 116–117
Not setting any alarm clocks for at least a week.
Mary Griffith 