Deborah, our wonderful daughter, picked us up at 6:30am and we barely had enough room in the car for us after loading all the suitcases. No one has ever accused the Walker’s of traveling light. But then again, for 4 1/2 months you need all your stuff .
After arriving at the airport, we proceeded to claim our luggage tags at the kiosk. That went just fine. Then we had to go to the bag drop off and that’s where the fun started. Now we are experienced travelers and we know what 50 pounds means. We have our portable luggage scale, and every one of our suitcases weighed just below 50 pounds. So we’re good, right! Not! According to Alaska Airlines scales, we were over on every single suitcase by anywhere from 3 to 6 pounds. They wanted to charge $100 per overweight bag. So the prudent thing to do was to make three of the bags under 50 pounds and load the shit out of the other bag, and that’s exactly what we did. It is fun opening all your suitcases up in public and switching stuff all around, but we got it all done
And it’s off to security. Portland Airport is under construction and has been for quite a while and in order to get to the gate where Alaska is we had to do a humongous detour. Going through security for most people is pretty straightforward, but not for yours truly. I cannot go through any of the magnetic machines because of my spinal stimulator so I have to wait and get a full body pat down each and every time. At least the TSA agent was pleasant.
The worst part is now over. We had a quick breakfast and boarded the plane. We had a totally uneventful flight and arrived about 20 minutes late. It’s always gratifying to see that your luggage made it on the plane, all of it. We had a porter take us out to the area where Uber picks passengers up and called to order an Uber. After waiting for half an hour or so the driver contacted us and said for us to come upstairs to be picked up. We told him no, not with four huge suitcases, two roll-a-boards, and two large carry-ons. So without telling us, he canceled. So we have to start all over again and order another Uber. All in all, it took close to an hour to get an Uber. Isn’t traveling fun?