San Antonio to Seattle, Wednesday 10-April
It was time to head home. Among all of us, we went via car, plane, and train to get home, stopping over in two different cities on the way.
Because of the number of available flights, we flew home out of Austin instead of San Antonio. The airline was suggesting that passengers arrive three hours early which sounded very aggressive. Driving to the airport looked like it would take about two hours, and figuring that we would have to fill up, return the cars, and check some bags (the disadvantage of taking a tripod for the eclipse), we left the house about five hours before our flight.
As we left, traffic was even worse than we thought, with estimates being 30–45 minutes longer. We did hit several pockets of stop-and-go traffic, with the worst segment taking almost an hour to go a few miles.
Unsurprisingly for such a long distance with a lot of traffic, the two cars got separated early on. Melody found a gas station near the airport, so we tried to get there but missed the turnoff. We had to circle the airport to have another go, but that meant moving four lanes over in a very short distance, and there was too much traffic for me to make it. We circled again, figuring if we had to, we could go further out of the airport to give better access. Fortunately, there were no cars the second time, so few made it and filled up. As it happened, Tynor pulled into the same pump that I was using, but we didn't see them.
Exiting the gas station, we needed to go across all the lanes in the other direction to get to the car rental return. Once again, we missed it, but this time circling put us in the correct lane. We returned the car and walked to the terminal. I let the other car know about the fastest lane to circle the terminal, which they were doing at that time.
As we neared the terminal, we saw a long line of people waiting to drop off bags. We joined at the end and soon saw Kellen and Noël who were also checking a bag, so they joined us while Tynor and Mallory finished returning the car. The line moved pretty quickly, but when we were inside the terminal, we saw an even longer line to the kiosks. Melody decided to go ahead to the gate so she could check out the security line and said it wasn't too bad. Once our bags were finally checked, we also went through security and got to the gate within half an hour before boarding. Close, but at least we had time to grab something for lunch.
Since our boarding positions were in the first part of the A group, we knew we would be among the first people on the plane. This time, it was pretty easy to get a full row, so we settled in.
We got a quick look at Austin as we took off, and got great views of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead as we were approaching Las Vegas. On the other side of the plane, Tynor, Mallory, and Noël got to see the Grand Canyon.
Having landed in Las Vegas, we knew we had a couple of hours before our next flight boarded, but our next flight was delayed by half an hour. We took turns walking around and getting dinner, and soon enough, it was time to board.
At one point Melody was looking out the window and saw a plane going crosswise from us. I wasn't able to get a photo until it was quite a bit further away, but its contrail showed its path. Then a few minutes later, there was another plane she could see going in exactly the opposite direction, a bit below us and off the left side.
Once we got into Oregon, we got good views of the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington, as well as the Columbia as we passed into Washington State. On the other side, they got good views of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier. As we got lower, Tacoma came into view, then Seattle. We landed to the south and got a great view of the Museum of Flight.
On the ground, we said our goodbyes as we each went our ways (Tynor and Mallory were also taking the train north, but they didn't have any checked bags). I'd say the trip was a lot of fun, and would consider it a success. From what I can tell, others thought so too. It helped to have other things to do than just watching the clouds obscure most of the eclipse.
