June 4th, 2022
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP....4:00 a.m.
Time to wake up and get ready to head out on a huge and epic adventure. Today we depart Arizona and head to India to spend 2 weeks riding motorcycles in the Himalaya mountains of Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh.
Took a quick shower, fed the cats and put extra food and water down. (Cat sitters will come every 3-4 days to refill and check on them.) Final pack and bag check, turn off a few things, unplug some stuff, then sit down and wait.
I have booked a private car service to come pick me up and drive me to the airport and also pick me up when I return. Not cheap, actually cost a bit more than driving myself and parking, but just less hassle and stress.
Pickup is 5:30 a.m., but car arrived about 5:15 a.m. So loaded up my 3 bags (Riding gear, camera gear, clothes) and left.
Smooth easy ride down, took 20-25 minutes. Dropped off right at door for Air Canada at Sky Harbor terminal 3.
Unloaded bags and walked into terminal. Not been in this terminal in ages, so do not know it's layout. Took a few seconds to read signs and also saw HUGE lines everywhere.
I had already checked in via the app and printed passes, but had to check my bag. Was supposed to be a contactless process, but saw no signs or info on how that was to work, so stood in line for almost an hour to get bag checked and they printed new boarding passes for me since they were also checking me in at this line. First annoyance of the day [and quite a few more are still to come].
I got upstairs, and did a quick pass through security (how did that happen!? Took all of 15 minutes instead of the typical 30-60). Arrived at gate just a bit prior to boarding.
Boarding started on time, but took ages as not enough bag space. After how many years and airlines still cannot find a way to stop carry on abuse and assholes that put all their oversize bags in the overhead so 1/3 of the plane has to gate check stuff.
As I got on the attendant told me to take first spot I saw in the overhead, so bag went into row 12 and I sat in row 24. Lots of people had to eventually go stand in back with bags while plane loaded and then go back up front to check bag and have it loaded under plane. We got airborne about 30 minutes late.
Take off was smooth and spent some time talking to people in seats next to me (I was in aisle seat as I prefer). Was a couple from Nova Scotia that winters in AZ, or at least comes down often, heading back north.
An hour into flight and pilot makes announcement that we have been flying in circles around Phoenix due to some plane issue that was of concern. They managed to resolve it without landing, but now we are another hour behind!
Mostly uneventful flight. I watched the on screen map (screen barely worked) and charged phone up (using the USB port in center seat as my seat port did not work). Once charged, put ear buds in and played music for about 3 hours. Think I nodded off a few times, but just short durations.
Once done with music I tried to read a book on my phone, but not a good way to read and only managed 1 chapter. So just watched the map and thought about stuff till we arrived in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Landing was very bumpy and was making my nearly empty stomach a bit queasy. But got on the ground and made it to the gate.
Due to delay's there were 3 people on the flight with tight connections. The pilot instructed all to stay in seat unless called! He then called each of the 3 seat numbers up and only then released the rest of us for deplaning.
While I have seen the same issue on US flights, never seen it controlled like that. Last US flight that this issue came up, everyone stood and blocked aisle while some poor lady had to fight her way through it, and get dirty looks from others, so she could make her flight. Pilot did announce it, but no one controlled it, so was chaos (typical American attitude of me only and screw you!)
Once off the plane we wandered down an empty hall to a junction that was confusing. Sign indicated the connection gates, but arrow on sign was pointing the the US destination gates?
Finally just kept going down the hall and eventually reached better signs. Followed down another hall, then had to have boarding pass for next flight scanned, then more halls, then scanned again to be told what hall to take next. My hall had me stop at a kiosk to scan passport and then to a guy who took that receipt/scanned boarding pass again, and then sent me down another hallway.
Finally came into the gate area. First stop was a restroom, then walked up and down to find a good food spot as I was starving.
Not a huge amount of choices. Went to a place called U Bar and was seated at the bar. Ordered a burger/fries/coke for a hefty $33 US after tax/tip (Burger was $20 alone).
Was good food though and let me get rid of my hunger. Talked for a minute or two with guy next to me who was on his way to Cairo (over heard him telling bartender) and I had mentioned I had been there myself many years back.
Once done with lunch, I walked back to far end of gate section to see if I could find a magazine to buy to read on the plane during the long flight to come. Store did not have anything of interest to me.
Walked back the other way past the bar I ate at on way to my gate and there found another shop and was able to pick up a copy of the Economist. Always a good read and packed with short articles and few ads or photos, so can take a long time to read through it. Also easy to fold up and stash in bag.
Bit farther down I found my gate. It was now about 6:00 p.m. and my flight leaves at 9:45 p.m., so found a spot at gate and charged phone and played on the internet a bit.
Gate soon started to fill up with people for the current flight at this gate going to Rome.
I people watched a bit, then went to restroom and found a different seat when I returned. Spent 2 hours reading magazine till I started to get a headache.
The Rome flight was supposed to leave at 7:00 p.m., but the pilot was inbound on another plane that was late, so they did not board the flight till around 8:00 p.m.
Then they just sat there, and kept calling final boarding. A few did come running each time, so must have been holding for other delayed connections? Finally the flight left at 8:45 p.m.
My flights plane was towed over (had been sitting somewhere for 2 hours at least) and we had a delayed departure time now of 30 minutes (10:15 p.m.) But now the crew to clean and prepare the plane was late. They arrived at 9:45 p.m., so now our departure was pushed to 11:00 p.m. We finally got in the air about 11:30 p.m. (almost 2 hours behind schedule).
And now that we are at the end of the day, I will continue the narrative in the next days entry.
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