I had hoped to be posting this from a comfy seat on the Empire Builder, headed eastbound, but that was not to be. Instead I’m at the airport drinking *bux coffee and reflecting on unrealistic expectations.
But first…. I have spent the past couple of days riding the ferries from Seattle to Bremerton, to Bainbridge Island - twice - and then the rest of the day wandering The Alaska Highway, First Avenue, and all roads between. Why the same ground every day..? Good point and that was going to be the subject of today’s blog post, but you’ll have to wait for that.
Today was a breather from the 18,000 + daily steps I’ve averaged this week, rest, pack and head to the Train Station for a 4:40 departure this afternoon, but my plan was rudely disrupted by an email informing me, quite brusquely, that the train was cancelled. Indeed, all trains for the rest of the week are cancelled. A strong winter storm is dropping large amounts of snow in the Cascades and all across Montana and Idaho - the railways are shut down across the north.
A sense of irrational blind panic sets in -I’m trapped..!!! - but no, not really. A phone call to Amtrak resulted in an instant refund as the first trains, and most trains, next week are all full. That leaves the airlines, not my first choice since Alaska is the only non-stop SEA-BWI and they are in the middle of a pilot shortage meltdown, cancelling a lot of flights for lack of crews. I could go on at length about these kinds of problems, having sweated through several brutal contract negotiations during my airline career, suffice to say the management in this case have really shot themselves in the foot, mouth and head, resulting in some very, very pissed off customers. Southwest has its own problems but are getting slowly better, however, all they have are two sector flights with a plane change in places like Denver, arriving in the early hours of the morning. Not a lot of fun.
So Alaska it is, I’ll wait for the dreaded ping from my phone in the early hours of the morning and see what tomorrow brings. These really are First World Problems, and I’m reminded of my own post about people who schedule too tightly and then watch as their world is reduced to self inflicted chaos when nature intervenes. I should be so smug…. the reality is I could just check back into my hotel and sit it out, I guess that’s Plan C. Or is it D…?