Day One - NYC - Blamin' it all on the Lights on Broadway

So begins the journey and the adventure.  The following are entries from my journal, duly edited for grammar and content.   

SFO, Terminal 3. Near Gate 64, waiting for flight 637 to NYC, due to depart at 1:10.

Took a taxi to the train station, to catch the 7:00 Capitor Corridor.   This taxi trip, for a 12 mile jaunt,  set me back $50 - no wonder Uber is gaining in popularity. Any of you cabbies or cab companies taking notes? (They’re literally getting violent over this in France!) This tells me what to do when I get back home – take the light rail, and call for a taxi or Uber a few stops before I get to the Mather Field station.   $2.50 for the light rail ride plus the cheapo trip from the station to my place - lesson hopefully valid and learned.  

The Amtrak leg of the trip, from Sacramento to Richmond,  was pleasantly uneventful. Just a bottle of water and cinnamon roll, a clear morning day in the North East Bay Area, and a few games of backgammon on my smart phone. So far, so good.  

BART was a bit, uh, CLUMSY. I got to experience that in all of its permutations in one hour – sitting with a few people, standing with a stuffed car, transferring from one train to another, pushy people who cut lines,  and riding the entire length of the line from Richmond to SFO,  all while hauling my carry-on AND my roll-aboard, which had to be checked in since it was too big for the sizing models United uses.  By the way, as a tip, the airlines are tightening up their enforcement of the baggage-size limits – an argument for using the Rick Steves no-rollers backpack if your back and shoulders will allow for it.) Right now, you can’t ask for better weather, even with the little bits of haze that graced the San Francisco Hills.

I arrived at SFO, about three hours before my departure.  A pastiche of races, colors, ages, dress styles pass me by and come towards me as I angle my way toward my gate, and taking the escalators up and down to the check-in point. I have pre-TSA clearance, so I was surprised to see that so many other people did, as well. The security lines are more lax for those flyers with this clearance - no taking off of your belt, and you can leave your shoes on - just empty your pockets and put your carry-ons through the machine.   I discovered that my blue roll-along was too big even with all of my trying to scrunch it into its sizing model, then was directed to a wonderful lady who took my photo ID and my $25 credit card payment for the bag. This means that I’ll get to experience another part of JFK that I didn’t previously (and would rather not have to if I had my way about it) – the baggage claim area. A new route to the Jamaica station Airtrain will be found in this way, as well.

The flight itself was delayed by two hours, due to an issue with the pilot being unavailable and United having to call a last-minute replacement.   Now, just as a suggestion - when an airline screws up like this, would it not behoove them to compensate the inconvenienced passengers?    Nothing fancy - just some small token of appreciation in the form of a travel voucher, points on the mileage plan, or some other goodie, would be a nice gesture at these times.    In the meantime, I did what most people would do during those wait times: I ate very expensive airport food.    That's how they get you.  

Because of this little inconvenience, I called the hotel and told them that I was going to be late checking in because of my flight.   The Hotel Pennsylvania was gracious enough to pre-register me, so I kept my room.    (This is another tip I suggest, in case you're caught in the same situation).  

The flight itself was uneventful, which is always a good thing.    The entertainment options - movies, TV Shows, music, etc - were all complimentary and available to each seat through the touch screens.  I checked out two episodes of the Foo Fighters' excellent series (don't miss it!).    But I've got a beef with gogoinflight.com.    Their rates for inflight WiFi have skyrocketed to the completely unreasonable.   For this jaunt, 30 minutes of on-line time would have set me back $10, and I would have had to pay $34 for access for the entire flight.   Unless I'm writing it off to an expense account, I'd have to be absolutely CRAZY to bite at those absurd rates, especially when they were considerably cheaper not too many years ago.   Gogoinflight.com can eat it, as far as I'm concerned.  

We landed at 11:30 EST, waited an average amount of time for the luggage to drop down into the Terminal 7 carousel, and started out toward the Airtrain to Jamaica Station.   The walk was not nearly as long as my prior trip (or at least, didn't seem as long).   The Airtrain fare, payable at the end of the journey, is $5.   I paid this, with my $2.50 subway fare and $1 surcharge, hopped on the E train, and began my 45 minute journey to the 34th street station.  

I arrived at 1:15am,  got into the room, set up shop, and slept for the next four or so hours (I lost count, I was so brain dead).   

I've got more tomorrow, on the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and a few other things.   Stay Tuned!