Hike Info : Description : Trail Lessons : Menu
I woke up at 3:15am-my planned time to get up was 3:40. I must have briefly dozed off as when I next looked at the clock, it was 3:38. So I quickly turned off the alarm before it went off. This gave me time to have breakfast and get ready. My planning was good as I was ready by 4:20.
 |
| Early morning TSA Line |
This was a bit later than I had hoped and this almost led to issues. There were issues with the TSA equipment and there was a long line waiting to even have their ID’s checked. By the time we made it through the TSA line and got ourselves back together again, it was 5:50. Boarding started at 5:45. When we got to gate 17, only the attendants were there. They said that within a couple of minutes they were closing the doors.
We were not the last ones to be caught in the TSA line as about a good third of the plane boarded after us. We still took off close to the right time. We got to watch the silhouette of the Sierra before the sun rose. Not a good picture out of the plane window. Just a good sight, which is probably more important. After all, you do not live in pictures, you live in life and that is what I experienced watching the sunrise.
I continued reading The Count of Monte Cristo until the plane landed in San Diego, a few minutes before scheduled. This gave us time to fill our water bottles and go to the bathroom before heading over to gate 21 in San Diego. Our Atlanta plane takes off right on time. It is Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900. Pretty full. Now to read and fill in parts of my book blog for the next 3½ hours.
Not too bad of a flight. We had a pretty good tailwind pushing us. There was the typical noise during a full flight with a good number of kids around us-a reminder why you have kids when you are young. Still they were not obnoxious. Sherri watched a show about cooking-and would occasionally fall asleep. I continued reading and making notes.
We got in about 20 minutes early and got off the plane by about 3:20, Atlanta time or 12:20 Fresno. Not bad for going across the country. As we were walking out of the airport, there was one more reminder about kids. A dad was trying to make sense of where one of his kids left something and they were coming to the conclusion that it was left on the plane. They had the row behind us.
 |
| Morning breaks over Sierra |
Atlanta’s airport, technically called Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport-say that five times fast, is large. I read somewhere that it is the busiest US airport-later on I read that it was the busiest airport in the world for 2024. Today, it just seems large, not busy. Large does not mean unfriendly though. We pass by an information desk and I asked, where do we pick up MARTA?-Atlanta’s mass transit system. The young lady gives me good directions. I take a few steps and return and ask if she can help me use the MARTA app. She gives me general instructions. Then it is walking down the terminals, taking an escalator and boarding the Plane Train. The train is crowded and seems more in the mode of hurrying people to a destination rather than their comfort. But the trip is only about ten minutes. When we get off, we follow signs saying this way to MARTA. But I lose the trail until another friendly helper points me in the right direction.,
Now to get beyond the MARTA gates. But once again, a friendly MARTA helper shows us how to use the app and gets us through the gate. When we got to the boarding area, we must have looked lost as there are two tracks and I am trying to decipher the codes they use to say where each track is going. Hint: like DC, they use the end of the line as the key to which train to get on. But we get help from a MARTA person who is cleaning the area.
We are in earlier than expected. Sherri lets Andrew, our AirBnB host, know when we now expect to arrive. The metro ride takes about 40 minutes and puts us at the Brookhaven station. There we have a choice-take a 8 minute bus ride or walk for 12 minutes. We decided the 12 minute walk would be good. Besides, we get to see our neighborhood a bit better. Actually, it is more like a 20 minute walk, but we are getting old and slow.
Maybe we should have taken the bus. There is construction going around the station. But there are no signs saying do not go this way and there is a sidewalk, so off we go. Turns out we ended up on the wrong side of a do not cross sign. But we make it across OK. The walking is not bad. But when we cross an entrance to the Kroger store, a car comes close to hitting me. In each city we have to learn how to walk in and what the motorists expect pedestrians to do.
 |
| First ride on MARTA |
We are tired and pretty much just sit down and veg for awhile. About 6:30 local time we start thinking we need to get food for our stay, but Andrew said he was coming. In just a few minutes, Andrew comes and we talk through the place. Then it is over to Krogers to buy our food. I have a list of stuff which we get. Some for the short term, some long term. The total bill comes to $159.
Getting the food makes us hungry. We get our first night’s dinner going: Red Baron pizza. We must have been really hungry as it tastes pretty good. Not as good as something like Pizza Hut and not even close to Steven’s pizza. We then lounge around awhile until our 9:30 family Zoom call.
Rachel is getting ready for a junket tour in Vietnam so she does not join us. Not sure what happened to Steven. But David and Andrea join us on the call. But by 10:15 we end the call and get to bed.
Trail Lesson:
After all, you do not live in pictures, you live in life
Leave room for error.
| Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snacks |
Granola in Fresno |
Peanut Butter and Nutella Sandwich with chips |
Red Baron Meat Pizza |
