Actually, I was in the air, not on the road. I hadn’t been to visit my son in California for nearly two years, so it was time to go see him and some friends. I lived there for 26 years before moving to Florida 6 years ago. I won’t give you a play-by-play of the entire four or five days I was there — just some things I noticed.
Generally, my “vacations” are around four or five days. I guess that is all I can afford! And I really don’t go anywhere except California to see my son, Massachusetts (kind of a new thing) because I have some friends there, as I was born there and spent more than a few decades there, and then I did go on that cruise in May. All four- or five-day trips.
Going to California is expensive because in addition to the flight, I need to rent a car and stay someplace. My son doesn’t even have a car at this point; he is on motorcycle. Worried? Don’t ask. And he used to live with his dad, my ex, so staying with him was out. Now he is renting a townhouse with two young women, so I really cannot stay there either. No room, and they all have weird work hours.
So I stay kind of cheap. I have been staying at a Best Western that is near him and convenient: there is a Peet’s coffee shop across the street, a fairly nice restaurant steps away, and a Trader Joe’s down the street. But this time….
I had looked at the reviews to see if anything had been improved or was worse at the notel-motel. Someone mentioned a virtual check-in that they were not fond of. So, I arrived quite early and wanted to see if I could check in early. I walked into the lobby, and there were no smiling faces behind the desk to greet me as in the past. But over in the corner, there was an unsmiling man on a screen. I don’t like this; I don’t even do self-checkout at the grocery store. I went over to the screen and asked if anyone was behind the desk. He just asked for my name, and I told him I was early and could I check in. I could barely understand him, but I heard something about $35, and I said I wasn’t paying and left to meet my friend for lunch. I came back a little before the usual check-in time, and there was a different man behind the screen. He said I could check in. Once again, I couldn’t understand him. I have nothing against accents, but if you cannot be easily understood, you probably should not have a job where spoken communication is crucial. We eventually got it done. I heard voices from in back of the desk area, and I knew someone was there. I banged on the door, still irritated at the empty lobby. A nice woman came to the door. She said she couldn’t be doing her work and be behind the desk at the same time (I guess the company doesn’t want to pay a second person). She said the person behind the screen would always find a human if I asked them. After I yelled about how I wouldn’t stay there again, she said a lot of people don’t like the new system. She told me that the motel had been bought by someone else two years ago (which was probably right around the time I was last there), and they had made these changes.
Then I had ants around the sink….and the room didn’t smell great. I bought some room spray the next day. For the ants I went to the front desk and fortunately someone was there. A nice young man came to spray and leave an ant trap. It almost solved the issue. Good enough. Other than that the room was fine. But much too dark. It seems all motel and hotel rooms are dark. What are they hiding? They had makeup mirror lights that were too dark to really see what you were doing. The cleaners came to clean the room a couple of times, which was more than I expected, and the free breakfast was fine. I do remember when they cleaned rooms every day , but ever since Covid they don’t seem to do that — at least in the places I stay!
But let’s go back to the flight from Tampa to San Francisco. Ever since a very unpleasant situation around 15 years ago when my son and I missed a connecting flight, I have taken only nonstops. There are very few nonstop flights from Tampa to San Francisco. United has a couple every day: one really early and one red eye, I think. My son-in-law was very nice to pick me up at 4 a.m. to drive me to the airport. The plane, as usual, was on time and landed early. No problem there.
Are the seats on planes getting even smaller? I always sit on the aisle (I actually used to have a doctor’s note that I needed an aisle seat and I think I will renew that). Well, the only aisle seat that was left on the plane when I got my ticket was a paying seat. I paid $55 for that seat, which was not special in any way. Not more leg room, nothing. Oh, it was more in the middle of the plane than in the back where I usually sit, but I don’t mind sitting in the back. I did sit in the back in a “free seat” on my return flight, which was an hour late, but I guess I can’t really complain about that — except my daughter, who has a small child and a job and goes to bed before nine, picked me up at midnight to drive me home. I was planning to take an Uber — but she is very kind. In the past I would drive myself and park at the airport. I am too old for that! The parking garage is huge, and I am always afraid I won’t find my car. And it is just one more hassle.
Did I mention the food on the flight? Oh, that’s because there isn’t any. Years and years ago, Delta Airlines had really good food. Decades ago.
But I had a good trip! Highlights:
- I saw my son, saw his new place for the first time, met one of his housemates, and met her dog (pictured above).
- I got to eat much too much good food.
- I got to walk around downtown, which is always fun if you live in Petaluma, which is in Sonoma County (wine country) north of San Francisco.
- The Fair, which comes to Petaluma only for four days every year, happened to be there, so we went to the Fair, and I got to eat a funnel cake! This Fair was the home of the world famous Ugly Dog Contest, but I think it moved to another local fair this year.
- I saw some old writing group friends and my daughter’s former skating coach.
Traveling? Gotta do it if your kids live far away. I would rather jump in my car and just drive, but to California from Florida???? Guess not.
If I sound like some type of complainer….I didn’t mean to.
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