The trip home

Today has been a day of getting there early and then waiting.

The day started with the cab ride to the airport - everyone recommended that I get there 2 hours before my flight because I needed to go through US customs at the airport. So I got to the terminal at 7:00 AM for my 9:00 AM flight, and was sitting at my gate at 7:20. No line at the self-check in kiosks, no line at customs, no line at baggage check, no line at the security gate.

My flight to Denver left on time and arrived half an hour early (very smooth - no turbulence at all). However, all the gates were full, so we sat on the tarmac until our scheduled arrival time.

My flight from Denver to Portland also left on time and arrived about 5 minutes early. The pilot came onto the speakers to let us know that we had surprised the jetway people with our early arrival to the gate, so we had to wait and didn't get off until our scheduled arrival time.

I could have really used that five minutes. I was waiting at baggage claim (which was slow) when I could see the Anthony's Shuttle loading outside the terminal. Since the shuttles only run every two hours, I rushed out to see if they could wait for me to get my bags. The driver could only wait until 1:15 (scheduled departure was 1:05). My bags finally arrived and I raced out with 2 minutes to spare.

Trip home was uneventful - I did meet two new students on the bus who were both math majors, so I introduced myself to them.