Day 34: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we flew across the country to Minneapolis for our catch-up show.
It was strange to be doing the hotel thing again. Set a lobby call time, drag all our gear down in a pair of luggage carts, and then try and pack it all into a pair of taxis for the trip to the airport.
We arrived at Terminal 2, departures, and proceeded into the building with our equipment, assisted of course by a couple of smartecartesⓇ that we found after a brief search of the drop-off zone. San Francisco Airport seems to be one of the more tightly patrolled smartecarteⓇ zones but I do have a tip for if you are trying to pick up a free one. Try your luck behind the escalator bank that you pass just before you get to the security checkpoint. It seems that this is a null zone where both smartecarteⓇ wardens and TSA have no jurisdiction, and plenty of trolleys get left for dead.
At check-in we danced the usual dance of shuffling items around different pieces of baggage to try and keep everything underweight. The Delta Airlines attendant who helped us check-in was very helpful. She was also worried that our guitar cases would come open, so she gave us some special tape for peace of mind.
We breezed through TSA, except for Liz who was severely punished for forgetting to empty her drink bottle. Then we were in the excellent Terminal 2, Concourse D, a haven for drink bottle refilling and public art. I filled my bottle with ambient water and then we headed through to the food court and I ordered myself a breakfast of Tempura Soba from the Japanese restaurant Wakaba.
The amount of art scattered around this terminal was great to see; it really adds vibrancy to an otherwise extremely bleak location. This initiative is spearheaded by the San Francisco Art Commission, a city agency, and comprises more than 165 pieces spread out over the airport. Here is a great one we passed on the way to our gate.
Untitled (1982), by Fred Eversley. This exhibit uses transparent polymer resin spun into discs to create a concave lens, that provides the user with a rich optical experience.
Our flight to Minnesota was very smooth. I watched a film with planes in it while I wrote the blog. Sadly I didn’t get a window seat but I could just see past my sleeping neighbour, and there was some great scenery as we passed over Wyoming. Here we are passing by what I think are the Laramie Mountains, in the southeast corner of the state.
The sun was well into setting by the time we began our descent into Minnesota and we enjoyed a gorgeously lit landscape of farms and highways while we made our approach.
An accident happened to my bass case. It seems like our airplane suffered a malfunction with one of the cargo bay doors as we were landing and the case fell out onto the tarmac at 200 knots, smashing the corner and destroying the feet at that end. All the fragile tape in the world couldn’t have prevented this unfortunate mishap.
Minneapolis-St Paul Airport continued the theme of great art in public spaces with this beautiful mosaic in the entrance way to the bathrooms.
Minnesota Lepidoptera Mosaic (2019), by Josie Lewis. This glass tile mosaic depicts moths and butterflies found in Minnesota.
I loved the attention to detail in the sink layout with this very tidy faucet design, and an even better plug hole cover.
We reached our hotel and found it immediately inviting. In the lobby was this fantastic fireplace casting an amber glow and creating an alpine lodge feel for customers checking in.
Gabe and Jon scored themselves a lot of boints at the hotel for the way they packed this luggage trolley. The amount of weight did make it near-impossible to wheel but I think we like those sorts of challenges.
It was 10pm by the time we were all checked in, and we were tired and hungry. Our salvation came in the form of Devil’s Advocate, the only premises open within ten blocks, which somehow had an all day happy hour on a Sunday and a Darth Maul inspired fake fireplace. We enjoyed the fake warmth and had a nice dinner before retiring for the night.
