San Diego Day 1 Good, Bad, & Ugly

April and I departed for the Regina airport at 4:10AM because Air Canada asked us to check in at least 2 hours prior to scheduled flight departure. We got to the line up with a few people ahead of us, and they looked like they’d been standing there for awhile. They had been there since before 4:00, not knowing (just like us) that Air Canada’s check-in office didn’t start working until 4:30AM!

We got through security fine, metal detectors only, except they asked what kind of shoes I was wearing. “Uh, sneakers?” Good thing they didn’t have “Da Bomb” printed on the side, eh? They made me open my belt so they could scan my crotch a second time.

We had to go through US Customs at Calgary airport, then CATSA security with shoe removal and patdowns. The guy felt right around my penis, gave me a neck and back rub, and I commented that I didn’t have to visit my chiropractor now. Another agent advised April how to look in my wallet the correct way, and as she wished us a happy vacation, I wished her a “happy increased workload”, to which she grunted a response.

We moved gates in Calgary, and they had to tow our plane to the new one, after a flow delay was taking place in San Francisco. We departed Calgary about 3 hours late, with a United Airlines flight attendant angry at the United boarding agent who said we’d make our connection in San Fran on time. The flight attendant was sure we would not. The pilot said he’d take “a shortcut” and ramp up the speed a bit. We made good time in the air, and made our San Fran. connection with about 10 minutes to spare. We guessed they wouldn’t transfer our bags properly, but wouldn’t find out for sure, for many hours yet, even though San Diego is only an hour away by air.

We buzzed the San Diego airport, and began ascending again. A wicked thunderstorm was nailing the area. We were diverted to Los Angeles and were told we’d have to wait for a new flight to San Diego. As we landed everyone with a working cell phone (I was not among them) was calling rental companies to get vehicles to drive to San Diego. One guy beside us, was angry when he was told minutes later that we’d be just refueling the plane and taking off again in 15 minutes, and NO ONE was allowed to deplane. He argued with them for 5 minutes, and got permission to disembark because he had only carry-on luggage with him. Some other people left after he blazed that trail.

We were waiting for 6 people to use the bathroom on the plane, then they announced we needed a new flight crew because the existing one was way over their time limit for air flight that day. A bunch of us got off the plane, since United didn’t know how long it would be before they got a new flight crew. We bought some supper for about $9.50 a sandwich, and I tried to call Robert who was giving us a ride in San Diego. My calling card was missing some information I needed, and I’d forgotten my PIN. So I tried with my credit card, and they wanted “$7 for the first minute…” so I hung up. I tried calling collect, but he declined the call (I later found because of a glitch on his phone). I couldn’t text with my cell, and it wasn’t roaming very well, so we didn’t call. Our seat mate Joe, from New Jersey texted Robert for us. We got back on the plane and taxied for a long time. We probably did 23 laps around LAX, because April and I fell asleep, and didn’t wake up until we were ready to LAND in San Diego! We landed no problem this time (and incidentally it was the first flight of mine with a female captain).

We stood by the baggage carousel until all bags had come out, except for ours. We went to the United baggage office, and found we only had one of two baggage claim stickers that Air Canada had stuck to our boarding passes. The curt lady confirmed that my bag had arrived. We said it had not. She said oh well, essentially, “go check”. We did, and it was not anywhere. I looked again 20 minutes later, and it had shown up, in the lost baggage area, taken directly to there. April’s was not with it. We went back to the office, and she, after giving us grief for not having the claim number, found the number based on a very complicated search of the computer. She looked it up based on April’s last NAME! Wow, eh? It was not on our flight, but was arriving 40 minutes later on the next. We waited until 7:10PM PST, and left the air port with a $12 parking bill (4 hours) after spending 17+ hours in airports or planes on Tuesday. Regina to San Diego.

We ate supper at Hennesy’s, I had a bunless burger, and we went shopping at Ralphs, and ogled the alcohol, and bought Chocolate Cheerios.