Kona Trip Report day 3

2023-11-04, 04:00 UTC−7

[day −1]
[days 0-2]

I had crashed early last night and got a good night’s sleep, so I woke up at 4 in the morning wondering what to do with myself.  I got caught up on my e-mail and wrote and published the days 0-2 trip report.

07:00:  the “complimentary breakfast” was a dismal affair—paper plates and plastic utensils, you’re supposed to bus your table when you’re done.  They had the usual breakfast buffet stuff, but nothing special.  I had scrambled eggs, potatoes and sausage which was real food; but it was cold by the time I got to it.

Hyatt House Emeryville:  convenient to the Amtrak station, and the folks at the front desk are very nice and helpful; almost no food service.

12:00:  check-out time.  I was expecting to have to be out earlier than that, so that at least was a good surprise.

13:30:  my taxi arrived.  I decided not to try to use BART since my old back was complaining a bit.  When I said that I was going to the Grand Hyatt at SFO, the driver asked me for an address.  That surprised me:  surely he knows how to get to the airport, and surely there’d be signs directing us to the hotel once we got there.  That was indeed the case, but the signs pointed only to “Hotel”.  I guess the Grand Hyatt is the only hotel on airport property.

The freeway was stop-and-go at least half way to the airport, maybe more.  That didn’t bother me since I had all day to get to the hotel, but I was sorry that I had put the taxi driver through that.  I gave him a $40 tip, which was probably too much since it was almost half the regular taxi fare; but I was very happy to get an easy (for me) ride.

All the folks at the Grand Hyatt were very nice and helpful, even lugging my luggage all the way to my room.  I was even able to arrange for wheelchair assistance all the way from my room to the terminal for tomorrow morning.

The room itself is very nice, but I needed to close the drapes to keep folks from looking in:  the AirTrain rolls right past my window.  Also, there’s not a proper desk for setting up my computer.  There’s a table with a comfortable chair, but it has a marble top which doesn’t allow my optical mouse to track well.  Fortunately, I had an A-size sheet of paper left over from the Varna trip which worked OK as a mouse pad.

17:30:

The restaurant opens for supper at 17:00, but I decided to let my laptop battery charge completely.

The menu should have been a warning:  they handed me a tablet-like device that was much more flashy than useful.  This old fart would have preferred a conventional menu.

I opted for the pork fried rice which was the only dinner entrée that I could identify.  The waiter warned me that it came with kimchi which I hadn’t had since I was stationed in South Korea near the end of the Vietnam war.  I was expecting a fermented cabbage salad, but what I got was just bits of rotten cabbage mixed in with the rice.  There were rather large chunks of pork sitting on top of the rice.  It was all more pretentious than tasty.

I don’t think I’ll bother with the restaurant for breakfast, mostly out of fear that I’ll run out of time:  the restaurant opens at 06:00 and my wheelchair assistance will show up at my room at 07:00.  There’s a shop that sells snacks and beverages on the fourth floor which is open 24/7.  I’ll probably just stop in there for a Danish and a cup of coffee in the morning.  I expect that I’ll get fed again on the airplane.

My goal for the rest of the night is to repack for flying rather than riding trains.  This mostly involves moving anything that might freak out the TSA folks to my checked bag, principally my scanner, various cables, and a box that I can plug into the earphone jack on the scanner which generates a bluetooth signal that feeds my hearing aids.  I’ll probably get some more blog reading done, but that’s not essential.

The good news is that the U.S. is switching from summer time to winter time in the wee hours of the morning, so I’ll get an extra hour of sleep.

Kona Trip Report days 0-2

[day −1]

2023-11-01:

Everything started well.  I had packed everything except my computer and toiletries the night before, and I arrived at the St. Louis Amtrak station in plenty of time to catch my first train to Chicago.

We departed St. Louis right on time; but as soon as I started getting my usual computer setup in order, I discovered, as I reported earlier, that I had stupidly failed to pack my laptop’s power cord (*sheesh*).  I still had a few hours of battery power available, but that clearly wasn’t going to get me to California.  I was off-line all the way to Emeryville and took no notes, and so I have almost nothing to report until the antepenultimate stop on day 2.

ca. 13:30−5:

We started boarding the California Zephyr and, amazingly, departed Chicago right on time at 14:00.

My sleeping car [train] attendant (TA), O. C. Smith, was very helpful all along the way, the food and the [food] service attendants (SAs), not so much.  The quality of the food service on Amtrak trains has taken a nosedive in the last decade or two.

2023-11-02, ca. 07:00−6:

It’s been at least twenty years since I last rode the Zephyr and, unsurprisingly I guess, the Denver station was all different from what I remembered.  We still had to pull quite a way north of the station and shove back to the stop, but this time there were several more tracks and very attractive platforms, and we were spotted on track 4 or 5 (I don’t remember which).  The last time I rode this train, we were shoved onto track 1 and spotted on a dingy platform near the headhouse.

I would later notice similar improvements at the Salt Lake City and Emeryville stations.

All the way from Denver to Grand Junction, the conductor made frequent announcements on the PA about the various sights along the way; and he was often amusing.  Most of the things to see were on the engineer’s side of the train (off to the right), but my room was on the fireman’s side.  I still appreciated the announcements, though.

2023-11-03, ca. 15:30−7:

Amazingly, we were right on time, even waiting for scheduled departure times at several stations, all the way to arrival in Martinez, CA.

We seemed to be having a really long dwell time in Martinez, surprising because the westbound Zephyr is discharge-only all the way from Sacramento to Emeryville and so doesn’t have to wait for scheduled departure times.  After about fifteen minutes or so, the conductor made an announcement on the PA saying that we had a medical emergency and that the train would be in Martinez for quite a while, but that passengers for Richmond and Emeryville would be handled on a Capitol Corridor train that was about an hour behind us.

I got off the train and followed the conductor to the baggage car where I claimed my one checked bag; and a station agent graciously allowed me to ride along with him with the other checked baggage to the headhouse.  He wouldn’t accept a tip.

I was working up a sweat, though.  I always wear a suit when I travel, principally because I like having all the pockets; and I was also wearing a St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap* and an overcoat on what turned out to be a warm day in the Bay Area.  This was going to be a problem because I’d be wearing the same suit and dress shirt all the way to the hotel on the Big Island.  When we got to the headhouse, I threw the hat and coat into what had been my checked bag, but that didn’t help much.

When the Capitol Corridor train arrived, the same station agent collected me and drove me to trainside where he got me a one-up seat on the lower level with a place to put my bags for the short ride to Emeryville.  My stress level was beginning to subside. 😎

On arrival in Emeryville, I’d be spending my first night at the Hyatt House just across the tracks; but the station agent couldn’t assure me that the elevators to the pedestrian crosswalk over the tracks would be working and suggested that I take a taxi.  I was reluctant to stick a taxi driver with such a short fare, but fortunately, the one taxi that was still waiting was the Emeryville Taxi Service.  The driver immediately understood my predicament, and I made it worth his while.

After checking in at the hotel, the clerk at the front desk said that there was a Best Buy not far away.  Fortunately, the taxi driver had given me his business card; so I called him back and he graciously drove me to the Best Buy and waited while I bought one of those universal laptop power cords.  On the way back to the hotel, I told him that I’d have a much longer fare for him tomorrow if he wanted it:  the Hyatt House Emeryville to the Grand Hyatt at SFO.  He agreed to pick me up at 13:30 and take me to SFO.

Recommendation:  If you ever need a taxi in Emeryville, CA, call the Emeryville Taxi Service, +1 510 612 9000.

The folks at the hotel’s front desk were very nice, the room is comfortable and convenient, and somebody in the housekeeping staff was happy to provide me with a stool to sit on in the shower (this old back complains if I’m vertical for more than a minute or two).  I do have one caveat emptor though:   the Hyatt House Emeryville doesn’t have a proper restaurant where you can get lunch or dinner.  They do offer a complimentary breakfast from 07:00 to 11:00.

My goal of getting caught up with my blog reading wasn’t accomplished.  PZ, Mano and Marcus have some interesting posts with comments that deserve careful reading; but I wasn’t up to that.  I verified that my new power cord worked corrently, played a little solitaire on the computer (as you might imagine, not something I do to improve my mind 😎 ), and crashed about quarter to nine.

*I have a red Cardinals cap.  I’ve been thinking about getting a blue one since folks who see only the red baseball cap might think that I want to Make America Hate Again.  I really like the red one, though.

Kona OOPS More Info

Success (I hope).

In Emeryville, I stopped at a Best Buy and got one of those universal laptop power cords.  I’m not sure I found the right tip in the box, but it fits, and the battery is charging as I write this.  The tip doesn’t fit quite as snuggly as my regular power cord does; let’s hope I don’t damage the socket it’s plugged into.

My goal for tonight is to get caught up on my e-mail and FtB reading.  Tomorrow night I’ll write a proper trip report.

Kona Trip Oops

Oh, dear!  I stupidly forgot the power cord for my laptop.  I have 90% of my battery; but that won’t get me to California, let alone Hawaiʻi; and I have no clue what I’m going to do during the meetings.  I might have to buy some cheap tablet and figure out how to use it.

I’m going to be silent at least until I get to Emeryville.

Kona Trip Report day minus one

Tomorrow morning I begin my trip to Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi for a week of meetings [itinerary].

I’ll start out on one of the Lincoln Service trains from St. Louis to Chicago where I’ll catch Amtrak’s California Zephyr all the way to Emeryville, a suburb of San Francisco.

I’m leaving a day early to give myself a buffer in case the Zephyr has any delays along the way, likely if there’s much snow on the ground.  If all goes as planned, I’ll spend two nights in the Bay Area.  The Hyatt House Emeryville is just across the tracks from the Amtrak station; and the Grand Hyatt at SFO is just a short AirTrain ride from there to the terminal.  I should have a whole day to get from Emeryville to the airport and so not be stressed at all.

The return trip will basically be the reverse of that, except I’ll spend only one night in the Bay Area and a second in Chicago.  The eastbound Zephyr will likely be late, and so the extra night will give me plenty of time to catch my preferred train for the last leg back to St. Louis.

I’ll have a decent camera with me this time, so maybe I’ll take some pretty pictures.  We’ll see whether I’m any good at it. 😎

[timetables for Chicago-St. Louis and Chicago-Emeryville]

Possible January Trip

I just found out that the ISO C committee will be meeting in Strasbourg, France in January.  I haven’t used good old C in ages, but I’m a member of the committee (actually INCITS PL22, an ANSI committee), and so I could attend; and it would give me an excuse to travel.

I could take Amtrak to Boston, fly Icelandair to Heathrow, then the Piccadilly Line to King’s Cross St. Pancras, Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord, and a TGV from Gare de l’Est to Strasbourg.  I could mostly handle the 800m walk between the two Paris stations; but I see that there’s a stairway on the route that might be a bit of a challenge with two bags and a walker.  Does anybody know of a good way around that?

New Subject

Katydid commented on my ethics post:

OT: Amtrak in upstate NY halted as tracks were washed out by “once-in-a-thousand-years” flood.

Yes, I’ve been reading about that on an e-mail list, AllAboardRailDiscussion@groups.io.  That’s Metro North’s Hudson Line to Croton-Harmon and Poughkeepsie, so it’s a big problem for commuters; but it also shut down Amtrak’s Empire Service and the Lake Shore Limited which use that track.

I’m not sure exactly where the flooding happened, but I’ve ridden on that line numerous times on the Lake Shore, and there are places where the track runs right along the eastern bank of the Hudson.

Update:  some photos

There’s also flooding on CSX’s River Line on the western bank.

I Did a Stupid Thing

I expect to be taking a trip to Hawaiʻi in November [current itinerary]; and with a remarkable (and I hope uncharacteristic) lack of impulse control, I inquired about chartering a plane for the round trip.*

It turns out that I’d need at least a mid-sized jet in order to carry enough fuel to get from the west coast of the Americas half way across the Pacific; and I was given an estimate that, at the high end, is almost one third of my net worth.

The guy I spoke to said that he’d get back to me with a more detailed price, but I haven’t heard from him yet as I write this.  I hope that he figured out that I’m not in the group from which he gets his regular customers, and that he doesn’t have to waste any more time on the likes of me. 😎

*Since I might not be around much longer than that for medical reasons, and since there’s nobody else who depends on this extreme introvert for anything, I briefly thought that it would be OK to significantly spend down my savings on a whim.  On further reflection, I finally got it through my thick skull that a nice donation to a charity (which my current will provides) would actually do some good, and spewing all that carbon into the atmosphere for one fool’s convenience would actually do some bad.  I’ll stick with conventional first-class travel, which is flamboyant enough, and which would happen whether or not I were along for the ride.

Varna Trip Report, days twelve and thirteen

[day −1]
[day 0]
[day 1]
[day 2]
[day 3]
[day 4]
[day 5]
[days 6 & 7]
[days 8 & 9]
[day 10]
[day 11]

2023-06-19 05:30−4:

There wouldn’t be enough time for breakfast in the hotel restaurant before I would want to check out, but there was a kind of coffee shop that opened at 05:30 where I got a Danish pastry to hold me over for a while.

06:00:

I checked out of the hotel and caught a taxi to South Station.

I had originally booked the accessible bedroom in the Lake Shore Limited’s Boston section; but because of track work, my reservation had been changed to a bus from Boston to Albany-Rensselaer where I would board 449.  Since I would rather ride a train than a bus, I changed my reservation several weeks ago to Northeast Corridor train 171 to New York and then the Ethan Allan Express train 291 to Rensselaer.

<aside>
The station is actually in Rensselaer, NY, just across the river from Albany.
</aside>

I arrived at South Station fairly early intending to head to the Metropolitan Lounge to let somebody know that I wouldn’t be on the bus to Rensselaer.  I was worried that my reservation from Rensselaer would be cancelled when I was a no-show for the bus.

The lounge hadn’t opened yet because nobody had showed up, so I went to the ticket counter to explain my concern, but the guy I talked to had no clue what I was talking about.  The Met. Lounge opened up a few minutes after that, so I went up there and the lounge attendant assured me that everything was OK with my reservation and that I wouldn’t be expected on the bus.  Since I had a same-day sleeper ticket on 449 out of Rensselaer, I was allowed to wait in the Met. Lounge, have a cup of coffee, and get caught up on the Internet.  I was hoping for another sweet roll or something, but Boston’s Met. Lounge doesn’t put out breakfast-style munchies, just chips and such.  That’s not up to the standards that I remember from earlier trips.

08:00:

About fifteen minutes before 171’s scheduled departure, I headed down to the train.  The biz.-class car was the first one I came to, so that would be the last car on the train.  The quiet car was right in front of that, then a bunch of coaches, and the café car all the way in front.  I wasn’t about to walk the whole train just to get to the café, so no breakfast for me except for the Danish I’d had back at the hotel.

08:15:

We departed right on time.  I had a seat on the fireman’s side, so I got to look at all the boats along the shore (when Amtrak’s Shore Line is actually running along the shore, mostly just in eastern Connecticut).

12:25:

The trip to New York City was uneventful, and we arrived a couple of minutes early.

I had the redcap take me to the baggage checking place where I checked one bag on train 49 all the way to St. Louis.  The baggage guy didn’t want to do that because Amtrak’s reservation system doesn’t recognize 49 as a connection to 449 even though it’s the same damn train departing Rensselaer.  The redcap was helpful to me in convincing the baggage guy that it would be OK.

Once I was rid of my larger bag, I had only my walker and the smaller bag that I’d have with me on the next train, and so I thanked and tipped the redcap.

I went to the Met. Lounge hoping that the attendant would be able to give me a coach seat on 49 which would give me more time in New York to compose this post, but she was a newbie and couldn’t be convinced that 49 and 449 were the same train, so I’m still on 291 from New York to Rensselaer.

The Met. Lounge in New York is fancier than the one in Boston, but none of the food looked appetizing.  I guess I’ll have a late lunch from the café on 291.

ca. 14:00:

Train 291 started boarding and I didn’t need redcap assistance to get me to the train, but I asked at the redcap counter for directions to the elevator down to the track 5 platform.  I’m glad I did because I never would have found it without knowing where to go from the start.  I boarded 291 with only about five minutes to spare.

291 has a café car like the ones I’m used to on the Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City corridor trains:  a café counter in the middle, tables at the end of the car nearest the coaches, and very comfortable 2-1 biz.-class seating on the other side.  All the 1-up seats were taken by the time I boarded, but I wound up with two seats to myself for the whole trip to Rensselaer.

14:20:

We departed New York on-time.  The café didn’t open until 15:20, so there was no time for anything real to eat.  I just had a coke and a bag of pretzels.

16:45:

After another uneventful ride, we arrived in Albany-Rensselaer about four minutes early.  I made a beeline to the ticket counter where I was assured that I still had my accessible bedroom on 449 even though I wasn’t on the bus from Boston.

There’s a little coffee shop in the Rensselaer station where I had some mac and cheese and a hotdog…not much of a meal, but it was the best that they could do for me.

I’ll have about a two-hour wait for 449.

ca. 18:30:

Boarding 449 started.

It turned out that the 449 equipment had deadheaded from Sunnyside Yard in Queens today, so I probably could even have gotten in my room in New York; but there was no way I could have explained that to any of the ticket agents there.  (I find it a bit disconcerting that J. Random Passenger knows more about Amtrak operations than Amtrak employees do.  Oh, well…)

The 449 sleeper is all the way in the front of the train, so I had a bit of a hike.  As expected, I’m in a Viewliner I accessible bedroom; so I still have no idea what the Viewliner II arrangement is.

I elected not to have dinner from the “flexible dining menu”.  The café car is the next car back, but I didn’t really want anything from that either.

We were basically on-time all the way to Syracuse where I went to bed a little bit hungry, which is probably good for me once in a while.

2023-06-20, ca. 05:00:

I woke up for the stop in Cleveland where we were running about one hour late.

The TA hadn’t made any coffee and didn’t have any extra bottles of water out:  we were supposed to go to the café which was the next car back, so that was OK.  I also got a rather large blueberry muffin for breakfast which was just as good as anything that the TA would have brought me from the “dining car”.

<aside>
Dolly:  “The Americans have something they call muffins, but they’re just tea cakes with raisins!”
Miss Marple:  “The Americans certainly have a lot to answer for.”
— Agatha Christie, The Body in the Library
</aside>

10:42−5:

We stayed about one hour late for the rest of the trip; and thanks to schedule padding, we arrived in Chicago about half an hour late.  I had thought that they might have shortened the dwell time in Toledo, but that didn’t happen.  In any event, I had plenty of time to make the connection to the last train of my trip.

ca. 11:30:

I opted for a slice of pizza from Sbarro’s for lunch.

13:30:

The Texas Eagle started boarding, and we departed right on time.  We didn’t get delayed on the Canadian National tracks between Chicago and Joliet this time, and stayed basically on-time all the way to St. Louis.

For some reason, the café car didn’t open until 15:00, already twenty minutes passed Joliet.

I had popped for a roomette in the sleeper on train 21, so I’d be comfortable on my last leg of the trip, and I’d at least get one of the reheated meals in the “diner” for supper.  When the LSA showed up making dinner reservations, he apparently was a newbie as well, and my TA, who I guess was also qualified as an SA, had to help him with filling out the food ticket.  I opted for the baked ziti and meatballs.

<aside>
TA – train attendant, the crew who assist passengers in the sleepers and coaches.
SA – service attendant, the food service crew.
LSA – lead service attendant.
</aside>

After a while, the LSA showed up again to say that my dinner selection wouldn’t be available.  Since we had just started the trip, it’s not like they ran out; and I have no idea what their excuse was.  I decided on the short ribs and mashed potatoes which turned out to be not too bad.

18:54:

Nothing much out of the ordinary happened on this leg either; and thanks to schedule padding, after a brief stop to align a switch which hadn’t been set correctly to get us on the right track, we arrived in St. Louis about twenty minutes early.

It took about half an hour for the checked baggage to make it to the baggage claim area in the station, but I finally got my bag (the baggage guy in New York had done the right thing after all) and drove home on city streets rather than blast down I-55.

About all I could do when I got home was some minimal unpacking.  I listened to the Cardinals’ game on the radio (they lost again) and crawled into bed, which is why writing this report and posting it had to wait until the next morning.

I still owe the blog a report about how the meetings went in Varna.  2023-07-12:  I got sidetracked by the cancer business and don’t really remember much about the meeting.  I’ll try to do better after the next trip in November.

Varna Trip Report, day eleven

[day −1]
[day 0]
[day 1]
[day 2]
[day 3]
[day 4]
[day 5]
[days 6 & 7]
[days 8 & 9]
[day 10]

2023-06-18 06:30+2:

When I checked in at the hotel, I had declined the “breakfast included” option because I doubted that I’d have 21€ worth of food.  What I hadn’t been told is that the breakfast buffet would be the only option until lunch time.  I had breakfast anyway; and when I went by the front desk to inform them that I had done that and still needed to pay, I discovered that the price would now be 26€. 8-(

My Icelandair flight to Keflavík doesn’t depart until 14:10, so I won’t need to check out of the hotel until 11:00 or so.  That will give me plenty of time to catch up on the usual on-line reading and to craft readable prose for, and publish, my day-10 report.

11:00:

I asked at the information counter where Icelandair’s check-in place is, and they told me number 2.  When I got there, they told me that Icelandair wasn’t there yet, and I’d have to wait until 11:30.  At 11:30, still no Icelandair.  I asked again, and a very nice woman behind the counter looked it up and said I should go to check-in 0.  I didn’t even know that there was such a place, but I was directed to go through a door to security and saw the check-in 0 sign just above the door.  I never would have found that just searching around.

As expected, I checked one bag; and they put a baggage tag on my walker and told me where to sit to wait for the wheelchair assistance.  It took a good fifteen or twenty minutes for them to arrive; but when they did, I followed the wheelchair guy to the bulky baggage check-in place where they took my walker; then I got wheeled to a first-class lounge.

In the lounge, I had a couple of meatballs, some rice, and some Pepsi Max; but I didn’t want to eat very much because I’d get fed again on the plane.

ca 13:20+2:

Another wheelchair guy showed up to take me to the gate, and after a wait of about ten minutes or so, down the jetway to the plane.  This airplane has nine rows of what one expects for business-class seating.  I’m in seat 2D on the aisle on the copilot’s side in the second row.  (Do airline folks talk about the pilot’s and copilots’s sides of the plane.  I’m guessing that they actually say “port” and “starboard”.  I’ll have to ask somebody.)

15:25Z:

We landed in Keflavík right on the advertised.

There was no wheelchair at the plane’s door.  I had to walk the entire length of the jetway, stopping once for about 30 seconds to lean on my carry-on bag’s handle for a bit, where I met the wheelchair person who took me to the Saga Class lounge.

My flight to Boston doesn’t leave until 19:05Z, so another wheelchair will come for me around 18:20 or so.  I’ll have about two hours to wait.

I didn’t want any food; but I found a place where I could get my computer out and write, and proofread, this post up to this point.

ca. 18:50:

My wheelchair still hasn’t shown up and, particularly scary, my flight has disappeared from the departure board.  I started to ask about the flight at the Saga Lounge desk when the wheelchair person arrived without the wheelchair.  She had to go someplace to get one.  I asked about the flight not being on the screen any more, but the lounge attendant just sat there without saying anything.

After heading through passport control (I’m now leaving the Schengen area), we headed for the gate where passengers were standing in a boarding line, but the line wasn’t moving.  My being in a wheelchair allowed me to cut in line right behind another passenger needing assistance.  We stayed there for ten or fifteen minutes with no clue what was happening.

After a while, I got wheeled down the jetway to the plane, but they still weren’t ready for us.  If I hadn’t had the wheelchair, I’d have been hurting.  It’s not walking that’s a problem for me; it’s that my back doesn’t want me verticle for more than a few minutes without having something to lean on, and so standing in line for more than a couple of minutes doesn’t work well.

OK, I made it on the plane, so I guess I’m really headed for Boston after all.

We finally pulled from the gate at 19:50Z…yet another 45-minute delay on top of the reschedule I found out about a couple of days ago.  I have no clue why we were so late.  The current estimate as of 18:30−4 (I’ve already set my watch to Boston time as I write this) is for an arrival around 20:40, give or take.

20:55−4:

We pulled up to the gate.  After about only five minutes or so, I was told that my wheelchair was waiting, so I got off the plane.

Next was immigration.  I had gotten Global Entry before COVID, and it was still valid, but I had stupidly neglected to bring the paperwork with me on this trip.  That turned out to be not so bad since being wheeled around in a wheelchair gave me license to cut in line.

I then got wheeled to the checked baggage place where we got directed to two different carousels.  My bag finally showed up at what turned out to the the right one, but much later than expected.  It should have been one of the first few off because of the Saga Class “priority” tag, but it wasn’t.  I was getting worried that it had been lost, but I got it eventually.  While we were waiting, the wheelchair guy went to the large baggage claim and got my walker; so after he wheeled me to the exit, I was independent again and headed for the Hilton Boston Logan which is connected to the airport, but it’s quite a hike.

22:15−4:

I finally got into my hotel room; and since my body clock still thought it was 04:15+2, I basically just fell into bed.

2023-06-19 04:00−4:

I didn’t sleep well for some reason, so I got up early, reprogrammed my scanner with all the railroad frequencies I’d need for the train trip, and finished writing this post.

The final two days probably won’t get published until I get home on Tuesday night.