It’s back home today to a comfy 70° . I’ve been away from home for 3½ weeks and it seems like it’s been longer.

While I was gone I was adding to my to-do list of things for when I get back. I have several things to take care of – some are new things and some are a continuation of things I started working on before I left, like thinning out my storage unit and getting rid of some things.

I’m on United on this return flight, which I have not flown on in many years. I’m pretty happy with most everything flying Alaska and the fares are pretty reasonable with an assigned seat. Oddly, Alaska books flights into Springfield but not out of. It makes sense though since they don’t fly directly in – I had a layover in Dallas on the way down flying Alaska and changed to American Airlines the last leg.

My first flight was on a small jet, which I don’t really like to fly in, but it’s too far to walk. But, the front of the plane is a 1-2 configuration for the first few rows and I am deliberately on the side with a single seat so all the better.

It was a smooth flight and it’s really really good to be back in Denver even though I ran from gate to gate; not a real good impression of United. I was supposed to have a one-hour plus layover hut I guess they didn’t tell DIA that were were coming so we sat on the tarmac for maybe 40 minutes.

On top of this, United really had a rather “impersonal” feel to it; not bad…just not welcoming in a genuine way. I cannot out my finger on it, though. The people were nice so it wasn’t that. I guess I am used to the way Alaska Airlines is.

I really wish that I had more time to do something but the layover was just over an hour. Not worth security hassles leaving unless you’re going out for more than a day. I’ll be back soon with trailer in tow so I’ll have time then.

The smoke was pretty heavy even though we were up high enough and in clear skies. It was hard to see the ground and in some places it was not visible at all.

I also saw what looked to be a lake but it was mostly dried up as you can see in this picture:

My second flight was on a 737MAX which I swore I’d never set foot on but, as was pointed out in a travel article I read, it’s probably the safest plane in the air with all the scrutiny it got. Seemed like a good enough argument to change my mind.

Ahh, First Class. Big-ass cushy seats and elbow room. It was not very expensive to upgrade so I did it. As I have said before I don’t mind getting spoiled but my main thing is I want off the plane as soon as I can. I won’t freak out or anything – it’s just I want out of the crowd.

Had a pretty good warm chicken sandwich after we got in the air. Provolone on top of it with kale cream cheese. Pretty delicious. I ordered a Breckinridge Brewery IPA to go with it.

It lived up to the “Juice Drop” part of its name – a very interesting mouth feel that was wetter than wet. But, it’s an IPA and it lived up to that part of the name as well. I shoulda known better since I’m usually not a fan of that style. I got a couple drinks of it down and couldn’t drink any more of it. Way too bitter for me and an odd (to me) aftertaste. I’ll stick with Guinness or a wheat beer if I’m going lighter.

I caught a quick glimpse of Mt. Hood outside of Portland, then got to see Mt. Rainier again as we headed into Seattle:

SEA had a some construction happening and I saw a few new things I had never seen. One was this structure:

It feels good to be back but it was a fun trip.