Saturday – Airport Adventures

On Saturday, September 22nd John & Sue and Joe & Margaret and Frank & I would be flying home from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport to our home states of Massachusetts, Virginia, and California. Frank and I were scheduled out at 5:55 pm. John & Sue and Joe & Margaret had flights at 3:15 pm and 5:58 pm respectively. Per our rental agreement, we needed to check out of the house by 10:00 am and the airport is only about 30 minutes southeast of our rental house. Theoretically we had half a day to squeeze in another activity. A small logistical problem we had though, was that our rental car could not hold six people and all their luggage. We asked and were not permitted to leave the luggage at the house. We could not realistically visit any more points of interest that day even if our conservative time management comfort level would allow. We all agreed going early to the airport, chilling, and reading there for a few hours would be a welcome option after our active week.

Frank and I were scheduled out of Terminal 2, Humphrey. John & Sue and Joe & Margaret had flights out of Terminal 1, Lindbergh. Since we were at different terminals anyway, Frank and I took Uber. Our ride arrived within minutes of us summoning it, so soon in fact that Frank was rushing to put on his shoes. Since his hip replacement surgery in December 2016, that is not a task he does rapidly due to limited flexibility. He uses an extended length shoe horn to be independent. In our sudden rush to get out the door he left that specialty tool behind in the hallway of the rental house. During our ride to the airport, John discovered it and called to let us know. We asked him to bring it to the airport. No sweat. We had several hours to meet up with him, even though at a different terminals, get it back, and slip it into one of our bags before checking it. 

One other detail was that our airline to California, Southwest, would not allow us to check our luggage any earlier than two hours before the flight. Our friends' flights on Delta did. At least they got something after being charged $25 a bag, when our bags fly free on Southwest. Wherever we went within the airport, we would need to bring our baggage with us. So we would rent a Smart Carte and pile everything on it. No problem – $5 per cart per full day beats $25 per bag per few hour flight. After carefully balancing our stack of bags on the cart we set off and asked a porter how to get from Terminal 2, where we were, to Terminal 1, where the rest of our party was. Apparently the two terminals are far enough apart from each other that not only could we not walk, but we had to take a METRO train to get from one to the other. Granted it was only a short stretch (in pale blue on the next diagram) and the fare was free, but still, it was a train ride. This did not disappoint Frank and we could also check the box that we had ridden the METRO. We asked the porter if they allowed Smarte Cartes on the train and he assured us, "You rented that cart for the day. Hell, you can take it all the way to the Mall of America and push it around there if you want to." We looked and confirmed that Mall of America was indeed the southern-most, final stop on the blue line.

So pushing our heavily-laden cart we toured around the airport searching for elevators rather than escalators and made our way to the Metro train platform level. We had to go up a level to cross a skyway across the roads and down a level to return to the level of the light rail transit, the far right side of the next diagram. 

Once there, Frank is dutifully obeyed the sign to WATCH FOR TRAINS.

True to what we'd been told, if we got on the METRO in the wrong direction we would wind up at Mall of America, cart and all.

Aah, this is where we wanted to head – to Terminal 1. Of course if we overshot, we might wind up in downtown Minneapolis with our cart in tow.

Here comes our train.

We got in with Frank rolling the cart. There was that ubiquitous little diamond-shaped yellow sign that I saw at the model railroad museum and at the street car museum.

According to Metro Magazine

Operation Lifesaver Inc. (OLI) launched a new public service advertising (PSA) campaign called "See Tracks? Think Train!" which aims to reduce pedestrian and driver injuries and fatalities around railroad tracks by highlighting behaviors that put people at risk.

We dutifully got off the train at Terminal 1 and took the elevator up.

Terminal 1 is larger and more complicated than Terminal 2. We had a tram system to contend with and it was at Level T, different from the level of the light rail system. Light rail is at the bottom of the next diagram and the tram system is at the center.

We boarded the tram. I have no photo commemorating that moment. As the cart crossed the threshold it tipped over sprawling our luggage throughout the car. I rushed near to help right the cart and reload it. Folks in Minnesota are very kind. Several folks scrambled to help us gather up the bags and pile them back on the cart. Fortunately the operator of the tram was alert and noted our predicament. Even though the doors were closed, he delayed departure so we were not stooping or bending and likely to fall over when the tram lurched forward. We did get it tidied up before the tram moved, and it stayed that way as we were exiting the tram. This time Frank negotiated the threshold more successfully.

After we'd exited the tram area, I looked back to be sure we could get back to the same spot when we reversed our path to return to Terminal 2.

Frank be-bopped down the corridor as we continued to meet up with John and Sue. Hmmm. That cart looks somewhat precarious, doesn't it? This photo was taken at 10:50 am. Spoiler alert – we did not have any other upsets traveling all the way back to Terminal 2 before checking our luggage several hours later around 4:00 pm. We - or rather our cart – remained stable for over five hours. Yay! Not to belittle the accomplishment, but we were merely parked most of that time reading.

John and Sue met up with us and completed the handoff of "the baton". In the next photo Frank and his specialty show horn, "the baton",  are shown in action once we were settled at home after our trip.

The actual handoff lasted less than 10 minutes. This photo was taken at 11:02 am. We began retracing our path, boarding the tram toward light rail transport... 

... taking the elevator down to light rail level ...

... exiting the elevator and heading back toward METRO. What was interesting as we got out of the elevator were all the spare parts for escalators. This would be the third time at an airport during travel that I had seen part of the maintenance process for a mammoth moving device of some sort. Once was for a walkway and once was for a luggage carousel.

I suppose these could be treads to a moving walkway but I thought with the yellow stripes they delineated steps for an escalator. My maintenance observation collection is growing.

After checking our luggage we moved to our gate. Our flight to Denver was on time and uneventful.

Denver is a huge airport that seems to stretch on forever. Our layover was about one hour, so exploring, even if we had the energy, was not in the cards.

We made our way directly to our flight on to Oakland. It, too, was on time and uneventful.

Arriving in Oakland around 10:00 pm California time would be about midnight Minnesota time. We got our luggage, found the car, drove home, and collapsed. It had been a fun-filled and educational trip. Frank and I even got our half-day adventure in on travel day after all. I am looking forward to and curious about where the six of us will go next year.

 

Back Row: Joe & Margaret Front Row: Sue & John, Diane & Frank