Denver trip

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This trip held a few firsts for me.

The first first was the taxi ride from Coleman dock to SeaTac.

Let me start of by saying, I have had a few crazy stories already. Once, the cab driver started racing another taxi, they were side by side doing 90 plus on 509.

another time, there were NO cabs at the ferry terminal.

Since that experience, I always make sure I am the first to get down to the taxi area.

As I was walking down, I could see the drivers through the glass doors. They saw me with my suitcase, and I could see the whites of their eyes turn to dollar signs.

As the doors opened, suddenly 10-15 drivers started shouting at me "ride sir?", "come with me sir", "right this way please". The tallest of the bunch, the alpha driver, pushes from the back through the sea of drivers, he lunges his long, lanky arm out to grab my bag. "this way sir, my taxi is right in front". I shouted "town car!". They all repeated it. The taxi drivers backed off. Now I had 6 -8 towncar drivers to deal with. I pointed at one guy and said "YOU". This did little to help. I shouted "NO FIGHTING"

We finally made it to his towncar, parked on the wrong side of Madison. He popped the trunk and it was full with a child car seat. My bag went in the front seat...

The driver then headed North under the viaduct. He turned right onto Alaska way. I assume he is going to turn back onto Madison and head up to 1st Ave, take a right and then another right on Columbia and be on Hwy 99 like EVERY driver does... Nope. He goes down Alaskan and then pulls into the transit lane on Yesler. He goes up to 1st and takes a right. Where are we going? I wonder... I had lots of time, so I didn't care, as long as he didn't turn down some alley. He finally turns on Edgar Martinez Dr and gets on the freeway... ok.

The second first was rain. It rained so hard on the way into town from the airport. I would have never had a rain jacket with me, had it not been raining in Seattle when I left.

The last odd thing about this trip was the flight home. I believe I was actually unlucky enough to be on a flight with all first time fliers.

As we boarded, I saw many, many people with multiple carry on bags. I was behind a family with small kids who, just now, as we are walking down the ramp from the gate to the plane, realize their seating assignments are all split up.

I entered the plane to a sea of chaos. No one knew how to stow bags in the overhead compartment, the flight attendants were repeating the instructions on how to stow and was trying to restow things as quick as they could. Then, the family behind be started trying to trade seats with other passengers, while the passengers behind them waited to get seated.

I was seated first, on the aisle. My two row mates showed up. A young man and woman. The man immediatley started to harass the flight attendants. Ugh..

Finally we take off. All good, then, we hit the storm we were trying to beat out of town. We had some extreme turbulence for the first half of the flight. It was really good to finally get home.