7/20. SFO to BOS, Delayed

(Tuesday, 7/20)  
  

Empty gate and tarmac
waiting for our aircraft to arrive. 

   

When we arrived at SFO we were 3 hours early for our 1:45 flight, and we saw "flight delayed" on the United announcement screen. The new flight time was estimated to be 3:45 so we were 5 hours early and had only the empty gate and tarmac to look at. Oh well, that's travel these days. 
   
The good news was that our plane eventually did arrive at SFO and we boarded to begin the flight to BOS; we arrived late (1 AM), just happy to be there.
      
   
Let me introduce this new blog by describing the plan for this year's trip to Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The trip, of course, starts and ends with the flight from SFO to BOS. We did this last year and only the Boston stay entered my blog. This year the airport Hilton is our only stop in Boston; next day we head for Marlborough via Lowell MA. The vacation is to be recorded on my iPad, which I am bringing in place of my MacBook portable. 

View of Boston from
Hilton Hotel, Logan Airport.  

   
Like many, I'm very pleased with the iPad as a travel computer. On the flight I read an electronic novel, eBook, using the iBook app reader software without major eyestrain or losing my place. Overall, it was a pleasant reading experience during the flight and while waiting for United to locate us a functioning airplane. The features of the reader that I liked the most were the illumination control, the highlighting feature, and the full-text search.
  
Taking notes with the iPad Note application is a challenge; the 'virtual' keyboard takes some getting used to. I've found that two fingers and a thumb (for tapping the space bar) is the most accurate way for me to type. I've been a touch typist for more than 50 years, but I'm finding that the return to two-finger mode is easy. Why not use more fingers? The easy answer is that I can't seem to avoid dragging the extra fingers across the virtual keyboard creating interesting garble, but no useful text.
  
This year the town of Lowell, home of the American textile industry, will be the first city we visit after Boston. Last year Lowell was the last city visited. We are returning to spend more time in the historical center. Last year we stopped briefly on the way to catch our return flight from BOS to SFO. I remember that visit because I forgot to put gas in the rental car- causing us much stress as we entered the tunnel on the final few miles to the airport with an empty tank. We didn't run out of gas, but the rental car charge for a full tank was an awesome $125.


The next blog entry looks at the textile mills of Lowell (we'll be sure to have a full tank of gas).


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