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Day 298 (68) – Airport Check-In
At what must be my earliest waking time in a long while, I got up at 4:30am this morning. My flight for Chicago leaves at 7:10 this AM, and in an attempt to be a prepared traveler, I wanted to leave plenty of time for any mess-ups in the Airport Security process (though I didn’t quite shoot for the “2 hour” recommended time).
So after about 60 seconds of strongly wanting to hit the snooze button, I hopped in the shower and got ready. 25 minutes and a smoothie later, I was on the road. The one advantage to being up at this God-forsaken hour is that there are no crowds. I saw maybe 4 cars on the highways, and checking in was a breeze.
Since I had no bags to check (just my laptop bag and a carry-on), I was able to bypass the check-in station and just print my ticket at a kiosk. Within 10 minutes I had printed my ticket and gone through security (luckily I spent the time last night making sure I complied with all of the new liquid restrictions- everything 3 oz or less and it has to fit in a quartz-size bag- though it should be interesting surviving on 3oz of shampoo and soap for 4 days…).
Surprisingly, the journey to get to the gate took longer than the security check. It took 20 minutes, encompassing a train, a shuttle bus, and of course my own legs (I’m surprised there was no boat, or plane to get to the terminal). But, with the flight I’m about to take, I’ll have covered the planes, trains, and automobiles in one morning.
As you may have realized, a 4:30 wake-up time + 30 minute hygiene ritual + drive + 30 minute trip through security, leaves me with over 60 minutes of nothing until the plane boards. Rather than succumb to the glory that is sleep (and potentially do something embarrassing, like one of those leg-kick spasm things), I decided to blog, resulting in what is likely my earliest post to date.
