Sunny & warm (Albuquerque & Denver), wet (Virgina & Maryland)
7 miles (total 1856)
I rose at 8.15, and obtained a breakfast of a ``bear claw'' pastry and orange juice from a garage across the (rather busy) street. Once packed I left for the airport, stopping first at the garage to refuel, and again briefly by the Old Town Plaza to look in the church again and to use up the film in my camera before the flight.
I returned the car at the depot and then had to wait a while in order to reclaim the money spent on the tyre repair before taking the shuttle over to the Sunport. Check-in was extremely quick -- United make few flights out of Albuquerque and I was there in tons of time. I spent a while looking at the 1911 Curtis-Pusher biplane suspended above the entrance, then went to face the long queues at security.
Once through I went off in search of a snack to serve as my lunch and bought a sandwich, which turned out to be rather bland. I spent a while by the gate being fascinated by a nearby machine which used high pressure water-jets to massage weary travellers, while allowing them to remain dry and fully clothed (as long as it didn't spring a leak in the wrong place).
The flight, on a Boeing 737, was due to depart at 1.15 but took a long time to board owing to the overhead luggage bins filling -- too many people had large wheelable cases with them. Eventually these were stowed away and we left, making enough time on the flight to Denver to arrive more or less on time.
I then had the gate-change ritual again, stopping to purchase a couple of cookies and snapping a picture of the statue of Jack Swigert, astronaut on Apollo 13 and later elected to Congress, but who died before he could take his sear.
The flight to Washington left Denver close to the scheduled time of 3.25, and was aboard a Boeing 757. With no seat-back screens, there was no choice of in-flight movie as on transatlantic flights, but the overhead screens were showing ``Maid in Manhattan'', a moderately entertaining film starring Jennifer "J-Lo" Lopez and Ralph Fiennes, none too taxing on the grey cells. A light but distinctly unmemorable meal was served en-route.
The flight reached Washington Dulles airport around 8.40 local time, two hours ahead of Albuquerque and Denver, but there was a large crowd assembled waiting for the ``mobile lounges'' which convey passengers between the various gate areas and the main terminal building. Once in the main building, I emerged to find Jeff waiting for me waving a piece of paper marked "STEVENS", just in case I didn't recognise him. After reclaiming my case, we went out to the carpark in light drizzle in order to find his car, a large white Buick.
The drive to Jeff's took us around the southern side of Washington's infamous ``beltway'' (similar to the M25 in rather too many aspects), across the Potomac River into Maryland, and down Highway 4 to Solomons, a small town on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patuxent River.
The drive took ninety minutes or so to reach Solomons, where we turned off into the gated estate in which Jeff lived. As befits the waterfront location, many of the roads within bore names with a nautical theme.
Given the weight of my suitcase I was pleased to find that there was a lift to take us to the first floor and the door of Jeff's apartment, which I was pleased to find looking respectably tidy, although a pile of cardboard boxes was lurking in one corner.
After a quick tour of the spacious apartment, I went to unpack a few things while Jeff got himself something to eat -- I decided I had been sufficiently fed on the plane. I found that a nice notice had been left in my suitcase informing me that it had been opened as part of security checks, and a few of the contents rearranged, but happily nothing was missing and I could present Jeff with his roadrunner.
We spent some considerable time that evening chatting, and I eventually retired to bed around 1am, still on Mountain Time.