Day 15: Anchorage, AK to Austin, TX

Trip Log for 9 Jun 2012

• Miles Driven: 1.5
• Miles Flown: 3,212
• Sunrise: 04:20 AKT / Sunset: 20:32 CDT

The final trip log is a few days late but I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home and slept most of the next two days, returning to work on Tuesday. The trip home started with stress as we got to the airport a little later than I would have liked and then the airline kiosk refused to check us in. I started to freak out when I saw the length of the line to check in with an actual person given we had about 50 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. While I waited in line, Wes went over to another line that was just for checking bags and managed to find out what the problem was: Expedia told us the wrong flight. Their system showed us booked for the 06:00 flight not the 06:20 flight (flight 88) so that's why the kiosk kept saying it couldn't confirm us. Between his charisma and her working some magic, we were able to get on the 06:20 flight anyway and to check in with her, by-passing the really long line.

We made it through security and to the gate in time to board, and then the pilot came on the speaker saying maintenance had found a hole in the cargo bay. This caused us to leave 40 minutes late. Our connecting flight was scheduled just 45 minutes after the first flight was supposed to land. Needless to say, we and several other passengers were nervous the whole flight that we'd miss our connections. The flight attendant asked that people remain seated and let those with tight connections off the plane first but no one listened. We were towards the back of the plane and at one point the man across the aisle from use got mad and yelled for people to MOVE. We made it off the plane soon after and ran the two gates down to our connecting flight.

It seemed they must have held the plane for us because everyone else was already nicely seated and ready to go (but, there were also like 11 people total from the Anchorage flight trying to get on this flight). That flight left about 20 minutes late, we assume because they were transferring our bags which also made it to Austin. Both flights had wi-fi which was cool and something I had not experienced before. It was free on the first flight and I was able to upload the previous day's log while flying over Washington state. It was much nicer having two flights between three and four hours instead of that one, long six plus hour flight. I am so glad to be home and I really doubt I will ever plan a trip that long again. Gavin at least seemed happy to have me home! Poor Wes had to leave on Monday to go to Calgary until Friday so he hasn't been able to decompress yet.

Thanks to everyone who followed our trip! A couple of notes: the car's mpg calculator ended at 27.5 mpg average for the whole trip but when I did the math (2883.6 miles driven divided by 109.485 gallons of fuel purchased) I get only 26.4 mpg. Still, that's better than either of us expected for an SUV. The total gas bill was $574.86, much more than I had budgeted—an average of $5.02/gallon—when I had estimated $4.50/gallon. As it turned out the only place gas was even close to that price was in Anchorage; in Canada, it was much more expensive. Food and lodging were more than I would have liked as well but everything total was still within acceptable expenditures at approximately $3,150 per person.