Notes From A Jet Setter -- DFW To PDX And Back -- November 4, 2022

This has not been proofread. Will do that later. I am on my way to pick up Sopha; huge rainstorm right now.

My wife and I live in a suburb of Fort Worth (or is it, Ft Worth?), Texas -- DFW airport is a ten-minute drive.

We have a younger daughter, son-in-law, and 2.5-year-old grandsons in Portland, Oregon.

It is easy to catch direct flights to Portland (PDX) from DFW; and, for a slightly lower fare, a flight with one-stop, a one-hour layover in Seattle; and, for a really, really nice fare, a "red-eye" -- I haven't seen that term in a long time. Are they still called "red-eyes"?

Anyway, all of that to say that I had a wonderful week in Portland visiting the grandsons.

Beautiful, beautiful trip. 

The grandsons are doing great. Photos to follow. 

The weather was perfect: cloudy and overcast most days with intermittent heavy rains. Reminded me of Scotland. But not particularly cold.

The good news! There is more than enough green space and more than enough cement (sidewalks) and asphalt (highway shoulders) for many more homeless camps. Portland hasn't even scratched the surface -- as they say -- when it comes to tenting the homeless. Eminentdomain a few neighborhoods -- staying away from the rich and famous on the west side of town, of course -- and turn entire neighborhoods into city parks, and let the homeless take over. 

Groceries, in general, seem to be 1.5x to 2x more expensive than what I'm used to in Texas, except at Target where prices seem about the same, I guess. Hard to say. I did not do much grocery shopping.

In Texas, I expect to pay no more than $3.99 / gallon of regular gasoline and can generally find it for significantly less. On the day I arrived in Portland, regular gasoline was priced right at $4.99 / gallon but on the day I departed, one week later, the price was $5.50 / gallon and trending higher.

Back to flights. I took a direct flight to Portland on American Airlines, an Airbus A321 from DFW. Claustrophobic to say the least, in my window seat; almost no headroom. Leg room? LOL. Return, I departed Portland around 10:00 p.m. on Sky West, operating for Alaska Airlines, on an Embraer E175, final assembly in Brazil. Years ago I took a tour of one of the Embraer manufacturing facilities in Brazil (city? I forget. Brasilia or Sao Paulo, probably). A very, very reliable a/c. The flight -- in the air -- from PDX to SEA was 25 minutes.

A one-hour layover and then SEA to DFW on a Boeing 737-9 Max. Wonderful a/c and wonderful flight -- insert a bit of humor here -- about 2/3rds full. I had the row on my side of the plane all to myself. We were told before boarding that because seating had been optimized for weight and balance, not to move to an unassigned seat. 

I don't recall the cost of the fare but during the summer that round-trip for one passenger trended toward $1,000. This time of the week and off-season, the cost was under $500. 

Wi-fi was expensive on American Airlines but worth it, $25 for the entire flight. Alaska Airlines advertised $8-wi-fi but it was not available on my flight back to DFW. I've had that "trouble" before on Alaska. I had the bars suggesting I had wi-fi but I could not get connected. Didn't bother me. Slept most of the flight, arriving back in Texas about 5:00 a.m.

Having said all that, I love Alaska Airlines, "okay with" American Airlines.