Tripping: Denver/PNW

What would this blog be without random travel observations?

Denver

• Denver International Airport strikes me as a larger-scale, updated repetition of the Dulles model — right down to its location miles away from anything.  Driving Peña Boulevard must be what the Access Road felt like 40 years ago, before development transformed northwest Fairfax County.
• That said, every terminal at DIA is nicer than even Terminal B at Dulles.  Starting from scratch in the modern era helped DIA do terminal design right, baggage systems aside.
• False economy, thy name is Advantage Rent-A-Car — and the TV blaring Nancy Grace to the line didn’t help my opinion. Nor did the Dodge Caliber we received with a nasty gouge in the roof and an unreliable fuel gauge. Yes, all the rental car agencies are on the same loop and require a shuttle bus. But had I rented from Hertz with my (free) #1 Club Gold membership, we’d have been 3/4 of the way to our hotel by the time we got our Advantage car.
• The RTD light rail is well-designed, but their operations after the Rockies game and Friday night’s storms demonstrated why Americans flee mass transit when they have any other choice. One track’s overhead wires were down south of the I-25/Broadway station, so they single-tracked that stretch, and a backlog on the northbound side needed to be cleared. The logical choice would have been to hold our packed southbound train on the three-track Broadway platform, where we had options (up to and including ad hoc taxi pairings, like I’ve done from the Yellow Line in Pentagon City) if the wait got too long. Instead, they moved us a hundred yards south onto an incline, then announced the problem and stopped with no departure estimate. Trapped, we cursed the RTD until the train started moving again 10 minutes later. Dumb decision, angry customers, bad rep for mass transit. Customer focus matters, and they showed none.
• Special demerits to the on-airport Circle K for charging 44c/gal over the local average for regular unleaded. Don’t reward this behavior. Instead, take the last pre-airport exit from I-70 East onto Chambers Road, turn left (northbound), choose one of several gas stations there, and just be sure to top off to cover the ~10 miles you have left.  Continue on northbound Chambers until it T’s out at 56th, turn right, then continue to a left onto the Peña Blvd/Airport onramp.

Pacific Northwest/return

• Alaska and Horizon Airlines provide good beer. On Horizon (Alaska’s regional carrier), it’s even free. Alaska: expand to the East Coast. PLEASE.
• $10 to upgrade from a PT Cruiser to a 300? This shouldn’t even be a question!
• Metsker Maps FTW.
• For such a liberal, environmentally concerned, etc. etc. city, mass-transit options seemed surprisingly poor (with the exception of the ferries, which function more as highway-substitutes).
• As for those ferries: we took Edmonds-Kingston (WA 104) and Port Townsend-Keystone (WA 20) in quick succession. The Edmonds-Kingston ferry (the MV Walla Walla) in particular was spectacular — partially double-decked for vehicles, with a full-length passenger deck above including galley, two large lounges and bow and stern observation decks.
• Once again, I drove across the Canadian border without having the border guard express any interest in seeing ID — and this time in a rental car whose license plate probably would not have given him immediate access to our identities! His American counterpart, later that afternoon, was not nearly as relaxed.
• All the goodwill Continental Airlines earned on a smooth set of flights RIC-CLE-DEN, they burned in Newark on the way home. Upon arrival at EWR, we found out our outbound flight was delayed to 11:58 PM departure. But an alternate flight departing in 15-20 minutes had empty seats, according to CO’s call center — all we had to do was get on the gate agent’s list. Problem: we were at one end of Terminal C; the gate was in Terminal A, a bus ride away. An agent at an empty gate in C should be able to get us on the list or at least call ahead, though, right? Nope. We would need to run the length of C, catch the bus, then wait in line at the Terminal A customer service center — by which time the plane would be halfway to RIC, of course. Unhelpful ingrates.