Delta Airlines

Indiana to Seattle: fly or drive our RV?

/ Roadtirementvintage / 39 Comments

Requires 33 hours drive time, one way. At least four or five days with stops.

That was the question. We were planning a trip to Seattle to visit our daughter, son-in-law and grandson. It was hard to decide as we love travelling in our RV. It gives us a place to stay so that we aren’t intruding on our daughter’s family all the time. It also gives us a chance to relax and be alone. Staying with them is lots cheaper and gives us more time with them and our grandson. They have a big house and we have our own room when we are there. On the other hand, is it fair to stay with them? I feel like it is a lot to ask having to put up with us.  If we drove we would need to be there for a longer time period, maybe 2 or 3 months. If we fly we can stay a shorter amount of time and go back for another visit sooner. Our grandson who is growing up fast (he is 6) and started 1st grade this year was a big part of our decision. We need to see him more often. We have done both and have been happy with each visit.

After much debating we decided to fly. This decision was based on many things. We didn’t really want a long road trip at this time. The coronavirus has kept us away from family a long time. We did have a quick visit as our son’s wedding, but we wanted and needed some quality time with each of our 5 kids and their families. We also thought that maybe we could help them while we were visiting. We can cook some meals and help keep the house straightened. When we decided to look at it as a we can help trip, instead of being a burden it became more definite that we should fly.

Flying time: 4 hours 53 minutes, non-stop (Photo courtesy Alaska Airlines)

So next week we begin our journey to Seattle, WA. We are flying on Alaska Airlines and were able to get a direct flight for a very good price. We bought our tickets with our Chase Freedom card and we like the points we get when we use it. We usually fly Delta and have lots of points built up on their plan, but couldn’t find a direct flight for the right times and dates. Our daughter tells us that the Alaska Airlines miles program and credit card are the best, so we will be looking into that. Would love any suggestions on what you think is the best travel miles and credit card choices. We check out doctorofcredit.com and will often find good deals on his site. We don’t spend enough to really take advantage of his credit card finds, but we have made extra money by opening checking account he suggests. We get nothing by mentioning his site, but it is an interesting site to check out.

We are excited about our trip next week and have started packing. We will be posting pics of our bags in the next few days.

~Sher

 

Back in Austin and the sunshine

/ Roadtirementvintage / 6 Comments

Sher and  I thoroughly enjoyed our time in Seattle with our daughter, son-in-law and grandson for the past 3 weeks. On our way out there, we flew Delta from Austin to Seattle with a layover in Salt Lake City. Scroll though our blog for recent posts about the highlights of our Seattle trip.

Real winter in Seattle 2020

Before we left someone commented that we were nuts going to Seattle in January. Guess they were right as we were snowed in for three days the first week we were there. Seattle does not have the road equipment to handle snow! Oh, and Seattle maintained its reputation of rain, fog, rain, fog and more rain. We witnessed the sun one day, I should say about 3 hours, while we were there.

Returning to Austin we had the de-ice process at Cincy airport on a heavy frost morning

This is the first time in over 10 years since we have traveled by air. (You know, with an RV you don’t need planes!) Next time we fly we’ll have one large suitcase to check and each of us will have a small carry on bag. It was a pain carting those “carry on” size suitcases and stuffed smaller bags around. Coming back we flew Delta from Seattle to Cincinnati for crying out loud. Now I know what they mean when they say “red eye” flight. Left at nearly 11 pm, got into Cincy about 6 am. Got in to Austin about 10:30 am.

Welcome home!

Once in Austin, we got back to the La Hacienda RV Resort. Got the RV out of the storage yard, parked in our new site, hooked up the utilities and got things somewhat back to normal. My were we tired! Got carry out fast food for supper. We’ll hit the store next day. It was good to get back to our RV.