To SFO Via Skyline Boulevard

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” *

Breakfast in-room completed I start to clear away what I don’t need in to the room bins and pack the final items in my bags.

I leave the room at 10.50 am and at the front desk request my bill. “Oh we can’t do that because you booked via a third party, booking.com”, I am told. I say that I’ve been fed that line for the past three weeks and it’s a load of rubbish. “Please print my invoice”, I ask nicely.

After lots of muttering, they finally print my invoice out. To find that they’ve charged me for valet parking! “This is why I insist on a print-out”, I say to make my point. There is no apology however. Simply, “We’ll refund you.” Twats.

I leave my bags with them and walk back to the parking garage. Up on the second floor where I parked, I cannot find a payment machine. I drive around twice, but no machine. There is a barrier on the floor which requires a paid ticket to open it to let me out onto the exit ramp.

I saw a machine on the ground floor. So I have to park up near the stairs and walk down to pay my fee. What a mess. I eventually drive out of the garage and back to the hotel. I retrieve my bags and drive off to the cheap gas station I found a couple of years ago. It’s still $1 a gallon cheaper than all other San Jose gas stations!

Up in the Clouds

SFO here I finally come. And by my usual Skyline Boulevard route. I know I’ve driven this many times before but it’s still more interesting than I-280 or Hwy 101. Trust me, I’ve driven those roads leaving Silicon Valley back to SFO many more times in my past corporate business life to know that I don’t want to drive them again if I can avoid it.

So down CA-17 S I go again. But this year has a twist. The Santa Cruz Mountains are shrouded in clouds. As I climb Black Road the trees cover up the sky above. When I’m up on the Boulevard the clouds are actually on the road. It’s like driving through fog. It’s cold at 55º F / 13º C as well.

A few miles on, the clouds lift for a while. But they return later. The road itself is still of course a fun drive. There are a few more vehicles around than normal, on most of the drives I’ve done here I maybe see two or three cars at most, today a lot more. Still not busy though.

Further on as I pass the Silicon Valley Overlook, it’s clear to the east. Western views towards the Pacific are obscured by clouds. I reach Hwy 92 just before 1 pm. It’s still cloudy overhead but these no longer hug the road and it’s reached 69º F / 21º C.

Chevy Malibu at the airport

From there via I-280 N and I-380 E I approach SFO at 1.15 pm. I take the usual detour to the Valero gas station to fill the car up before returning it to the rental center. I pull up into the Enterprise rental garage with 3730 miles driven over the past three weeks.

At the Airport

From there it’s the Air Train, passport check at the BA desk, through security – relatively pain-free this year at SFO – and into the BA Lounge. It’s already busy in the main section even with two and a half hours until take-off.

Thankfully I had access to the First-only section at the rear. I chose a couple of starters for lunch, both very nice. The plane is on-time but I had to leave the lounge and go to a gate. The A380 aircraft cannot dock onto the air gate, A5, attached to BA’s Lounge. This gate gives direct boarding access from the Lounge on to the plane.

When A380s entered service, BA refused to pay to have the SFO gate modified to handle the bigger, two-deck plane. So we had to leave and line up with the great unwashed at another gate, A11.

Chaos at the Gate

At which there is chaos. There were a couple of tannoy announcements but the speaker system is so bad that I couldn’t make out a single word. The ground staff was doing a terrible job – with one exception, soon – with seemingly no organisation. I managed to work my way to the front of the crowd where I thought we’d board from.

I was joined there by a couple of chaps I saw in the Lounge. We concurred it’s chaos. There were a couple of lanes to delineate which boarding groups would board where. But there was no signage to indicate which group should be in which lane, or in what order. A ground staff guy was nearby and I gestured to him to walk over and chat. I asked, “What’s going on? Where is priority boarding?” He didn’t know. We explained we are all First Class passengers who should board in the first group. “Just stay here, I’ll see what I can do,” he said.

About a minute later, a ground staff lady walked over to the line next to ours, started looking at boarding passes and passports, and then letting people board. No public announcements were made – not that you could hear them – and she had no idea who she was boarding because she has no idea who was in the line. She was just letting whoever was standing there through. They might be Economy, or anybody.

‘Our’ staff guy leant across to her and said, “Are we boarding now?” She completely ignored him. Did not respond in any way. At which point, our man said, “Right, I’ll let you board.”

I was first through followed by the others. The passengers let through by dumb lady were obviously ahead of us, but they didn’t go into First. I settled into my seat on board. We take off from SFO on time. The service on the way home was very good. I had dinner, completed reasonably early for once. I then slept for about four hours, waking about 90 minutes before landing.

My transit through passport control was swift so I was being driven home just over 30 minutes after landing. Onwards towards next year, hopefully for my 10^th American Road Trip.

* Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell