Travel Diary

I had an early flight, or at least mid morning, but that meant taking an early train to the airport. I walked the full way to Capital Hill station, arriving at 7:30am, which was likely right after the train left as it was eight minutes until the train. No matter. I had plenty of time.

The train ride was pleasant and soon enough I was at the airport, with just enough time to visit the parking garage roof and take a couple of videos. Then security checkpoint time.

Oh boy. It was fairly crowded in TSA PreCheck. I would say about 20 to 30 minutes; however, I had my Touchless pass and I asked about worker about using it. The worker escorted me to the front of the line—like the VERY FRONT. I passed up every single person and became the next person having his ID checked, er, that is to say his photo taken. No ID. No passport. Just the photo. It’s pretty cool.

After the conveyor belt, I headed to the gate. It was different. I had never been to D23 before and I thought it was a brand new area, but nope. Just not somewhere I’d ever left from—in over 100 flights. Strange. But this gate didn’t lead to planes, it led to busses, and then you’d board the plane far off. So we were “boarding” in order of ticket level, but then all on the same busses (in groups I guess). And they drove us to the plane. The wait was fairly long since they had to board the handicapped people first and it wasn’t ideal for that situation. Then it was our time, but the front of the bus exited first and I was in the back. So I lost my early boarding access.

It turned out to be fine, just caused a small bit of anxiety about having bin space. After boarding, we took off to Sacramento. I had a first class seat, but no hot meal for that short of a flight. Oakland to Seattle has the meal, but not Sacramento. So close. I got a diet coke for a drink and just read my Spanish book.

In Sacramento, I met up with Levi and soon Dawn arrived to pick us up. Then we headed to Dixon, California, which is a pretty small town. Locating a pizza place (Round Table) we ordered some pizza and then did some script writing for a couple of hours. After that, we headed to the venue.

The place was nice and was a community center for the people in the housing development. It reminded me of Toll Brothers, but it was a different one. The “green room” was roomy though no real privacy from the people coming and going. We just had to quiet down for the scene rehearsals at times.

For the show, it was awesome. Just a wonderful event with a terrific crowd. “Merlot” has become one of best shows now. I guess that’s because it’s a great script and we have been doing it for nearly 20 years—some longer than others. But we all felt great afterwards. That’s what it’s all about—enjoying acting and getting paid.

After that, I got a ride with Tenaya and Tiffany and we headed to San Jose. I was staying in her guest cottage that night. After saying hello to the family, I got sorted out and quickly fell asleep.