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2-6 November in San Antonio.

Military Reunion for my old friends in the 1st Battalion 70th Armor with the folks from Ft. Carson and Wiesbaden, FRG. We do this every two years. The ranks are thinning a bit, but we're still here, and we show up.

So the flight details, AA non-stop to SAT on a 738 (newer model*). On time departure, great in flight chow, actually - surprisingly - tasty and filling. Service was top notch.

Cab to hotel - last cab I took in SAT. You can call one and they'll be there in an hour. SAT's answer to that is UBER! Remember that. There were more experiences with cabs there so I therefore qualify my comments.

Hotel: Sheraton Gunter Hotel . . . . building built 110 years ago. Lots of history. Awesome architecture, great rooms, great food . . . . attention to detail, zippity. I'm on the board for the 70th Armor Association we did a walk through two days before the shindig and had things lined out. The hotel managed to hose every detail right into the ground.

On a personal note, when you're staying in a suite, you should NOT have to go down to the front desk to as for shit paper! There's more, but I won't belabor you the Sheraton Gunters issues (you know Sheraton and all their brands are now Marriott).

Awesome gathering, formal last night, story telling - for you US Army types - it was a "Dining Out".

Today, 11/6 - Uber to the airport *. Checking was seamless at the One World Priority Desk at SAT. Appropriate tags and stickers and Trish I boarded the 737 to DFW. Agent at SAT looked at my funny . . . she said we have a non-stop to ORD in about an hour. I said "Nope, I did this on purpose". "Why" she asked . . . . cause there's a 788 out of DFW to ORD . . . she chuckled - "oh", she said "you're one of those"? "Yup". Checked in, priority lane, Pre-Check, done. Except for the 35 canes and wheel chairs in front of us, boarded, and departed on time.

Tailwind of 60mph and we were moving on that 788 at 41000 feet.

787-8 - Seat 1A. Lots of Gizmos. I tried them all . . . . star rating on AS 3/5. No shoulder room in upright position. Can't reach the footrest in 1A unless you fully recline. Issue: I have wide shoulders - I had an easier time getting into a tank turret than fitting my shoulders in 1A. All the amenities in 1A are awesome. Don't sit there if you're of larger stature. Everything you could have plugged in was available, full recline to flat bed, lounge chair, half recline, et al. But too narrow at the shoulders. My wife was quite comfortable in 1D. She enjoyed it, but she is 5 foot zip. Service on board was excellent. No issues at all. Again service was excellent.

Arrival at ORD was a cake walk, into K9 at ORD and we're off. DING, as we land and I go back to active cellphone. My luggage is still DFW. Really. It has an ORANGE priority ONE WORLD tag on it How did you leave it in DFW? That's another story.

Baggage Services agent said, it'll be here in another hour, but won't make the 3:30 delivery run. I said I'm not waiting. Send it to my house. She said it'll be late 10-11pm. SEND IT. I'm not mad about it, I didn't chew on her, other than asking how a Priority Bag got left sitting in DFW. She said it wouldn't make the 3:30pm baggage delivery, would be on the 9pm run. Fine - send it.

Get home, phone rings, baggage delivery service. We will be there in two hours, you gonna be home? Yup = I'm home for the duration. Send it.

So all in all trip was 3.5 out of 5.0. -.5 for AA fuckin up the luggage with a One World priority tag (mitigated by the early delivery) and -1.0 for the hotel.

ALL mitigated by the fact that I shared companionship, brother hood, war stories and the whole gamut to whom I entrusted my life 45 years ago and beyond.

Strike Swiftly. 70th Armor.

EDIT: Got home from SAT . . . . for about two hours. Phone rings. My Father-In-Law passed about the time we landed at O'Hare. Entire shift in Mission. Threw all the bags in the Super Duty, with the wife and the dogs. Brother-In-Law saddled up in Oswego, other Brother-In-Law and wife at the house here loaded their mutts and we did a 22 hour non-stop in a Super Duty, a Toyota and a For Escape to Orlando.

Great drive south. Not so much north. Weather. +17 in Nashville with a 25 mph wind. And no one brought a winter coat. What the hell for - we're going to Orlando.

Mission accomplished in MCO, and back we came. Got home last night. Lots of catching up to do with NAS, AOL, banks, etc. Hell we didn't unpack after San Antonio, just tossed the shit in the truck and hauled ass.

Long two weeks . . . .

Good TR

Enjoyable read. Sorry about the luggage, though, and it does seem weird that they'd leave a bag with that tag off the flight.

Lucas wrote:Enjoyable read. Sorry about the luggage, though, and it does seem weird that they'd leave a bag with that tag off the flight.

Strangely, that luggage didn't get unpacked nor washed until the next day. My Father-In-Law passed about three hours after we
got home, so MRSANC brought them with us to Orlando. Haven't been home in two weeks. . . . .

Long two weeks.

Sorry you had to endure San Antonio International.. Uber really is the only way to get in and out of that armpit. The city government here seems to have a blood feud with the taxis ever since Uber came to town and the police chief said DWIs dropped by whole number percentage points overnight.

Also, downtown hotels are targeted at tourists. Their service isn't up to par. I used to hear our execs bemoan it constantly when I was at Accenture and they came to town.

Though, I have stayed at a few hotels in town and aside from the Emily Morgan (Doubletree, and exceptional especially for downtown options) once you get outside the downtown area the service returns to the standard you expect from the brands.

captoveur wrote:Sorry you had to endure San Antonio International.. Uber really is the only way to get in and out of that armpit. The city government here seems to have a blood feud with the taxis ever since Uber came to town and the police chief said DWIs dropped by whole number percentage points overnight.

Also, downtown hotels are targeted at tourists. Their service isn't up to par. I used to hear our execs bemoan it constantly when I was at Accenture and they came to town.

Though, I have stayed at a few hotels in town and aside from the Emily Morgan (Doubletree, and exceptional especially for downtown options) once you get outside the downtown area the service returns to the standard you expect from the brands.

Sheraton Gunter is now owned by Marriott, and this was a typical superior Marriott hotel.

The "whatever" Mexican market was a complete and utter disappointment. We planned an afternoon there. . . . and after seeing the joint, had lunch and ubered back to the hotel . . .

Otherwise unimpressed with SAT - other than the Riverwalk . . . . airport wasn't so bad.

Anything "Mexican" and downtown is all junk someone may or may not have driven across the border to mark up 10x and sell to tourists.

The Riverwalk is even pretty lame when you realize about 90% of it is chains owned by Landry's