20260923 Wednesday

We're off on a looonnngg weekend trip to St Paul, Minnesota, to visit our daughter Susan and husband Bryant.

They've recently retired and left Seattle for a trial home in the upper Midwest. St Paul certainly can be viewed as "upper".

For once, we can fly Delta and not have to change in Atlanta. Part of Delta was the old Northwest Airlines, so perhaps that had some influence in staging a once-daily non-stop from Jacksonville JAX to Minneapolis-StPaul MSP.

The only problem with this flight is that it arrives late in the day - Flight 2392 is scheduled to depart JAX at 1740 (EDT) and land at MSP at 1950 (CDT).

All the above was anticipatory. Now for the real stuff.

JAX Concourse A was a zoo. Delta had three planes departing very close in time, and United had two. All at Gates A5-9. And a thnderstorm came through that prevented one from loading.

Eventually it got sorted out. We boarded and were whisked away. Dinner was a mini plate of chicken breast and mash, which were good. The carrot could not be penetrated with the fork so it stayed. Good cookie.

Totally uneventful flight, the best kind. O read a book.

The route from our C gate to rental cars is looonnngg, and changes level a few times. But we got there were assigned a Pacifica (much like our Town & Country). The drive to the Radisson on Ronda Ave next to the Minnesota capital was not too hard via MN5/I35E. There was a detour set up by a bunch of police cars but we found our way through a neighborhood back to the highway.

After check-in, we unpacked for the duration, notified everyone of our arrival and settled in for the evening. Basic double bed room, small but complete. Very low occupancy; the place probably only makes money when the legislature is in session.