Category: travel

My family and I are going to visit my brother in Menlo Park for Thanksgiving (Wednesday through Saturday), but I haven’t had much luck in finding a ride to the airport. In particular, it seems that the tough part is Wednesday since many people are still working that day. My roommate Mike has offered that he could give me a ride back on Saturday, but that would still leave a question-mark on Wednesday (since he’s working on Wednesday).

So, I’m considering my options. Normally, I’d just drive my car there and park it, but I’m concerned that all the remote (read “cheap”) parking will be full (it is the day before Thanksgiving, after all).

So, I've been looking into off-site parking. I asked a a coworker about this on Friday and she mentioned that she used Park-n-Fly. And, just off the top of my head, I also recalled seeing those Parking Spot shuttles at the airport (the yellow buses with spots on them). Here’s how they compare:

• Park ’N Fly
  800 Royal Lane
  Coppell, TX 75019
  (972) 471-1194
  

  Rates:

  • Covered: $11.75/day
  • Uncovered: $9.75/day

  Distance from my apartment: [21.3 Miles / 26 minutes]

  Distance from the airport: [5.1 Miles / 7 minutes]

  Total estimated cost: 5 * 9.75 = $39.

• Parking Spot — North
  4505 Plaza Drive
  Irving, TX 75063
  Phone: (972) 915-3672

  Rates:

  • Covered: $9.00/day
  • Uncovered: $7.00/day

  Distance from my apartment: [20.7 Miles / 29 minutes]

  Distance from the airport: [4.0 Miles / 9 minutes]

  Total estimated cost: 7 * 4 = $28

• Parking Spot — South
  1945 Valley View Lane
  Irving, TX 75061
  Phone: (972) 399-7768

  Rates:

  • Covered: $9.00/day
  • Uncovered: $7.00/day

  Distance from my apartment: [16.5 Miles / 27 minutes]

  Distance from the airport: [5.9 Miles / 13 minutes]

  Total estimated cost: 7 * 4 = $28

Of the three, the Parking Spot’s South location looks the most interesting so far since it’s cheaper than Park ’N Fly and it’s also a bit closer than the Parking Spot’s North location. Well, Parking Spot ’s South location is closer to my apartment, though it is a bit farther from the airport (I’m not sure if that’s an advantage or disadvantage).

However, I’ve never used Parking Spot (nor Park ’N Fly, for that matter). Has anyone tried any of these companies? Or, is there another parking company I should consider as well?

Update 11-24: Encouraged by some positive comments from Karen, I’ve booked parking at The Parking Spot’s South location. A word of warning, though: they charge a $5 “registration fee” which means that they’re not quite as cheap as they would appear.

This year, my family is spending Thanksgiving in Palo Alto with my brother — he’s attending Stanford for his graduate degree there. At the time I booked the flights, I wasn’t sure how much time I’d be able to get off from work, so I booked Wednesday through Saturday.

To San Francisco:

• Flight: American Airlines flight 1471
• Depart: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX (DFW) - Terminal Information Unavailable
• - Wed, Nov 26 at 11:57am
• Arrive: San Francisco, CA (SFO)
• - Wed, Nov 26 at 1:49pm

Back to Dallas:

• Flight: American Airlines flight 1366
• Depart: San Francisco, CA (SFO) - Terminal 3
• - Sat, Nov 29 at 2:37pm
• Arrive: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX (DFW) - Terminal Information Unavailable
• - Sat, Nov 29 at 8:06pm

Anyhow, would anyone be able to give a ride to or from the airport? I’d probably need to get to the airport around 10:30am that Wednesday, which would mean leaving my apartment around 9:45am.

My brother Adrian and a couple of his friends decided to make the most of their time off to drive from our house in Pittsburgh to the Grand Canyon. And, Adrian thought to take his new PowerBook along and write a log, uploading it from time to time via free WiFi that they happened to come across.

Andy, Dave, Randy and Adrian all went to high school together and they’re good friends. The PowerBook is Adrian’s so all of the entries are his, with the exception of the occasional entry from one of his friends. They also brought along more cameras than people and they took plenty of pictures (some of which are included in the log).

They started the trip last Sunday (July 13^th) and made it to the Canyon by Wednesday. But, instead of turning around and heading back, they decided to head on to Las Vegas — and from there, on to LA.

One twist is that Dave is part of the ROTC program at Virginia Tech (in the Navy, in his case). So, the four of them had to get Dave back to Blacksburg by midnight on Saturday in case he was called to a ship. So, you’ll see references to that from time to time.

Adrian’s not a blogger, but I enjoyed his writing style. And, if he wanted to try blogging, I’d be happy to setup something here on HandCoding.com for him ;).