[day −1]
[days 0-2]
[day 3]
[day 4]
[day 5]
[days 6-9]

[OK, I’m in my hotel in Chicago, so I can start getting caught up on my trip reports.]

2023-11-11 04:00 UTC−10:

I woke up with plenty of time to get all packed for my trip home, and I was basically done with that before breakfast.

08:00:

We’ll be adjourned by the time I post this, so I can start talking about the meetings.

As I’ve said before, Monday morning was a plenary session which was mostly administrivia.  The real work happens in smaller breakout groups.

I mostly played hookey for much of the meeting.  Since my retirement a bit over a year ago, I’ve been disinterested but not uninterested.  (There’s no decision that the committee would take that would help or hurt me in any way, but I hope that I never stop learning.)

I’ve found that Zooming into the meeting from my hotel room works well and is easier given my current somewhat limited mobility.  I did Zoom into discussions of several papers that were interesting, and I might have some more to say about those when I get my thoughts together.

This morning is a plenary session where the breakout groups report, we take formal votes, and talk about future meetings.

10:00:

We finished after only about two hours, so I checked out of the hotel and, since I was running low on cash for tips, I tried the cash machine which, I guess, was out of money.  Oh, dear!  Oh, well; there should be a cash machine at the airport.

I got a taxi to the airport; but when I arrived, the United checkin counter wasn’t open yet, so I had to wait until about quarter after 11:00.  Checking in was a bit of a hassle because they wanted to see the credit card that I had used to make the reservation (which I had lost as I reported near the end of the day 4 report), but they found me when I showed them my passport.  I checked just one bag because, at KOA, walkers can be checked at the gate.  I remembered that I had Global Entry from my trip to Belfast back in 2018, and I had the card with me which was still valid through 2025, so I got TSA Precheck.

When the wheelchair arrived, I asked to be taken to a cash machine, which worked, and so I had a tip for the the wheelchair guy.  The wheelchair service plus the TSA Precheck let me zoom through Security; and I got dropped off at the gate.

We started boarding around 13:15.  It’s the same kind of plane that I took westbound, a 777 IIRC, with the first-class seats that recline all the way to flat for taking a nap.  The flight to SFO “met expectations”.

ca. 21:00−8:

The flight arrived just about on time.  It took a while for my walker to show up at the door to the airplane, and there was no record of me needing a wheelchair.  That eventually got sorted out — a good thing because I never would have been able to walk all the way to baggage claim even with my walker.  After claiming my one checked bag, I got dropped off at the taxi stand.

The taxi driver spoke only enough English to be able to do his job, and I speak no Chinese at all, so it took a little while for us to agree on where I was going. 😎  He didn’t know the address of the hotel, and I didn’t have it written down, but he was able to look it up on his cell phone.

22:30:

I finally got to the Hyatt House Emeryville, checked in, and crashed.

With any luck, later reports will be more interesting than this one.