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Normally there would seem something wrong about waking up at 4 AM on a day off from work, but that is what we did so we could catch our 6 AM flight to Albuquerque (ABQ) where we get a rental car & drive to Gallup. The 6 AM flight was chosen because it was the cheapest one of the day - about $60/person cheaper.
Living just a few miles from the airport does have its advantages, give or take a couple stop lights means about a 5-10 minute drive to the terminal. Apparently there many other travellers taking advantage of the earlier cheaper flight too. It wasn't wall-to-wall people at the airport, but it was a bustling place. I checked in online, but didn't print our boarding passes, plus we had a piece of luggage (yes, just one piece for the three of us) to check. There were about 8-10 people waiting to get to the 3 ticket agents behind the counter, and most of the self-serve kiosks were in use, then one freed up so we stepped forward. As I startted pressing the buttons on the screen, I soon realized I was going nowhere fast.
The kiosk has three ways to identify you and pull up your flight information: frequent flyer number (which I don't have mine memorized); swipe the credit card used to purchase the flight (I used an online card number, not my actual credit card); trip locator number provided when the tickets where purchased (I didn't write it down or print it out). So, I had no way of getting past the 'who are you' screen, so we migrated over to the line to see a live agent. The line moved pretty good until one agent started working with a family of 4 adults & a baby and their 6 pieces of luggage, while the second agent finished one customer but didn’t' accept the next for a couple minutes and then decided she need to assist the agent next to her that was having difficulty with her passenger whose ticket didn't have his name spelled correctly. We still had three or 4 passengers ahead of us, and it was now about 5:20.
Hmmmmm. Well, I don’t have data or texting as part of my cell phone package – its all pay-per-use, but desperate times calls for desperate measures. I got on my phone, pulled up my email account & found a confirmation email with the locator ID, so we migrated through the line ropes and back over to an available kiosk. After getting past the ID screen, I swiped my credit card to pay for the checked bag, retrieved our boarding passes and the assisting agent slapped the tag on the suitcase and put it on the conveyor so we could make our way to the security check.
As busy as the ticking floor of the terminal was, the security line was about twice as busy. The line kept moving, making use of the three screening stations – all being the typical metal detector, no body scanners.. When we finally made it through, we then had to walk halfway down the terminal to our gate. Most of the passengers have already been loaded, so we walked right up to the door, handed our passes to the agent, walked right onto the gangway and the plane, and took our seats.
We flew to Dallas/Ft Worth (DFW) where we had to change terminals to make our connection to ABQ. After arriving in ABQ and getting our rental car, it was now time to find some lunch before our 2 hour drive to Gallup. We asked the lot attendant about places to eat and he gave some general directions, but there is just no fast food places around. We finally found a Wendy’s – had to do a u-turn to get to it due to concrete median in the road, then had to retrace our route several blocks (halfway back to the airport) to get to a cross street that would allow us access to I-25.
We had smooth sailing heading out of ABQ on I-40 and enjoyed the scenery as we made our way to Gallup. My sister’s house is just a couple blocks from I-40, up a hill that overlooks Route 66, the railroad tracks and I-40 that passes through Gallup. It’s time to start our kicks.
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