Nothing like getting up at 02:30 to head to the airport. And this time, I am getting on a plane.
The Plan
The plan for today, is to take a day trip to Denver, go plane spotting, and get some food with a friend. As to why I’m doing a day trip to Denver, I want to. And I have a flight voucher I need to use before it expires.
As for what I’m bringing. My camera body of course, a Sony a7II. As for lenses, for shots inside the airport, my Tamron 35mm f/2.8, and a Sony FE 50mm f/1.8. For the planes, my Tamron 70-300mm, great for out the window shot, as it not that big. And of course, the big one. My SIGMA 150-600mm.
With that, let’s head off to
BWI
It’s been a while since I’ve flown out of BWI. Almost a year. Honestly, its been a pretty boring airport since they closed down the AB mixed gates area for construction. It’s not a real airport without a massive curved window.
But with that out of the way, and some food, Let’s head to Denver.
Denver
After pretty empty flight, I’m back at Denver. Fist things first, more food. That large pretzel at BWI wasn’t enough.
Unfortunately, my plans have changed a bit. The friend I was going to meet up with, fell sick… So I’m going to have to find something to do. I’ll think of something while I go plane spotting.
I got an idea. Last time I was at the zoo, I didn’t have a real camera. Now, I do! But how do I get there? Looks like I can take the RTD to a bus stop, and take a bus. That works.
My friend set me up for disappointment. He (having never ridden the RTD) told me to compare it to Maryland RailLink. A lame excuse for a train “system”, as it only has one line. He was wrong. It was actually pretty nice. But just like how the sky is blue, the bus was ass. It also dropped me half a mile from the zoo. Wonderful.
Denver Zoo
Once I got into the zoo, I got my camera set up. Attaching my Tamron 70-300, and going for the penguins.
After wondering most of the zoo, I whipped out my big, black, lens. The SIGMA 150-600.
I took a bunch of photos, and I’ll slowly upload them to /photos.
After a couple hours, I was done at the zoo. I decided that I really wanted to walk the half mile to the bus stop… No, I ordered an Uber to the train station. The ride went pretty good. The drive mostly just went on about the crazy people he’s seen while doing Uber. I gave him a good tip.
Finishing The Walk
Arriving back at the airport, I knew what I had to do, and I knew I had the time.
Over the past few times I’ve be here, I would walk what I could of Denver. All I had left was One sub wing of B, and one side of A.
B was, long. But, It was off my list. Checking my stats, I’ve already walked 10 miles today. And I still have more to do. I need to finish A.
I didn’t look at the map before I set off. I knew where I needed to go, but I didn’t know what awaited me. And to my surprise, the last bit of A was pretty short. Finally I’m done. I just need to go down the escalator for the little ground level section. Just like C…
Deception
That Map, is lying to you. I didn’t look at it, like I should have. When I descended down the escalator, I didn’t know, I was descending into hell. Frontier hell.
It just kept going, and going. And it was split in two. I did the shorter section first. Though, I didn’t know it was the shorter section.
When I get to the end of the hall for the longer section, I didn’t want to do it. But I had to. I wasn’t going let hell win. Walking past people, people who look stuck, trapped in a frontier “you didn’t pay for a cary on” augment. One that would last longer than time. When I got to the end, there was no one. Dead quiet. I went deeper into hell than even frontier passengers would. I, was done.
As I walked out of the elevator. Every one looked happy. There wasn’t a hint that frontier was a thing. As I emerged from hell I wondered, was it even real?
Going Home
Arriving at my gate in C, I plopped down. Out of energy.
We were due to board in about ten minutes. There was just one small issue. The plane wasn’t there. Ten minutes came, and went. With no plane in sight. Turns out it was in a hanger, and was on its way. Soon, it was time to go home.
Looking Back
Even though the original plan was tossed in front of a train, I still had fun. Yeah I would have preferred the original plan, but hitting the zoo with the big lenses was pretty cool. I actually got a couple compliments on the SIGMA lens while plane spotting. Just have to process all those photos. But, that’s an issue for tomorrow, I need sleep.