Totally flawless flight

Well knock me over with a feather, I just got home from a totally
flawless flight. On-time arrival (actually 10 minutes early), no real
turbulence. (Well, maybe a little as we were making our final approach
in "scattered clouds), no lines, and the plane was only half full, so
I got a whole row of seats to myself. The only negative was that it
left from gate C32 at Terminal 2 in O'Hare, where the gates are jammed
together and the crowd was a bit unpleasant, at least to my taste.

I was induced to do on on-line check in the day before, which I never
thought necessary for United, becuase I had a seat assignment. (I
always do online check in when I fly Southwest). After I got my
boarding pass, I discovered that I could check my bag at a special
"united.com" baggage check in area at the far end of terminal 1
(closest to Terminal 2). When I got there, it was great, no lines
(unlike the regular check-in areas, and no $2 charge for curbside
check in), and even better, right around the corner there was a little
used security checkpoint that spit you into the concourse right
between terminal 1 and 2. No lines at all! And when I walked by the
main security checkpoint, it was fairly busy.

On-time departure, relatively smooth flight, uncrowded airplane, I
thought I had gone through a time warp and was flying back in the
1970s, but the lack of lunch service made reminded me of the 21st
century reality.