jimsjournal
On the Road Again -- 10/28/02



I'm sorry... I just can't resist...
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn't say "banana"?

Yesterday was a travel day... a quiet start, read the Sunday paper, make a short run to the supermarket, do a load of laundry, relax and hand out with family... then start packing.

Since I was not teaching a class I figured I could do without bringing two pairs of dress pants, two pairs of dress shoes, two sports jackets, five neckties... wow, that simplified packing... and since this was not a direct flight, I would have to change planes, I wanted to avoid having to check baggage. Thus, all clothing had to fit into a suitcase small enough to fit into the overhead compartment. So that bag took all clothing, plus toothbrush and toothpaste and razor and shaving cream, etc., plus a paperback book and a single use camera and the docking cradle for my PDA and a pair of running shoes. My laptop bag had to take my laptop (of course!) plus my PDA (a Compac iPAQ) plus my DayRunner book and the power brick for the laptop and a mouse and the recharger for my cell phone and an extra bottle of water, etc. Wear jeans and running shoes, shirt with a pocket, and a sports jacket. Cell phone goes in shirt pocket, paperback book in a jacket pocket, bottle of water in another pocket...

Sean drove me to the airport -- yes, he now has my car to use all week. I got there before 4:00 pm for a 5:35 flight because of the recent warnings about anticipated terrorist attacks (no, I don't fear attacks, but I do fear being stuck with an hour long wait to pass through some security checkpoint while my flight leaves without me); indeed, there was a flashing light at the entrance to the airport announcing high security was in place. However, it took less than half an hour to pass through security into the passenger gate area. Got a donut and coffee while waiting. Met Julie, my co-worker (the one who got married recently) at the boarding gate. Boarded our no meal flight to Cincinnati (tiny bag of pretzels and a plastic cup of ice with a little bit of Coke). Wait for the next flight. Not impressed by the choices in the food court (KFC or McDonald's or cheesesteak or...) so made do with a bag of popcorn while waiting. Another no meal flight; you guessed it: tiny bag of pretzels and a plastic cup of ice with a little bit of Coke. Very bumpy flight, strong headwinds, land at DFW ten or fifteen minutes late.

No need to wait at the baggage carousel, we can head for the car rentals. Have to take a shuttle bus. Go outside and wait. A parking lot shuttle comes by. We wait. Another parking lost shuttle. We wait. Finally, after at least fifteen minutes, a rental car shuttle bus shows up. Everyone climbs on board, packing the bus to standing room only. The driver explains that due to construction we will have a long ride. It was very long. As we neared the car rental area the driver was delivering some security reminders and said "And be sure to allow two hours before your flight" and I commented "Yeah, and that's just for the shuttle bus ride."

I'm Hertz Gold so I can just bypass the counter, my car will be waiting for me, all I have to do is go out and read the customer list and find my car and just stop on the way out and show my driver's license. We had been told that it was easy to find our hotel from the airport and there were directions in the car that made appear to be easy, just head straight out of the rental area and turn right onto the highway. Uh huh... So we asked the woman who scanned my license how to get to the highway and she said "Out this exit from the parking lot, turn right, then left under that overpass, and then right." Okay. Nope, not so okay. Following those directions did not bring us to Rt. 635, so we tried to loop back and try again and this time we found a sign pointing to 635 East bound. Now Texas may be a big state but it has damned small highway signs at its airport. (And since I was driving, Julie hadn't bothered to wear her contact lenses.) Just a single one of those small Interstate Highway numbers with a small arrow prior to a turn, no normal big green highway signs, no informational signs along the road... and the roads go on for miles and miles. As it turned out, the distance from the car rental to the highway was further than the distance along the highway to our hotel.

You may recall my emphasis on the fact that we were taking meal-free flights... We arrive at our hotel, check in, notice an Au Bon Pain restaurant just off the lobby, but it's dark and closed for the night. So I ask the desk clerk (who was not exactly the model of friendly customer service) if there was another restaurant in the hotel ("No.") This precludes room service. Hmmm. How about something nearby (not likely, this is a neighborhood of office buildings and business hotels). "Domino's delivers until midnight." I look at my watch and note that it is now 11:57. She just shrugs and repeats "Domino's delivers until midnight." Now even if we had saved the five minutes we had to wait for her to get around to coming out of the inner office to begin to check us in, there still would have been no way to have a greasy Domino's pizza delivered before the midnight cut-off point. Oh well, this is a Doubletree Hotel so at least we each get a big chocolate chip cookie. It doesn't make up for not having any food in almost twelve hours other than a donut and some popcorn. (Oops, I almost forgot those two bags of pretzels, together they must have weight almost half an ounce.) I am tired and am not about to go driving around Texas looking for an all-night diner, so I took my cookie up to my room and ate it.

In the morning I went down to the Au Bon Pain for breakfast -- a warmed bagel (I'd asked for it toasted but I guess their toaster was a little tired) and a glass of orange juice -- and it only cost me $6.50. The day brightened after that (in terms of food, that is, the weather was overcast with scattered light rain) because I found a shopping area back off the previous exit from 635 with lots of stores and restaurants and we had lunch in an Applebees (chicken Caesar salad and lemonade) and after work we went back down there to shop in Wal-Mart (12 pack of bottled water for $2.98) and had dinner in a decent Italian restaurant.

Have lots of work to do tomorrow. It's time for The Sopranos on HBO -- I'd missed it last night -- In fact, I think I'll have to wait unit the show is over before posting this. Ah, the glamorous life of the business traveler.




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