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November 21, 2006
Back From Detroit
I'm home from Detroit, the Motor City, where I had a quickie, out-and-back business trip (I left Sunday morning, and got back just after midnight this morning, so you do the math).
The usual:
- I'd never been to Detroit before, and was very much looking forward to seeing such an important American city for the first time.
- (I also half-expected to get shot while leaving the airport, waiting for the rental-car shuttle, driving on the freeway to the hotel, checking in to my room, getting breakfast the nex-, oh you get the point.)
- Owing to United's (retarded) service options to Detroit (I loves me the miles, but there is no way in hell I'm going from Seattle to Detroit by way of Washington, DC, folks), I took American. It was a great experience, and I'd recommend them to anyone.
- American Airlines Service Example #1: The first leg of my original flight got delayed, which screwed up my connection. American phoned me about an hour before I left my place to let me know, and promptly found me alternate service on a flight that ran through Dallas. While I'm not crazy about out-of-the-way connections (see United's "Washington, DC" strategy, above), the overall impact was less than 2 hours, and I went for it. They didn't need to call, and I appreciated the courtesy.
- American Airlines Service Example #2: I got placed in the forward bulkhead row on the flight to DFW, which meant I was sitting opposite one of the flight attendants in her strap-in-and-hope-we-don't-crash seat. We got to talking, and next thing I know I'm getting an audio tour of the best-selling "Flight Attendants Gone Wild!", where we learn the ins-and-outs of the business, which airlines get their 757s with the cheap options (hint: they're not in business any more), and how the hierarchy works (she's been in the business 21 years, and still isn't sure she'll get Christmas off, if that tells you something). She was great - super-nice, super-funny, super-friendly.
- I'll never be curt to a flight attendant ever again.
- (Not that I've ever really been curt - I'm not a curt kind of guy - but if you heard as much about some of the un-bee-lee-vah-bahl in-air asshat behavior as I did, you'd give up curtness, too.)
- I feel a strange, special affinity for DFW - probably because I lived in Dallas back in '97. I can't explain it, but I find something about the ticky-tacky cowboy-hat Texas tourist crap kind of endearing, and it makes me smile.
- I may like DFW, but the place needs a few more power plugs. Personally, I'm all in favor of a National Power Plug Program, not unlike our highway infrastructure programs from the '50s. Let's get a plug under every seat, and free WiFi in every concourse. Mobile travelers, unite!
- Detroit is COLD. Cold, cold, cold. Like, 30. It's better than the monsoon we've had going on in Seattle all month, but damn. Brr.
- Can I just say that every single person associated with the Avis rental car company in Detroit was incredibly friendly and helpful? I mean, they were enjoying their jobs in a nearly Children Of The Corn kind of way. I mean it, too - our shuttle driver, the counter check-in folks, the security guards. Everyone was smiling.
- (Surprise! Despite my crazy fear, I did not, at any point, see or hear gunshots. I gotta give up watching RoboCop reruns on late-night TV ("Old Detroit has a cancer. The cancer is crime...").
- I woke up at Oh-Dark-Hundred (Pacific Time - Detroit is EST) and turned on the TV to help get up. This was, in some regards, a mistake -- I found myself looking at Nickelodeon, which was playing some appalling cartoons and even-more appalling commercials. Boy, oh boy - kids' advertising is horrible -- it's pushy, it's loud, and they sell, basically, crap. It could be crap sugary cereal or crap plastic toys or crap video games, but it's all crap. I honestly see why parents feel under siege by the cereal, toy, and game makers.
- (That said, you couldn't have pulled me off the GI-Joe and Star Blazers cartoons when I was a kid. "Hurry, Star Force! There are only 48 days left!")
- Once on the road to our first appointment, we drove past the swankiest, coolest thing ever - a drive-through car wash that had been converted into a drive-through Starbucks. What was really great about it is that it had clearly been a double-barreled car wash at one time, but they only modified one half of the operation. This, among other things, lets you look at the cars going through the wash as you wait for your Americano. Why doesn't Seattle have this? We should add one to the Pink Elephant!
- Architecture: Seattle has the Space Needle, Chicago has the Sears Tower, and Detroit has the GM Tower - all cylindrical, metal, glass, shining, modern, and ass-kickingly cool.
- Detroit is a border town - 'cept the border is a river. It's kind of cool to be in a town where you can see Canada across the water.
- Note to Lame-Duck Congress: We should not, under any circumstances, build a 700-mile wall on the Detroit River.
- Detroit is actually a very clean city. We didn't see much trash, the drivers were reasonably polite, and, overall, I was impressed with the feel of the place.
Damn, it's good to be home.
Posted by Gavin Shearer at November 21, 2006 2:36 PM. Posted to MSFT | Travel.
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