|
« Eddie Izzard In Seattle August 11 & 12 |
Main
| The Storm In 2008 ... Sort Of »
August 7, 2007
Travel Day One (And Two, And Three): Pittsburgh
 I'm traveling this week, doing a string of customer visits in Pittsburgh, Houston and Phoenix (and if you guessed that I was careful to specify air conditioning in my rental cars, you'd be right). I took off from SeaTac yesterday afternoon, and am now safely ensconced in my second Pittsburgh hotel.
(There is a story here.)
The usual notes:
- It does seem somewhat fitting that my last week as a Planner would be spent in the field. I tend to think of air travel as one of the defining hallmarks of Planning, much like dirty fingernails on mechanics or overuse of "air quotes" for MBAs.
- Despite all the news hysteria about how bad it is to fly right now, I assumed (somehow) that I would be immune to the ill effects of the American airline industry, nature, and every other factor that could operate on me. Silly man. United loves Chicago, and when you fly United to Pittsburgh, you stop there. Chicago is, under good conditions, a busy airport ... and Monday did not offer good conditions. Weather was spotty, flights were late. In fact, by the time we arrived (an hour overdue) the "C" concourse looked like a refugee camp. I stood in line at Starbucks next to a woman who claimed to be on her 24th-straight hour of travel. (She looked like it, too.)
- Thankfully, the connecting flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh was delayed as well, so I had some time to charge the 'ol laptop before resuming air travel. Chicago, like LAX, has sprouted some wicked-cool, Verizon-sponsored banks o' power plugs in their concourses. Fantastic!
- I know I'm late to the mobile e-mail party and all, but can I just say how fabulous it is to have e-mail in the pocket at all times? I mean, it's not a big deal usually - at work or in Seattle, I'm never far from a browser - but when I'm sitting on an airplane, chilling out for that 10 minutes of dead time between "plane is docked" and "plane is actually unloading people," it's great to see what's been going on in my world.
- The O'Hare-Pittsburgh flight got under way about an hour and 15 minutes after scheduled departure, and then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for another hour. The United people were wonderful about everything - fetching beverages, letting people use the restrooms, that sort of thing - but after the 25(!) flights in front of us had taken off, we were still nearly 3 hours overdue from our original time of arrival.
- The "original time of arrival" was 11:30 PM Eastern.
- Yeah, I was tired.
- Magazines slayed: BusinessWeek (x2), MacWorld, Wired, Entertainment Weekly.
- The Avis people apparently read this blog. After hearing me rail on about the crappy minivans and Kia whateverthehecktheyares I've rented from them in the past, they decided to saddle me with a Mercury Grand Marquis this time around. This is a big 'ol hunk of American steel, with stylin' that's right out of a 70s Blacksploitation flick. This isn't a car you drive as much as a boat you sail. I think we got a good 4.5 gallons per mile.
- If there's a chunk of freeway in the Pittsburgh area that's not under construction, I'd like to know where it is.
- (Construction is doubly fun when you're dead tired and sailing your 1982 Pimpmobile of Death around unfamiliar freeways at 2:30 AM.)
- Pittsburgh really knows how to make an entrance. After 30 miles of freeway and general dead-of-night blackness, we shot through the Fort Pitt Tunnel, and were dazzled by the city's spires, light, buildings, and bridges. Truly a wonderful sight.
- (Of course, it could have just been the fatigue.)
- First words out of the hotel clerk's mouth when we appeared: "Wow, I'd given up on you guys. Usually 3 AM is the cutoff for people making good on their reservations."
- 6 hours later, we were visiting with customers. And drinking lots of coffee.
- If Portland (Oregon) and Dallas had a kid, it would look a lot like Pittsburgh - bridges and water everywhere, but muggy as hell and a little too hot. Ugh.
- Our business conducted, we were back at Pittsburgh International this afternoon and subsequently (cheerily) informed that our United flight to Houston (by way of - wait for it - Chicago) was delayed, which was going to screw up our connection. The time they could get us in to Houston would be (very) late Wednesday morning. Since our Houston meeting was now off the table (we had 'em for early Wednesday, and were going to Phoenix later that day), we elected to get new tickets direct to Phoenix, hole up at the Airport Sheraton and look for some local flavor.
- "Local flavor" in this neck of the state seems to be confined to strip malls. We found a chain steak place and downed some iced tea and an okay sirloin.
- There are no sidewalks anywhere.
- I'm officially feeling that special kind of punchy-tired I always get after a lot of flying and not enough sleep. (I couldn't sleep last night at all.) At least our flight cancellation means I can get some sleep tonight.
More later.
Posted by Gavin Shearer at August 7, 2007 5:34 PM. Posted to MSFT | Travel.
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in,
.
Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
« Eddie Izzard In Seattle August 11 & 12 |
Main
| The Storm In 2008 ... Sort Of »
|
