October 2009
16 posts
Day of weird flying
So:
For my SFO-LGB flight, they announced Final Boarding Call like five minutes after they announced pre-boarding, with barely a chance to announce by-section boarding in between. It was odd — presumably the product somehow of a VERY empty commuter flight down to LGB — and left me feeling annoyed about feeling guilty about not racing to board ASAP.
Now, in Long Beach, the gate for...
Day 23: Downtime in Long Beach
So I’m sitting here finally catching up on this blog in a bar in Long Beach, California, one of Jetblue’s two big hubs. ”Big” as in “number-of-connections-though”, to be clear; unlike Jetblue’s other big hub, JFK, no one would describe LGB as a big airport.
JFK’s T5 has like nine times as many gates just dedicated to its airline as LGB has...
September 2009
64 posts
Day 20: Hollywood Restaurant Fail
After an epic driving tour of some of LA yesterday (La Brea tarpits, check; Ameoba records, check; Griffith Park observatory, check; a whole lot of crappy traffic, check), and some serious food and drink and conversation at Carson’s place last night, I crawled into consciousness this morning and hitched a ride into Beverly Hills to see the local library branch.
Plan to wander 90210 from...
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow,...”
– T. H. White, The Once and Future King, a book I have liked a great deal so far (and which, have I mentioned this already, I have a hard time not viewing, in its first section, through the lens of my memories of Disney’s The Sword and the Stone, which is an odd enough phenomenon but one that...
Day 16: Interlude, part 1
I’m sitting in JFK, on my first long layover of the trip — I arrived from RDU at 12:37, and I’ll be leaving for PDX at 8:40. It’s 2:14 now, so I’ve got some time to kill to say the least.
Find me nattering on about the details a bit over on twitter as @joshmillard, if you’re nasty.
I’m continuing to have a great time on the trip, and nothing has yet...
Good news, bad news
Good news: I just discovered while searching for my kleenex that I had packed the Canon 5D’s batteries and charger in a separate bag from the rest of my (lost) accessories. Sweet relief!
Bad news: I feel like I’ve got a little nose cold today. But it might just be (and I’m hoping it is) just some allergy randomness + being worn out a little. Think I might try to snag a nap on...
Day 14: Wrapping up the roadtrip
So Philly was a marathon, Baltimore was a nice quiet relief, and DC was a great big party. We’re on the road north, now, me and Alex and our friend Roj who met us in DC for complicated logistical reasons. When we hit JFK, I’ll part ways and catch a plane until North Carolina.
The wisdom of mostly meeting up only every other day has become clear to me — Baltimore being a small,...
Fact:
Philly can drink. More later.
Road Trip Under Way
We’re currently driving south on state road 17 past Harriman State Park, which is not something we were planning to do, but we also weren’t planning to get onto 87 from 287 and once that happened (and “happened” seems like the right word for changing highways by not turning at all, harumph harumph) things just sort of went from there.
State 17 south is much, much prettier...
Day 10: One Third Done
Time has gone decidedly wonky for me at this point; I can’t believe it’s been ten days already, and I can’t believe it’s only been a week and a half so far. I’ve pretty much given up on know what day it is, which hasn’t really been much of a problem so long as I remember when I’m flying.
Currently at gate C2 in Louis Armstrong, waiting for my MSY-BOS...
On Wifi Interstitials
Good thing: the increasing ubiquity of free wifi hotspots in airports. I don’t think I’ve been to a terminal that doesn’t have that so far on this trip, which is a tremendous improvement over a few years ago. (My EVDO card is a good backup, of course.)
Bad thing: the Accept Our Terms Of Service screens that these places throw up almost universally do not return you to the page...
Day 8: Airport hiccups
1. Gate change at the last minute. No biggie, especially given how cush and organized Jetblue’s terminal at JFK is, but it’s a first for the trip.
2. The only thing worse than feeling compelled to pay too much for a needed gadget at an airport store is not being able to pay too much for said gadget because the store doesn’t stock it.
I’ll have to pick up an external HD...
Blog Delay
Busy day yesterday, will update during layover in JFK after we fly out of Burlington in a minute here. Short notes:
- Vermont is nice. Randolph is small-town rural keen, Montpelier is nice as well.
- This brief-time-in-each-place is kind of a maddening teaser thing in practice, but it’s great for figuring out that I want to come back, so that’s cool.
- It took me a whole week to...
Day 6: The Drive to Vermont
Sitting in my fellow Metafilter moderator Jessamyn’s apartment while we each dork around on our respective computers and listen to random electronica she got from another mefite, googly. Getting in some solid nerding after several hours of driving.
Several hours of riding, really, on my part. I’d have considered engineering more driving segments into this whole thing, but I have no...
Day 5: Lurching Toward Salem
Rain is keeping up. Makes me miss home, though my wife reports that at home it’s ridiculously warm out instead of rainy, so go figure.
Got breakfast in Hyde Park, after spending a half an hour wandering around trying to find Dottie’s. Turns out Dottie’s isn’t Dottie’s any more, and instead it’s The Hyde. Came in out of the rain and had some very good diner...
Notes from the MBTA, post-meetup
On the last Red Line inbound from Cambridge — a party of three getting to the train a few seconds later than us were split up, two left on the platform, one on the train. The guy who made the train is from Dallas and doesn’t know where the hell he’s going, but he says he’s okay with that and I believe him.
For the last couple of days I’ve been playing (I’m...
Things To Do In Boston When You're Dumb
Beantown I’ve been to a few times; of all the places I’m visiting, it’s the most familiar, since I went to school in Worcester and got out here occasionally.
So the fact that I’ve basically pissed away the day here isn’t a complete tragedy.
The day so far:
1. Sleep in. This was a good idea.
2. Bum around at friend’s place for a while. This is not a great...