Sunday, 18 October 2009

First, some airport/airplane thoughts...
Signs all over our hometown airport, "WiFi available throughout the concourse". Yeah, it's available alright, just enter your credit card number and you'll be billed $9.95 for the priviledge of using the service for what... 20 minutes?
WiFi at Salt Lake City... free.
WiFi at Phoenix... free.
If intitial impressions about cities are formed by folks with computers, our home town comes off looking less than welcoming.

Flying on Saturday, I hoped the airport would be less congested and maybe the airplane not completely full. I was right about the airport... we made it through security in 10 minutes or so, but the airplane was a sardine can. We forgot with Southwest Airlines you can book your seat online 24 hours ahead of time, so we were among the last to board the airplane at BigTown and weren't able to find seats next to one another. At 5' 9" and 190 pounds I'm not a real big guy, and I consistently wonder how the 6' 4" guy feels with his knees literally leaving imprints in the seat in front of him. Fastening the seat belt is a fiasco because there's not enough elbow room to grab the loose ends from beneath you. How does an obese person even fit between the armrests of an airliner today? If we ever get smart and develop high speed rail service in this country, I think the airlines will have to rethink the way they herd us into these "cattle cars".
Flying commercial is NOT a pleasant experience.

I think I've told you that my son thinks Phoenix is like the movie "Ground Hog Day"...
The alarm goes off and the weather is clear and 100 degrees plus, every day. He rescued us from Sky Harbor airport last night at just after 7 P.M. local time and the temp. was still 97 degrees. Yeah, it's a dry heat, and at 97 it's not stifling...
But it ain't paradise either. It will, however, be nearly like paradise in a few days, and it's easy to understand why so many "seasoned citizens" Winter here.

Big Bubba has moved into a larger apartment in the same complex since we were here last, so we came home, deposited our luggage, dropped Desi the Dachshund off, and took a look around the new digs. Three bedrooms and two baths, it's well laid out and there's enough room to get away from one another if we want. Perfect.

There's an "Olive Garden" restaurant right across the street... Sara Jean's favorite.
Happy Birthday SJ! We all love the salad and breadsticks, and all three of us liked what we ordered so much that we cleaned our plates.

Back to Big Bubba's apartment we chatted later than I expected since our bodies were two hours ahead of local time. It was 3 A.M. for our bodies when we finally hit the sack.
I woke at 10 A.M. local.
It's "Ground Hog Day"! (Predicted high- 97 degrees,)
I'll be leaving for Los Angeles by car in a few hours, driving Westbound on roads I have flown over headed Eastbound with a new helicopter 20 times. It'll be interesting seeing sights like the windmills at the Banning Pass from the ground instead of from overhead. It's about a five hour drive, so a book on CD is in order. I hope to have a review of the book, and the drive for you later.

Have a great day y'all!