Airline Action

I wrote a few posts while I was in the airport/on the plane and without net access yesterday. I'm posting them now, in order. The weekend has been pretty awesome so far. Twitter has the live goings on, but more detailed postings are soon to come (probably after I get home after the weekend).

07:40 EDT, Cleveland - So, I've decided to blog the events of my flight, hoping to convey my irritation with this particular mode of travel. I arrived at the airport about fifteen minutes ago for my 8:55 departure through Chicago to Seattle. Security was surprisingly fast, mostly in part due to the fact that I beat the rush. I managed to set off the metal detector with my belt and one of the TSA agents wanted to have a second look at my laptop (I think he just turned it on). I didn't even have the usual discomfort of hauling a heavy bag across the terminal because most of my luggage is in my checked bag--which only clocked in at 34 pounds--and my flight is at terminal A1, which is literally the first terminal past security.

My first flight to Chicago is on an ERJ-145, a small, 40 passenger jet with a maximum range of about 1800 miles. These planes have three seats per row, one on the left of the aisle and two on the right. My seat number is 1A, which, if memory serves correctly (since I'm not willing to pay for airport WiFi) is the lone seat to the left of the aisle in the front of the plane. Too bad this is the short flight. I will be landing in Chicago at 09:15 CDT for a two-hour layover. For now, I conserve battery life for use on the plane. I have several movies with me, so I can ignore the crappy in-flight movie and actually spend some time entertained. Either that or I will play Age of Empires III, I guess I'll decide when I get in the air.

09:55 CDT, Chicago - The flight to Chicago was mostly uneventful. We got a late start due to there being about 30 planes in line ahead of us. Apparently, Continental planes get priority at Hopkins because we didn't take off until all of the Continental planes did. Our flight attendant was a grumpy old man. It was apparently his last day on the job, as he told one of the terminal attendants, "you won't be seeing me again, this is my last flight." I don't know if he was always that grumpy, or just because it was his last day, but he was constantly snapping at people for not properly stowing their carry-ons. We landed on time and I got some Cinnabon bites at the Cinnabon. They tasted a little stale and not very good. Next time, I'll just go right for the bar. I've got another forty-five minutes before this flight boards. Hopefully they haven't lost my luggage yet.

12:50 MDT, 30,000 over Montana/Wyoming - So far, this flight has been fairly uneventful. Unfortunately, I have been seated next to two, very annoying children. Apparently their idea of playing cards is to put them all over the seat tray and pick them up at random, then crawl all over underneath the tray to get out to go to the bathroom. Oh, and now the sister is smacking her little brother, lovely. Apparently, this plane is not equipped with music or a movie. I feel sorry for all the people on this flight who didn't bring their own movies, and I feel like laughing at all the people who don't have enough laptop battery life to run a whole movie. If estimates are to be believed, my battery will die about a half hour before the plane is scheduled to land. What fortune that I brought two batteries with me.

Also, whatever parent bought each of these kids an iPod Touch should just burn money, because giving any child under 10 an iPod Touch is like asking somebody to burn your money.

Another two hours left on this flight, I think it's about time I played Age of Empires III... except that starting the game just drained the crap out of my battery, and I now only have 30 minutes of battery left. So instead I'll be listening to music until I have to switch batteries.