Category Archives: Travel

Scary Bush in San Francisco

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Despite the title this post has nothing to do with POTUS.  Below is some video I shot this weekend in San Francisco down on Fisherman’s Wharf.  This guy took a couple of branches, hid behind them and then scared passersby.  Never mind that there’s not a tree or bush anywhere near him, that he’s on a sidewalk and that he’s sitting next to a bannister with a drop-down to the bay, he still was able to scare more people than you’d believe.  Best of all is that no one got mad and he was making out like a champ in terms of $1 tips. Full disclosure: he got me good before I shot this.

I’d Be Just Like John Madden

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Football commentator John Madden is afraid of flying and has a custom bus that he rides to all the games he covers, and I guess everywhere else he goes.  I’ve always thought that, while it might suck to have a phobia of anything, having a customized bus with a driver to get around in is about as close to traveling nirvanah I’d ever be able to find.

Well, after reading this Freakonomics post titled "Would You Fly on an Airplane with No Pilot" I can tell you that if we ever get to the point where planes are routinely flown by remote control with no pilot in the cockpit then I’m going to become a great customer for Amtrak, Trailways and all the cruise lines.  I know that auto pilot already does a lot of the flying, but at least there’s someone there keeping an eye on things.  On top of that the person keeping an eye on things has as much interest as I do in making sure the plane gets where it’s going without crashing.  Some guy working a joystick in Des Moines just doesn’t have the chips in the game, if you know what I mean.  What’s stopping him from having a couple of beers at lunch and then coming back to play "let’s land the 737 in half the distance it normally takes" just for giggles? And what about communications breakdowns? If you’ve ever watched satellite TV in the middle of a thunderstorm you know what I’m talking about.

Let’s put it this way: have you ever been to a hobby store to see who’s buying all those RC planes?  That’s probably the pool of applicants for this job and you’re going to tell me you’ll trust them with your life? 

Trailways it is. 

Can Someone Explain Airfares to Me?

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I’ve been flying a lot the last couple of weeks and will be flying again next week.  By some miracle I haven’t been cursed with significant delays or cancellations this time around (knock on wood), but I’m more than a little confused by the airfares I’m seeing.  For example:

  • Flying from Greensboro to New York (Sunday), New York to Chicago (Tuesday morning) and then Chicago to Greensboro (Tuesday evening) would have cost $1,500 (coach or 1st class, which is in itself weird).  By booking the trip through Charlotte the airfare went to $750.
  • Flying one way from DC to Charleston the Tuesday before Thanksgiving cost $320.
  • Flying from Greensboro to San Francisco cost $220 round trip.

That last one really floored me.  Why is it cheaper to fly to San Francisco from Greensboro than it is to fly to New York or Chicago (I checked for the same dates and times)?  And to top it off I connect to San Francisco in Chicago, so it would be cheaper to fly through Chicago to San Francisco than to fly to Chicago and back even though I’m on the same planes.

Some other observations about my recent flying experience:

  • I love flying out of National, which some people insist on referring to as Reagan National.
  • LaGuardia is a hole.  It is quickly becoming my least favorite airport.
  • Getting in and out of Charlotte is easier than I thought it would be, and it takes no more time than it used to take me to get in and out of Dulles when I was living in DC.  If Greensboro isn’t careful they’re going to lose another regular passenger.
  • The big differentiator between airports, to me, is the food service available in the gate area.  All of them seem to have places to sit and eat outside of security, but the problem with LaGuardia and Greensboro is that they only have crappy food stands or hole-in-the-wall joints that serve tepid coffee and day-old sandwiches inside of security.  Blah.

Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’

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It looks like I’ve hit one of those travel "humps" I get every once in a while.  It started last Sunday when I rented a car and drove up to DC for meetings there on Monday and Tuesday.  From DC I flew to Charleston, SC Tuesday night for my wife’s family reunion, and from Charleston we drove home to Winston-Salem Saturday.  I fly to New York from Charlotte tonight (Sunday and the busiest travel day of the year) and I’m in New York until Tuesday, when I fly to Chicago for a meeting and then Tuesday night I fly home.  I’m home until the following Tuesday when I fly to San Francisco to run a seminar for a couple of days and then Celeste is going to meet me there for a long weekend before we fly home on the red-eye that Saturday night.  After a couple of weeks at home we’ll be on the road again for Christmas.

If I don’t gain 20 pounds by New Years it’s going to be a miracle.

Meeting Gram in Fancy Gap

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A while back my daughter suggested to my mom that we could get together more if we met for dinner halfway between our home in Lewisville, NC and mom’s in Radford, VA.  Last night we tested the theory by meeting in Fancy Gap, VA for dinner.  It ended up being an easy one hour drive up I-77 for us and an easy one hour drive down I-81 and I-77 for Mom and Bert.

Lakeview_fancygap
We met Mom & Bert and the Lake View Restaurant (attached to the Lake View motel) and they even gave us our own private closet room.  Fancy Gap is right off the Blue Ridge Parkway on Rt. 52 and we decided to head home by heading south down 52 through Mt. Airy, the childhood home of Andy Griffith and my Aunt Judy. The first five miles of the return trip were downhill, as in literally downhill, so next time we’ll try and make it a lunch meeting so we can see the area in the daylight.  I have a feeling it’s beautiful.

Airline Bills Passenger $1,350 for Causing a 27 Minute Delay. Hmmm

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According to this story Air Canada is charging a beligerent passenger $1,350 for causing a 27 minute delay. They say the charges are for "the cost of overtime for flight crew, extra baggage handling and various other unspecified expenses".  While it sounds like the passenger was a real jerk this story has me wondering what would happen if the airlines received bills from every passenger they caused to be late to a meeting, miss a ride, miss a connecting flight, etc.

I think we might have a budding movement here.  Let’s see if we can introduce legislation that would allow us to bill the airlines for all the money they cost us when they’re late.  Of course there are situations when they can’t help it (weather and such), but there are plenty of times when it’s their own fault that the flights are delayed or cancelled.  I’ll tell you right now that a 27 minute delay would fall in the realm of "slight" delay from the airline’s perspective and if they’re going to bill passengers for causing a slight delay then they should be prepared to pay the piper for all the 27 minute delays they cause.

Sign me up.

Bleepin’ Traffic

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I40atrushhourSee that picture to the left?  That’s a picture of I-40 at Peters Creek Parkway at what is considered rush hour in many cities.  That picture represents a huge reason why Celeste and I moved the family here.  You see, we moved from a place, Northern Virginia, that has essentially one day-long rush hour every day, to a place that has a "moseying along" half our in the morning and another in the evening.  You’d be amazed what a difference it makes in your life when you don’t have to plan around traffic.

In case you think I’m exaggerating let me just compare the traffic cameras available online in Winston-Salem via the Winston-Salem Journal’s site and in NoVa via the Washington Post’s site. By my count there are 25 traffic cameras in all of Winston-Salem, but in NoVa there’s that many between the beltway and the southern edge of the I-95 corridor alone.  I was going to count all the camera’s in Northern Virginia, but I just don’t have the time.

I swear getting out of everyday NoVa traffic has dropped my blood pressure by ten points, even though all the barbeque here has added about 15 pounds of pudge to my not-so-svelte frame.  Life is good!

Changing of the Guards

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Celeste and I took two of our kids and my mother-in-law to Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday (Aug. 8) and watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown.  Here’s some video I shot. Forgive the shakiness…I had to film holding the camera over my head.

Forget PTI. Let’s Talk About Smith-Reynolds Airport

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There’s a lot of teeth-gnashing in these parts about the struggling Piedmont Triad International Airport  (PTI), which is losing passengers and flights to Charlotte and Raleigh airports.  Flying out of PTI has gotten bad enough that I’d rather drive the 5 hours to DC and I’m fine driving to Charlotte for flights to more distant destinations, whereas just a year ago I was ecstatic with the cost and convenience of flying out of PTI.

When I was a kid the Smith-Reynolds Airport here in Winston-Salem was still a functioning commercial airport, but now it’s used for general aviation and an air show.  Still it’s runways are large enough to handle any but the largest jets and it is very close to downtown Winston-Salem which is why I think it would be the perfect candidate for an air taxi service.  The FAA just gave the first provisional approval for a VLJ or "very light jet" and there are entrepreneurs getting ready to take receipt of the first VLJs and start their business-oriented air taxi services.  Interestingly two of these companies are based in not-too-far-away Greenville, SC.

Because the VLJs are less than half the cost of the cheapest business jets currently available they are apparently going to allow entrepreneurs to provide air taxi services that are slightly costlier (one company is estimating $1,000 for a 500 mile round trip) than flying commercial but with greater convenience.  Here’s a good article that provides an overview of the likely challenges that the air-taxis will face and how they can overcome them.

If these air taxi services do indeed come to fruition this could be a boon for Smith-Reynolds.  The terminal facilities already exist but there are no commercial airlines to compete with so it wouldn’t take a whole lot to turn the airport into the premier business travel gateway for the Triad.  Add that to the growing bio-tech sector here and I think you have two rather nice spices to add to Winston-Salem’s business development stew.

Friday Night in Floyd, VA

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Took the family up to my mom’s place in Radford, VA to spend a long weekend with her, her beau Bert and my brother and his family.  On Friday night we went to Floyd, VA to see the bluegrass and gospel groups that play every Friday night at the General Store, along with some impromptu playing on the streets by various groups.  It’s a completely different world and culture and it was a definite eye opener for the kids (of all ages).  Here’s a little video I shot with my camera phone (date: 7/28/06):