Mostly Harmless

I’m back from my 10-day, 3,600-mile trip.

I still have all of my shampoo and toothpaste, etc.

Considering that I flew back a few days after the “alleged terrorist plot,” at Alert Level “Orange,” I got through the bag check and security in almost no time at all. I spent about 15 minutes at the curb-side bag check, most of that time was due to a couple of families with many people and bags (10 people and 16 bags between them, I believe).

After dropping off my single bag I got my boarding pass from a kiosk and proceeded to security. There were about 5 people in front of me in my line and we sailed through the security point. The x-ray tech spotted a water bottle in one woman’s bag and she was told she couldn’t have that, but it was an otherwise typical trip through security. (”typical” — as in, not like that time they x-rayed my backpack three times and hand searched it twice to find a compact screwdriver that I forgot was even in the bag — and had flown out with. I had to mail that back to myself for $9-something and go back through security again.)

Once I was through security I had about 3 hours until my flight. The only things out of the ordinary were the announcements that you couldn’t take any liquids or gels on the plane and the overflowing garbage cans, piled high with water bottles and coffee cups. (Good thing I checked my deluxe WWDC ‘06 thermos.)

The convoluted part(s) of my trip:

The main reason for the trip was the Apple World-Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) which ran from August 7th to the 11th. Normally I’d fly in on Saturday (cheaper) and fly back on the following Saturday. As it just so happened I would be able to see two concerts in the area if I got there on Thursday; I’d just have to pay for a hotel and a car for a couple of days before the expense-able items kicked in.

So it went something like this…

* drive car to Park ‘n Fly, park
* take shuttle to airport
* fly to SFO
* take Air Train to rental center
* rent car, with gps
* accidentally set GPS to simulation mode (because it can’t see the satellites in the garage) and wonder why it seems really confused
* eat lunch, reset GPS, continue to hotel #1 (in Mountain View, 3.3 miles from Google, 5.5 miles from Apple)
* see concert #1 (.5 miles from Google)
* sleep, perchance to dream…
* leave for 2nd concert at worst possible time (3pm, Friday)
* drive 150 miles from Sunnyvale to Marysville in a mere 4 hours
* see concert #2
* drive 150 miles from Marysville to Sunnyvale in a mere 2 1/4 hours
* sleep
* return car to rental facility: in Oakland near SFO _at_ SFO (fun with nav system’s concept of home base…)
* get shafted by Thrifty’s concept of pre-paid gas (rant coming soon)
* take Air Train (blue) to International Terminal (should have done Garage A)
* take Air Train (red) to Bart/Garage G
* take Bart from SFO to Powell St. ($5.15)
* roll luggage 2 blocks to hotel #2 (Marriott, 1 block from Moscone West)
* camp out for the week, do the WWDC thing, take a bus to Apple…
* Saturday - shuttle to airport
* fly to MSP
* shuttle back to car
* drive home!

In summary: two cars, two planes, three elevated people mover trains, one “real” train, one bus, and three airport shuttles. Air miles: 3,172. Rental car miles: 400-ish. Bus miles: 100-ish.

I flew back from SFO yesterday. (Note to self: don’t forget to blog about the 10-day trip you went on, 11 days ago.)

I saw the Snakes on a Plane parody picture for Liquids on a Plane on someone’s MacBook during a session at WWDC ‘06 (much better WiFi coverage this year) so that was all I could think about when the flight attendant, two rows in front of me, dumped coffee on some unlucky guy… and his iPod… and his MacBook.

We couldn’t bring any liquids on board so the only danger was from the air waitress (*snap*) dumping hot coffee on an unsuspecting passenger.

Actually I don’t think the electronics got wet at all, when he stood up I could see the left side of his shirt was completely soaked so at least it didn’t go right into the keyboard of a $2k laptop. That would have been really unpleasant. The hot coffee was unpleasant enough that he used an ice pack for the rest of the flight.

The flight attendant was very apologetic and filled out some sort of form… I guess they have a form for this sort of thing (like that time that Taco Bell hit my car, which I still haven’t blogged about).

Unlucky Guy’s seat was pretty much the seat that I had on the flight out 10 days ago; but nobody dumped coffee on me and a cute girl woman sat next to me. And her husband sat in the window seat… doh! (Need to specify “cute, single girl” on the seating request next time.)