Travel Day!

Today was a travel day, hence the late post.

Got up at 6 (!) and didn’t go back to sleep. Why? Because I had to be out of the house around 8:15 in order to get to EC’s to pick her up for our trip. But that gave me lots of time to chill out and do some Duolingo before hitting the road. I am in another weekly quest with another person who is not doing Duolingo currently. Maybe they did in the past. Maybe they will in the future. But right now, I get to do the whole quest on my own. Luckily it isn’t anything too crazy and I will finish it. Still, it is irksome to be matched with these people. I am stopping following them so hopefully I won’t get stuck with them in the future.

I got out when I wanted to and got EC and we headed to the ROC airport. Dropped her off and parked in the garage. I have no idea how expensive that is going to be, but I really couldn’t care much less. This trip is about convenience, not about parsimony.

We went to the check in counter and were basically waived away and told that a wheel chair plus attendant would come get us. Paul arrived and whisked us through the TSA check point. EC got inspected a bit and I got patted down. No idea why. But since we hadn’t had to to wait in line, that little delay wasn’t bothersome. On the way to the gate, I sprung for some water and a brownie. Any guesses how much that cost? $13!! Insane.

We were, obviously, very early. But I always prefer to be early than on time. And late. Since I was traveling with someone who needed extra time to get down the jetway, we boarded the plane first. So our bags made it into the overhead easily. Quick flight with nothing too exciting to report. At O’Hare, we were greeted by a young women from a country I had never really registered before (Kyrgyzstan). Her English was great. She also spoke her native language and some Russian and seemed a little surprised that I spoke some Russian. I really need to get back to that. There were three other passengers on the little electric cart she maneuvered through the crazy airport that is O’Hare. I am very glad that we had her. It was a long, long way from our gate to the next gate. Even I would have been exhausted by the time we had reached it. Sadly, we were at the end of a section and there was no food easily available. EC had bought some food and I had the brownie and some snacks I had brought. And the outrageous water. so we survived.

On the next flight, we boarded on time. If I had brought my new suitcase, it probably would have had to have been checked on the jetway because the overhead bins were teeny! My backpack barely fit. EC’s bag was also small enough. Phew! We had to sit at the gate for a longish while while maintenance did its thing. Eventually, into the air we went. The flight was uneventful. Enough turbulence that we didn’t get a drink service, but that’s ok. I napped for most of the flight.

Cool Sculpture in the new Kansas City Airport

Our next wheelchair pusher was from Ethiopia. What an international day! And our Uber driver, who was laquacious and knowledgable was from Pakistan, though he had been away from there almost fifty years, whisked us from the airport to our destination. Taking a detour through Kansas City Kansas as a bridge was backed up and would have added 20 minutes to the ride.

At the C’s building, we had a lovely pasta dinner and great chat. But now I am a bit tired. Though I think a walk would be a good thing after all that sitting around. Tomorrow, off to visit 5 (!) places that CC has organized for us to check out. It will be a long and interesting day I think.

Augustus for President: CC (not the same CC but his wife) asked me about my campaign. I think I gave good responses. It is hard to tell. The more I talk about it the better I feel about what I am saying. Oh, and I gave the cart driver a couple of stickers, even though she isn’t a citizen yet.

Day 6 – Travel Day and A Tale of Two Programs

Yes, there was no post yesterday. I am going straight to hell for missing a day, I am sure. I think that is what will cause St. Peter, or God, or Zombie Jesus himself to slam the pearly gates right in my face!

Ok, probably not. It was just a day. A long travel day. As will be obvious in a few seconds.

I got up and did some Duolingo and then tried to go back to sleep. I might have dozed a bit here and there. I eventually got up and started to get ready to vacate the Airbnb. Despite a host who was there but I never saw (which is weird, imho), I liked the place a lot. The location was pretty good, especially once I had a car. And having Casa Del Sabor (2) a couple blocks away made it awesome. Anyway, I got packed and then headed to the above place to get a burrito for the road. I got carne asada. And I didn’t ask for lettuce, but I ought to have. No veggies for me yesterday.

Back in the house, I ate a little bit of the burrito and with a little extra special seasoning. Having purchased a preroll ($5) at the beginning of the week, I didn’t feel like just tossing the rest out. So I put it on my burrito and ate it. Thinking that it would kick in in about an hour and I thought I would be at the boarding area by that point. Ooops.

At around 10:30 am, I drove to the gas station near the car rental place and filled up. Then drove the less than a mile to the car place. All dropped off, they shuttle for the car company took me to the car rental hub where the big boy car rental places live. From there it was another shuttle to get to the airport.

Since I already had my boarding passes, I went straight for security. The edibles had kicked in by this point and I was floating. I think the “Clear” person saw my doe eyed look and with hyper speed (it seemed to me) set me up as a Clear customer – the paid way to get to the head of the security line. And I think if I finish registering, I might be able to skip taking off my shoes at least at the TSA checkpoint. Is that all worth $199 a year to me? I don’t know. I guess it depends on how often I am going to be traveling to places that have a Clear presence. That is something to think about tomorrow.

Through the line, I found my gate. There was actually another flight to Charlotte boarding when I arrived. I guess I could have tried to get on that flight, but I opted to stay in my seat and watch the world go by for a couple of hours instead. I also ate more of my burrito.

I think I am getting the hang of the new travel paradigm. Bring your own stuff where you can. Though the burrito got my bag searched. I guess I ought to have had it out of the suitcase. Anyway, I took snacks for the road – peanut m&ms and some beef jerky. (Quick aside about beef jerky – I though jerky of any kind was supposed to be tough and hard and dry! But mine is soft. Weird). And for the longer leg, be prepared with a heftier piece of food. I failed this going out to Las Vegas. But the burrito and I succeeded for the flights back to the East Coast! Woo hoo!

The flight was jam packed. And I didn’t have to sit in the very last row. No, I was fortunate, I got to sit in the next to last row. Sigh. I don’t know why I get stuck all the way back there. Though, this time, it was a good thing. Because a lot of people who were going to sit there didn’t bring carry-ons into the plane. So there was lots of room in the overhead bins. I even got to put my backpack/computer bag in there! Overall an easy flight despite me not being able to find a comfortable position. And maybe the altitude exacerbated whatever was going on in my body and head, but I was really spaced out for a solid hour at least. But I survived.

Since that flight was late, I was a little worried about not making it to my connection. But I did. About five minutes before it was starting to board. Again, all the way in the back, next to last row. Sigh. Short flight though.

Then, around 1 am local time, I arrived at the airport. It took a solid ten minutes for someone to come and get me from the motel 6 (three minutes away) where I parked my car.

Easy drive home (the car did most of the driving). Then I stayed up way too long trying to shift my sleep pattern back to the East coast. I think I succeeded.

One cost $25, one cost $20…

Today was a dashing day. Or at least one dash. It went ok. Like falling off a horse, I got right back on and it was still not my favorite way of spending my days. Still, it was an ok dash. I had been considering a second dash today, but just don’t want to. And I will dash tomorrow – at least one shift. Probably won’t dash on Sunday as I do like my days off.

My to do list wasn’t as long as I had thought it was. I made all the calls and wrote all the notes I wanted to. I went through my email and dealt with everything in there. And now I am finishing up this blog post.

A little more about the Circus event in Las Vegas. Apparently there are several of these around the world – the most famous probably being the one in Monte Carlo. I think it is a standard format. A few days of competition, then a gala opening with awards. Then a run of shows featuring the top performers. (Though I just got a note saying that the rest of the shows for this event were cancelled…).

Ok, so, not the most exciting day back in Geneva. I think I am going to head to the grocery store and buy some food for dinner. Maybe pizza and wings from the place up in Phelps tomorrow.

Day 3 – Plans are in Flux

Uber and Lyft are too expensive in Las Vegas. And the public transit system isn’t all that hot. So…I am going to rent a car for the remainder of the trip. It ought to save me some money. And save my feet. I found a very inexpensive car rental which is a mixed thing of course. One gets what one pays for. I don’t pick it up until noon. Life is basically on hold until I’ve picked up the car. Out with the old “plans” such as they were, and in with the new. I wish that my uber or lyft (which doubled in price from when I looked at 7am to now, 7:30 am) would take me to the car rental place at the airport directly, but it seems they can’t. Which means I will have to go to the airport and then find the rental car shuttle and take that to the car place. I start this adventure at 11 am. Wish me luck!

Aha! I can take a “rideshare” to the car rental place – eliminating one transfer. Woo hoo. I have scheduled the ride for 11:25. So excited. I think I will eventually get dressed and then head up to Fremont street and see what’s what up/down there (since it is actually South – is South down?).

Woo hoo! A couple of long(ish) term boarder leads. Not specifically for my space, but in general. One wants a private entrance, which I can’t really provide. Whatever. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, we will all survive just as long as we survive…

I do like cargo pants! I can carry lots of stuff and not have to carry a backpack or a bag or anything. Yay. Unfortunately, when I carry my glasses case (with the sun going down so early, I need to carry my second set of glasses) the glasses rattle against the case. But I have stuffed a napkin and a cleaning cloth in there and now, hopefully, no rattle! That would be nice…

The Fremont Experience is only a ten minute walk from my Airbnb. And I saw the transit center – which is even closer. Good to know for the future if I decide to take a bus. Though since I am getting a car…I walked the length of the Experience. Stopped in at a few places to lose some money. I found an interesting machine that had three open windows. You could pay for one window, two windows or three windows. And whatever showed up in the windows was what you won. I also played on a penny machine for a little bit. Twenty five lines which is the same as playing a quarter machine. I broke even on that one. And I found the Pinkbox donut store. Oh my goodness what a great collection of donuts. Too bad my stomach is so small. I only got one. Which cost about $5. A Pooh shaped donut. Yum!

In the “No good deed goes unpunished” category…I went to the car place and spoke with a person in line. He was from Shanghai. Here to exhibit. He needed to rent a car so he could pick up some packages that hadn’t made it to the exhibition hall. I thought that was silly so I offered to drive him when I got my car. That’s another story. Anyway, we got to the place where the packages were but they wouldn’t release them to him because his name was not “Freeman” (A company’s name). Lots of phone calls later and there was no resolution. So I ended up dropping him at the convention center in hopes that he could find someone from Freeman to take him back to the grocery store with a teeny fed ex presence and get his packages. We are now WhatsApp friends. Woo hoo!

As of now, I am safely back at the Airbnb with none of my plans accomplished. Life is that way sometimes.

Oh, about the car rental. My $70 car cost me over $100. So excited about that. They tried to jack up the price a few other ways that I managed to avoid. Like charging me $44 for a full tank of gas. Instead of me filling it before I dropped it off. With the amount of driving I am going to do, I think I might use up half a tank which would be $20 or so. Grrr.

Now I am not sure what I am going to do. I think I need to get a car phone holder for this car, too. Had I thought I might rent a car, I would have brought the mount I bought for the other rental car (which I had while my Tesla was in the shop). Aha! I got Carplay working – wired – but that’s ok by me. Better than no carplay. The screen in the car is teeny compared to the Tesla screen, but directions are spoken through the car’s speakers. I think this will be very helpful. Phew even.

Buckle up – more to come!

So, Where was I? Right, I got car play to work. Then I sort of sketched in my plan for the rest of the evening. And this is what happened.

I drove to where the Circus is. It was a long way from here, but doable. They are borrowing a circus tent and supporting vehicles from some other circus. I was wondering how they were going to handle that. They are in the parking lot of a large store – just like one of the circuses in Medellin. But no one was around to ask if the time on the ticket was correct and the show was going to go from 7 until 10! Oh well. Onwards.

My cell phone had said there was a Bojangles restaurant in the area. I lived on Bojangles for a few months when I was living in NC. I still like them whenever I get the chance. I think the nearest one to me is in PA somewhere. And out here, I thought they would be around. But the one I was sent to was a phantom store. At an underpass way south of Las Vegas. Coming soon, I now see on the Website. Poo.

Next stop, MGM to see David Copperfield. I got there and found they were charging $30 per vehicle for some special event that was happening. I opted to not do that and parked on a scary street three big blocks away. Yes, I did worry a teeny bit that something would happen to the car. Nothing did. Las Vegas is pretty safe, I do believe.

At the MGM, I changed my mind and went to see Cirque du Soleil’s Ka instead. So glad I went. But before I headed in, I gambled a bit and came out $2 ahead. Huzzuh! Then I went in and sat in the custom theatre for an 40 minutes before the show. A preshow started about 10 minutes before the show proper began. I love preshow when it is done well. Everything (well, most everything) about this show was very well done. The only confusing bit was two women/girls in red dresses. Yes, they were different sizes, but it was still a challenge at times. This show was a good combination of story and circus – though it was a bit heavy on the fighting side of things for me. So much cool stuff. If you go to Vegas and you like spectacular productions, this is a must see. As is O imho. I am actually a bit tempted to watch it again on Wednesday…

After the show, I bought a ludicrously expense awesome program. Walked to the car and came back to the Airbnb. Where I sit typing this now. It is late my time and getting later local time. I have eaten – finally finished the darn torta – and done a teeny bit of duolingo and typed up this blog post. If you have stayed this long, extra brownie points for you. Those can be exchanged only for A&P green stamps…