the clueless american

When we first decided on the cruise, we thought we'd be driving to Barcelona, but after talking with some friends we decided it wasn't worth it. Apparently the tolls and the parking fees in Barcelona are high enough that it's cheaper to leave the car at home.

Our first choice was to fly from our local airport, the Murcia/San Javier Regional Airport (MJV), but it's such a small place that almost all of the Iberia flights just go to Madrid. The website www.iberia.com wouldn't even give me a price on a trip from MJV to BCN.

Having already ruled out a bus, we decided to take the train. RENFE, Spain's train company, has a very informative website that also allows ticket purchasing and can be viewed in English. My Spanish is ok, especially when I'm reading it, but when we're talking about dinero it's nice to confirm everything in my native tongue.

So, checking the schedule from Balsicas (the closest station) to Barcelona, we found 1 train a day that leaves at 8:56 and arrives at 16:30. A first class ticket was €57 each for a total of €114. We were able to buy the tickets online, but since it was our first purchase RENFE wanted us to pick up the tickets in person up to 30 minutes before the train left. In the future, we'll be able to buy tickets online and board without standing in line; we'll then receive our tickets on board from some sort of ATM-like device.

We were all set to take the train, but later on down the road we found that we'd have difficulties getting back from Barcelona because there's only one return train a day. Faced with the choice of staying an extra night in Barcelona or taking a train to Murcia and counting on friends to pick us up at midnight, I went back to Iberia and looked at their last minute deals. I was able to find a round-trip ticket from Alicante (about 1 hr from our house) to Barcelona for €58.90 each! That's a total of €117.80, or only €3.80 more than a one-way trip on the train. SOLD!

Before buying the plane tickets, I went back to RENFE and cancelled the tickets we had already bought. Although they charged us a 10% (€11.40) fee, it was well worth it to get the cheaper and faster ride. On a side note, although RENFE was very helpful, the ticket purchase/cancellation part is only available when someone is there in the office, as if they'd personally handle your transaction! So, don't try to buy tickets outside of the 07:00-23:30 timeframe.

The only downside of the plane is that the last-minute deal was only available on the 22:05 flight, which means that we'll arrive at the airport at 23:05. By the time we get our bags and get to the hotel, it will be nearly 1 am, and there's little chance that Ted and Joelle will still be awake.

Next Stop: Airport - Hotel (much shorter!)

Anyone travelling to Barcelona needs to check out their official transport site at www.tmb.net. This site, which also can be viewed in English, allows you to type in starting and ending points, and it will calculate for you how to get from A-B using public transportation. We were able to find all of the hotels we considered, which allowed us to factor in travel time from the airport or train station.

After settling on the Alexandra hotel (more to follow on it), we found that it was 12 minutes by Metro from the train station, but when we switched to the plane it was about 45 minutes using 2 different trains: a RENFE train from the airport to the train station, and then the metro to the hotel. We were ready to do this, but the last train from the airport leaves at 23:40 and the metro shuts down at midnight, so we'll be taking a taxi this time. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I've never lived in a big city and am always impressed by easy-to-use metros; I'm disappointed we won't be using it this time!

Next: Alexandra Hotel

Ellen and I have talked about doing a Mediterranean cruise, with or without friends and family, since we found out we were moving to Spain. Ted and Joelle thought it sounded like a great idea, and in the summer of 2002 we started looking at our options. We wanted to have a Spain departure so that they could come visit our house first, which really narrowed down the cruise options. Royal Caribbean has a 7-day cruise that starts and ends in Barcelona, but we were having trouble finding a good price. In November 2002, Joelle went to a travel agent and found out about Orient Cruise Lines. She was able to get a 7-day cruise from Barcelona, plus airfare, pre- and post-cruise hotel stays, and shipboard credit for less than the cruise-only portion of Royal Caribbean. The travel agent was kind enough to get us a similar deal on the cruise-only portion, and when all was said and done we paid about $3000 for the two of us. We're booked in a cabin with a porthole on the lowest deck--room 3033 to be exact--but I've read that if the ship isn't full we can expect a free upgrade. We originally had cabins on Deck 5, but the twins didn't convert into a queen-size bed. I don't know what's up with Europeans, but to me $3000 to spend 7 nights in a twin and NOT in the same bed as my wife is unacceptable, so we asked the travel agent to move us to a cabin where the beds go together. Hopefully we won't get "upgraded" back into the same cabin!

Using Joelle's travel agent had its advantages, since she took care of both couples together better than 2 separate travel agents would have, but there were drawbacks as well. With the time difference and the expense, we weren't ever inclined to make a long-distance call, but the agent's email response was almost nonexistent. Joelle and Ted wound up making phone calls, faxing for us, and even visiting the office to take care of things for us. We were so thankful for all of their assistance that we think they should earn the TA's commission! Short of that, we got them a little Travel Clock to show our appreciation. Thanks you two!

An interesting tidbit about our ship, the Crown Odyssey: Orient Cruise Lines is owned by the much-bigger Norwegian Cruise Lines, and in 2003 NCL decided to pull the Odyssey under the NCL brand. From what I've read, the ship was refurbished, given a new paint job, and renamed the Norwegian Crown. As the NC, it's going to be a freestyle ship, but it's unclear whether those changes have taken place even though the ship is already sporting the new name. As far as I can tell it will continue its Orient Lines program until the end of the summer when it leaves Italy for the US and its new life under NCL. So, what does that mean? To be honest, I'm not 100% sure, but I think it means we'll have at least one formal night whereas the freestyle ships are more casual. I found that info and a lot of other, more useful information at www.cruisecritic.com.

For those of you not interested in going to Orient's site (see link on the sidebar; I'm tired of typing it in), here's our itinerary:

25 Jul Embark in Barcelona, Spain
26 Jul Monte Carlo, Monaco
27 Jul Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
28 Jul Sorrento, Italy
29 Jul Valletta, Malta
30 Jul At Sea
31 Jul Santorini, Greece
1 Aug Disembark in Athens (Piraeus), Greece

Like I mentioned, we couldn't do the flight pass, but we did get a fairly good deal through AlpiEagles. We're flying directly from Athens to Venice for €149 each, as opposed to the next lowest on Alitalia which was over €500 per person with a connection in Milano. The crazy thing is that I found AlpiEagles the same day as EuropebyAir. On that day the fare was €99 (about $115), so I decided to wait to buy the $99 flight pass. 2 days later when I found out the pass wasn't available, the fare had jumped to €149. Nothing like a €100 penalty because I wanted to save $15.

After searching in vain for some sort of free shuttle from the airport to the hotel, I stumbled across Alilaguna, a company that operates a water bus from the airport to the city. According to the website, it will take us about an hour and twenty minutes to get to our stop, Zattere, and will cost €10 each way. We're also planning on taking this back to the airport if it works out ok, so no separate entry for that leg.

After returning to the airport on the Alilaguna water bus, we're taking AlpiEagles again to Barcelona. This time instead of paying the €149 price listed on the website, we were able to get a flight pass from EuropebyAir for $99, plus whatever airport taxes we'll need to pay on the spot in Venice. The flight arrives in Barcelona at 13:15, and then we have a few hours to wait for the trip back to Alicante. We may take advantage of the time to try out the Barcelona public transportation and see if it can take us anywhere cool during the layover. We takeoff for Alicante at 20:00 and should arrive by 21:00, after which we only have the 1 hour drive before finally reaching home.

There, that wasn't so bad, was it? Now that I've gotten the itinerary fully explained, the posts ought to be spaced out a little better. Now the only thing left to do besides packing is to select some shore excursions. We can't wait!

We started off our little adventure on time and in good spirits. Ellen had our last-minute checklist ready to go this morning, and we were able to check off every item with enough time remaining for me to grill up some steaks for dinner. Not just any ole sugary Spanish steaks, either. These were 100% American Ribeyes we bought in Rota the last time we were there. After a leisurely dinner, we spent our last moments in front of the air conditioner until it was time to go. Our friends Jay and Carmen offered to take us to the airport, which was very nice of them. They showed up promptly at 7:00, and we were in the Alicante airport before 8. After checking in, we roamed the duty-free shops, and Ellen made the first purchase of the trip. She found a little <insert present name here after it's been given> for her mom that we were going to buy the last time we were in Madrid but didn't get a chance to. For now it's time to sit back and wait for the 10pm flight to Barcelona--we can't wait!

Hooray for public transportation! While we waited in Alicante, I asked Ellen if she minded at least taking the train to the Barcelona-Sants train station from the airport so that the taxi ride wouldn't be as long or expensive. She said ok, so when we landed (late) at Barcelona we hurried to get our luggage. Our bags were #1 and #8 on the belt--the best I've ever seen! Finding the train was a little confusing because no one tells you that you have to go outside the terminal to get to the train walkway, but we found it and boarded at 23:35. Although Renfe's website said the cost would be €1.10, it was actually €2.20 per person. The train left on time at 23:40, and we got to the central train station at about 5 minutes after midnight. I had planned to find a taxi since the Metro was supposed to be closed, but several people went for it so we followed. Downstairs it looked closed, but the attendant said line #5 was still running. I turned to buy a ticket, but he told us to just go through! What a nice thing to do for some obviously tired travelers! We waited about 5 minutes before the Metro train came, and then we rode two stops to Diagonal Station. The Barcelona Metro reminded me of New York City's subway, complete with graffiti and a crazy man arguing with himself! The walk to the hotel was a short one, and by 00:30 we were in the room. All-in-all, we got here almost as fast as a taxi and for only €4.40 total. Time for bed!

By the time we woke up this morning, Ted and Joelle were already on their way home with stops in Frankfurt and Washington Dulles. We went down for a last buffet breakfast (free for us; €15 for those booked through the cruise) and then headed upstairs to pack. The hotel allowed us to check out at 1300 instead of 1200 because we had a late flight. That didn't stop the mini bar inspector from letting himself in at 11:55--despite the DND sign--where he got to see me in my boxers yelling "we're checking out in an hour!"

While I checked out, Ellen got us one last hit of euros from the ATM in the lobby. This is one of the best ATMs I've seen in Europe as it lets you get large sums of money out in all €20 bills. We live in a small town where it's hard to use anything larger than a €20, so we appreciate things like that.

Anyway, we got in the cab for the airport and watched the meter tick off as we made the 30-minute drive. We toyed with the idea of doing some sort of private taxi/tour on our way out of the city, but we were pretty much toured out. Although the meter said €12.80, the driver told me the fare was €20. When I tried to question him he suddenly lost any ability to speak English. I'm familiar with being robbed by taxi drivers--it has happened to me all over the world--but I still don't like it. I paid him his €7.20 tip and headed into the airport. The Athens airport is new and very clean. One disadvantage of flying a discount airline is that they don't have a permanent home. We entered the airport at its midpoint by the AlpiEagles sign and then found we had to walk all the way to the right side of the airport to checkin. We wound up having to wait about 30 minutes before the checkin desk opened, but it's better than being late. The ticket agent had a lot of trouble with e-tickets for some reason. I'm not sure if it was an equipment problem or she was confused, but it took us a full 5 minutes compared to the average minute or two for people with paper tickets. We finally got checked in and headed towards the secure area.

In most airports, there is usually at least as much if not more inside the secure area, but that's not the case in Athens. Be sure to get that burger or shop in that shop before you go past the boarding pass checkpoint, because what you want may not be on the other side. Also, AlpiEagles is relegated to the lower-level, shuttle-to-the-plane category so there's just about nothing beyond its security area. Be sure to eat and shop before passing through the scanners. The lower terminal isn't quite finished; you can see spots on the wall where phones are supposed to be attached, but it is clean and there are at least restrooms close to the gates. That leads me to the next entry; skip it if you're at all squeamish.

We waited a little longer than expected and soon discovered that our flight was delayed. Unlike the other airlines, AlpiEagles doesn't bother to update the information board to indicate new arrival and departure times. We found out about the delay because they called an AlpiEagles flight with a similar number at a nearby gate and we tried to board there. The plane finally took off nearly an hour late, and we settled in for the flight to Venice. We landed at 18:05 instead of 17:25, a delay that wound up costing us a lot of time later on. We were able to get our bags by 18:20, and we started walking to the waterbus stop. One thing I hadn't heard before is that the Venice airport has a brand new terminal, but the waterbus/watertaxi stop is still by the old terminal. As the new terminal is landlocked I don't see this situation improving. There was a shuttle available, but we decided to hoof it. The old terminal is now used for General Aviation, and although it seems totally dead the place is really open. The waterbus can be a little confusing if you've never done it before since there's no ticket office and other boats use the bus dock as well. We wound up getting to the stop at 18:30 and then waiting until 18:55 for the next bus. They let us board at 19:05, and the waterbus departed the airport at 19:10. Tickets were €10 apiece as advertised on the website, and we bought them on board after the boat had pulled away. I'm not going to say the bus was slow, but as we left the airport we were passed by water taxis, several private boats, and at one point a slow-flying bird (I am not making this up.) We got to our stop at 20:22 (a 1 hour 12 minute ride) but it had a spectacular advantage. The sun was setting behind St. Mark's church just was we approached it from the Lido stop. What a sight! That alone made it worth taking the slow boat.

The dock near the Zattere station must have been under construction, because they let us off closer to the hotel than we had planned. Consequently we walked about 3 blocks the wrong way before seeing a sign that oriented us. Our bags are on wheels, but we had to cross a staircase twice because of the error. Once we knew where we were it was easy to find the Hotel American, and in less than 5 minutes we were walking in the front door.

One of the interesting rules about the Joint Federal Travel Regulations is that federal employees traveling on a foreign carrier must be in business class for flights greater than 2 hours. The rules also apparently favor the major names because I wound up being booked on Iberia even though a shorter flight was available.

On the day I traveled there was not an early enough flight from the nearest airport, Murcia/San Javier (MJV), which meant I started my trip with a drive to Alicante. Many people go out of their way to avoid the tolls, but so far I've found the quickest way to the airport is to follow the A-37 all the way to Alicante. November is in the low season here so the tolls are only €1.45 each, while they're €2.50 or so in the summer. In either case I'm glad they finally moved away from the old tolls, which were based on pesetas even though the Euro was already in effect when the road opened. That meant the summer toll was something like €2.49 which resulted in a useless one centimo coin for change every time. Of course by this trip in November I was using the credit card lanes almost exclusively. While everyone else is slowly counting out their tolls from their change purses, you can zip through in about 15 seconds with a credit card.

As I mentioned before, there was a direct flight from Alicante to Amsterdam on Easyjet, but it doesn't seem to be available today. I was booked on Iberia with a one hour flight to Madrid, an hour layover, and then a 2+ hour flight to Amsterdam. On my way to the airport, I noticed that my watch battery had died, so I spent my entire layover in Madrid looking for a watch, and convincing an employee to go outside the box and actually help a customer make a purchase. I also managed to get some cash, which I needed since the one ATM in the Alicante airport is outside the secured area. The ATMs in Madrid aren't any more convenient. They're hidden in a hallway near the group of duty-free stores, without a single sign pointing to them. The employee selling me the watch went over and above the call of duty by pointing me to the secret ATMs.

Freshly replenished with cash and watch, I boarded the plane for Amsterdam. It was the identical type of plane (Airbus 320) with the identical layout of the one from Alicante. The difference this time is that I was in Business Class, so the armrests were adjusted toward the middle seat, making the window and aisle seats seem larger and the middle seat unusable. I say "seem" because the seats weren't of course any bigger, but the extra armrest room was nice. The service was nice as well. Business is just about like flying First Class, with a nearly constant supply of drinks and a meal that I imagine is better than what they get 5 rows back in coach.

I try not to go overboard with the drinks, so I stuck with one before the meal and then two (including water) during the meal. Later on I managed to attract an employee's scorn for overusing the drinks, but that's another story I'll get to later.

The flight landed uneventfully at Schiphol and I was able to find the car rental counter and get on my way without any problems. My business was closer to Utrecht, which was easy enough to find. I had researched the route in advance, but really all I did was read the road signs and take one highway from the airport towards Amsterdam and then another south towards Utrecht. The hotel gave me directions from that highway on, and I was in my room in no time.

Well, we're finally back! I'm writing this at 1400 on Saturday afternoon (or is it 2100? My body can't tell!) Overall our trip back to the States went fairly well, with just a few small hitches.

We left San Javier airport at 0800, after saying goodbye to our good friends Fran and Teresa. Ernesto showed up just as we were getting ready to walk through the gate, and then when the plane landed in walked in Chema Nagore, a former E.26 pilot who's now with Air Nostrum (Iberia's commuter). Poor Teresa started crying, and that set e off. As we walked out to the airplane on the ramp, she was crying a little and saying "great, now I'm going to cry all day!" Thankfully, that turned out not to be true.

The wait in Madrid went by pretty fast. e did some last minute shopping, and I had my final bocadillo with Jamón Serrano--the best I've ever had at an airport for sure. We boarded the aircraft and then waited and waited and waited. Then, just to do something different, we waited a little more. All-in-all, we waited about an hour and 10 minutes past our takeoff time before we finally got in the air.

The 9 hour flight wasn't that bad, although I didn't sleep nearly as much as I needed to. We saw Hidalgo, which for some reason didn't really keep my attention and The Prince and Me, which was monumentally stupid but nevertheless helped the time pass by.

As we neared Chicago, the movies were replaced by a display showing our progress. We watched the aircraft approach the area, cross the lake heading due west instead of for the airport, and enter a holding pattern. Apparently the weather was pretty bad in the Chicago area, and I think we may have been struck by lightning as we descended. 45 minutes of holding is not what you want at the end of a 9-hour flight, but we finally got onto the ground.

Once we made it through the customs maze, we found out that the weather had delayed our 3pm departure until 6:30pm. That was good because we landed at about 3:15. We got the bags back to American and then headed to the terminal to wait. That was a long, cranky wait for us, but we finally got on board the plane to New Orleans. When we arrived at 8:30, e's parents were there, but they weren't expecting us because they had just been told we weren't coming in until after 10. Apparently everyone at American was confused, because instead of putting our clearly marked bags on the 3pm flight that was delayed until 6:30pm, they put them on the 6:35pm flight that was delayed until 8. We wound up having to wait at the airport until about 10:15pm when our bags came in.

e and I took turns nodding off during the trip home, but we finally pulled in to the driveway at 2305 central time, which was 0600 the next day back in Spain. That means we had our 3 hours of sleep Thursday night and then went for about 24 hours straight before getting to our final destination. What a long day it was for us!

So, here we are at the end of our 2-year tour in Spain. Neither of us can believe it's really over. I feel like next week will come and I'll ride my bike to work and go flying with students. It's hard to imagine that I'll most likely never see that place again, even if I'm able to see some of my friends from there in the US or other places. Hasta luego, amigos...os echaremos mucho de menos!

50,000 miles, that is. Today on the way to Sam's my Jeep hit that milestone. Not bad for a car I bought in May 1995. That's about 413 miles a month for the last 10 years. I didn't have a digital camera back in 1995, if you can even imagine that, but here's what the old girl looks like today:

Or Black Jeep, as the case may be. After 10 years of getting me up the hills, across the country, and back and forth to work, I let the old girl go this morning.

We decided several months ago that one of my cars had to go, and since I'm definitely not ready to lose my M3 I reluctantly decided to sell the Jeep. I put it in the paper 3 weeks ago, but it was still in my driveway this morning despite many phone calls and a few promising visits.

I finally decided to take e's advice from 3 weeks ago: I took the Jeep over to Carmax and had it appraised. I honestly didn't think they'd be interested in a 10-year-old Jeep, even one with only 50,000 miles on it, but they offered more than I expected to get in a private sale. I ran home for the title and let them have my baby. I am sad to see it go, but our house just isn't big enough for 3 cars. I'm sure one day MJ will look at pictures and say he wishes I still had the Jeep, but hopefully he'll be happy that I still have....

...a motorcycle! You may recall that I took a motorcycle safety course back in June. I've been holding off on getting a bike because getting e's new car was more of a priority and I wanted to have the Jeep gone before buying another vehicle. While Carmax was preparing the check, we drove down to WOW Motorcycles to check out their stuff. I didn't come away with a bike--yet--but I think I'm close. In the meantime I just ordered a Shoei X-11 Helmet and I bought a Fieldsheer jacket and some gloves today at WOW. Now I need to see if I can get someone who knows bikes to go looking with me.

Well, it only took 3 visits to the dealer located over an hour away, but today I finally picked up my new bike from Lawrenceville Honda. Naturally there were some last-minute complications that made it take over 3 hours to pick it up, but we finally left the dealership around 3 pm.

Since I don't have a lot of experience, I didn't want to start out with an hour drive on Interstates 85, 285, and 75 to get home. Instead we took GA-120 all the way to Marietta and then US 41 home. With all of the stoplights and extra distance, we finished the trip in just over 2 hours. That gave me plenty of practice starting, stopping, changing lanes, etc--everything I needed to practice before taking it to work.

Thanks to the ride home I've already got almost 75 miles on my brand new Honda Shadow Aero 750, and I can say without a doubt that I love it! Now let's get riding!

It's not why I bought it, but it's nice to see that my new motorcycle gets more than 50 miles per gallon! My first fill up was 1.6 gallons for right on 100 miles, getting me about 60 MPG. My second was yesterday and I bought 1.8 gallons for about 56 MPG. Gotta love that!

I had horrible traffic on the drive in this morning, which gave me time to watch the drivers in front of me. For a few miles I was behind what appeared to be a guy based on the very short or nonexesitent hair. As we moved along it appeared he was washing his face, perhaps cleaning off the crumbs from his breakfast. Then it looked like he was possibly putting on makeup, and then I was sure as he started to apply mascara. As I looked I realized he had on long, dangly earrings too. Was I following a bald woman or a transvestite without his wig? The world may never know.

I took a little 200 mile ride out to Little River Canyon National Preserve near Ft. Payne, AL today. I have been wanting to go there ever since I overflew it about 2 months ago on a Herk low-level route and the Nav told me it looked like a great place for a motorcycle ride. I initially planned to go yesterday but held off due to a lot of t-storms in the area.

The ride over was not bad at all: it wasn't too hot, and I got there in about 1.5 hours instead of the 2-2.5 I was expecting. The falls aren't exactly spectacular when it hasn't rained a lot lately, but the canyon still looks cool and you can also walk right up to the edge of the falls. e and I hope to take The Boy back there for a picnic someday.

The curvy road near the canyon was fun to ride, and I stopped at several of the overlooks (see map below). One thing I didn't like is that all of the overlooks are loose gravel, making it a little slippery for my bike. When I got to the junction of AL 176 and county road 275, I had a choice to make. There are big signs saying that the 11-mile ride is steep, curvy, and generally not for trailers, RVs or big trucks. It didn't mention anything about motorcycles, though, so I figured I'd check it out to see how it was. It turned out to be every bit as steep and curvy as promised; I doubt I averaged more than 15 mph the whole time. The road wasn't gravelly but it wasn't exactly paved well either. Then about 7-8 miles into the 11-mile drive, the paved road continued straight as CR 43 while the road I wanted (275) made an abrupt left turn. I started going left until I saw that I was looking down a very steep hill--I'm talking Lombard Street here--that was loose gravel. I could just see myself getting to the bottom and not being able to stop or turn as I flew over the edge. I stopped, or rather I tried to stop, and with the brake pressed and both heels on the ground I kept sliding downhill. I was a little nervous for a second, but then I was able to slowly turn sideways and power the bike back on to the blacktop. I stopped for a second to catch my breath then continued on CR 43.

One of the drawbacks of the internet age is that almost nobody carries around atlases or maps anymore. I fully intended to bring one but forgot. So here I was at the junction of 275 and 43, knowing that I could go back the way I came but not wanting to because I was getting close to the needing gas point. In the end I decided to ride along CR 43. In less than 10 minutes I met up with AL 176 again. I saw that I had nearly 30 miles until I really needed to stop for gas, and I was fairly confident that I could go back through the Little River Canyon and to the gas station on the other side with no problems. This time through I didn't stop at a single overlook, instead really enjoying the curves and the occasional glimpses of the canyon. Now that I'd survived the poorly-paved CR 275, AL 176 seemed like nothing, even when it curved sharply. I wound my way back through the park and was at the gas station 15 miles before I really needed one.

After buying my gas I noticed that the sky to the east was looking pretty ominous. In fact, I was sure it was raining somewhere out there, but I wasn't sure if it was on my route. I stood there at the station for about 10 minutes trying to decide if I wanted to put on my rain suit or not. In the end I chose to wait until I was sure I was going into the rain. That turned out to be a good decision because 3 miles later I made a left turn that took me away from the storm. In hindsight, if I had been able to negotiate CR 275 as planned, I would have come home on a different road that was more southerly and would have probably passed right through the storm.

The ride home was fairly uneventful except that my keister really started getting sore and, oh yeah, I almost got killed in Rome. Rome, GA, that is. I was bypassing the town on Loop 1 in the 55 zone when the truck in front of me came to an abrupt stop at a light that had just turned yellow when he was practically through it. I'd been watching the truck next to me because it was trying to ease into my lane to avoid someone turning right. I looked up to see the stopped pickup, squeezed hard on the brakes and realized I wasn't going to be able to stop. Without really thinking about it, I swerved left into the empty left turn lane then applied the gas just in time to run the red light. I hope it wasn't one of the lights equipped with a camera, but even so it was better than smacking into the truck. I got home just a few minutes ago, 199.3 miles and 5 hours after I started. I'm going to spend the rest of the day in the air conditioning and then get to bed early so I can wake up early to fly tomorrow.

Let me tell you something, you want to hear a pin drop in an airport? Just yell out "Breach!" near the metal detectors and see what happens. I had just gone through security when that happened, and in about 10 seconds the place was so quiet you could hear the scared heartbeats of the people around you.

After a few seconds of silence, a TSA employee walked out and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. You have just participated in a security drill. Have a great day."

Unfortunately, the TSA had just unnecessarily confiscated my tiny vials of Refresh Tears® because the employees at the X-ray machine weren't familiar with TSA's rules, so I couldn't go on to have a great day. I did have a pretty good one, though. The worst thing that happened after security was that my laptop battery went from 94% and 2 hours, 42 minutes to 3% and 0 hours, 5 minutes in just over an hour, which means I got to see only 2/3 of The Usual Suspects. I spent the rest of the flight listening to my jukebox while I alternately snoozed and worked on the crossword puzzle.

Even with the notorious Winter headwinds, we got in to ABQ 45 minutes early. It took about an hour to get my bags and the rental car, and then another hour to get to the base (which is connected to the airport but of course you have to go around the outside to get to the gate) and get checked in to billeting. I was dreading having to lug my laptop to the lobby every day for the internet, but it turns out I can just barely get a connection in my room. Yay!

I was really in the mood for Anthony's Pizza at the BX, but I walked in at 1557 and all the restaurants were shutting down. I saw the schedule which listed a 1700 closing time on Sundays but then someone pointed out a new sign that they had all decided to close at 1600 today. It was just my luck that the base has a McDonald's right across from the BX. I'm starting to get a cold and really didn't want to drive around town looking for food, so I got a burger and headed back to the room to finish TUS and chat with e before she fell asleep on me.