On the road again: Portland, day 5

Another of those days that travel ate, today began too early and ended too late. Still, I can’t really complain. I slept a reasonable amount, was lucky enough to land first class upgrades for both legs, and encountered no issues at any of the three airports through which I passed. All in all, a successful travel experience.

If you travel enough, you sometimes come to believe you’ve seen every type of problem your plane can have, but you’re never right. Today’s first plane had a stripped valve that stopped it from being able to deliver potable water to any of the spigots. As good fortune would have it, this particular failure does not force you to get on a new plane. Instead, you simply have to live without coffee or tea (no water to the brewing area), and you can’t wash your hands after using the bathroom. They addressed the latter by filling the restroom sinks with wet-wipe packets, a sight that for no good reason I found amusing.

In another bit of good news, it turns out that the bandwidth at PDX, at least on a Saturday morning, was five times faster than what my hotel offered, so working while waiting was a snap. I need to figure out how to persuade the hotel’s owners to invest in high-quality Internet connectivity.

Dinner at DFW, by the way, was the incredibly tasty and vaguely healthy combination of a pretzel dog and a Red Mango parfait. I do love me some Red Mango.

I’m home now, bag and all, and still on the other coast’s time. I DVR’d the UFC PPV, so I’m heading downstairs to catch the fights, and then to sleep. I’m happy to be home for a few weeks.