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.

On the road again: Portland, day 4

I’m on the plane to RDU from DFW, and so far I really can’t complain about this trip. I was able to snag first-class upgrades for both flights, which meant I got in a great deal of work. The Big Red Binder and I continued our friendship, as I plowed ever closer to the end of the third pass on Overthrowing Heaven. I really want to send this book to Toni before Christmas, and given that the eARC has to go on sale sometime early in 2009, I expect she would like me to file it. I had a long layover in DFW, but I landed at the gate opposite the Admirals’ Club, which had great bandwidth today. As I said, no real room for complaints.
I did receive karmic retribution of a sort for an error I made in the same Admirals’ Club on the way to Portland on Monday. I was hustling to the restroom, talking on the phone, and thus stupidly walked into the women’s room. Fortunately, no one was inside, and I exited quickly--to the delight of several people watching my mistake.

Tonight, I went to use the men’s room and was in a stall when the restroom door opened and a woman called out, “Hello!”

I said, “I’m in here.”

The door closed.

Less than a minute later, the door opened, and the same voice said, “Hello!”

I said, “I’m still in here, and I will be for several minutes.”

The door closed.

About a minute later, the door opened, and a different woman rattled off a sentence in Spanish.

I said, “I’m still in here.”

Payback is a bitch, I suppose.

The pilot just announced that in about an hour we will encounter some significant turbulence, so if folks needed to move around the cabin, they should do so now.

It’s great to have something exciting to look forward to. Don’t worry, though; if you’re reading this, I made it.