Travel Blogging

Well, don’t buy the hype...at least in Nashville. I arrived at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter at 6:40 pm and was checked in, through security and at my gate by 6:55 pm. And that’s after a stop at the restroom and me wandering around the gate area looking for an electircal outlet so that I wouldn’t use all of my laptop battery before my flight. So much for needing to arrive 2 hours early. My check-in/security time was exactly the same as the past two trips through this airport. I’m sure other major cities are feeling a bit more of the hurt but it definitely doesn’t seem any crazier here than usual.

The first thing I did when I fired up my iBook was to check for an internet connection. Although there was a connection called “concourse,” as I imagined, it was not a free service. There was limited access to free services such as flight schedules, weather info and MSNBC news. Other than that, you either needed a subscription on a partner ISP or you could link in for a mere $6.95. A little blogging wasn’t really worth that for me. But the fact that the airport is wireless is still a pretty good development. One day, perhaps all places will offer Wi-Fi for those of us who would appreciate it.

One thing I noticed about this busy travel day is that everyone seems to be in a very big hurry right up until they arrive at their destination airport. Then they turn into slugs. I mean, you're so close to your final destination and then you slowly creep to baggage claim?!? Oh well, I'm in Houston now and at my parents' apartment.

Tomorrow we are off to College Station to eat at what has become our traditional Thanksgiving restaurant, Christopher's. We'll be meeting my brother and his girlfriend there for lunch before heading off to Austin to prepare for the annual Lonestar Showdown between Texas A&M and the University of Texas on Friday. It's funny how vacations can be so much busier than your normal day to day life.