Travel wrap-up
I flew down on Sunday and came back yesterday. *checks past entries to see if I’d written about the unmitigated disaster that was the trip in May*
Nope. Didn’t write about that. The summation was me stuck in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, so hot I couldn’t breathe, vision got even worse than usual, have to put on shoes to hike to the end of the car to use the bathroom, etc..
By the end of that trip, I was very much of a mind to never take Amtrak down again. It was not good. So chose to fly. Again, if I book somewhere about 100 days before the travel, the prices are similar.
My brother went down, too, but our days didn’t really line up neatly. Though he flew to new Orleans, he stayed near the Gulfport airport. I looked at staying there, but it was going to cost more than I wanted to pay. Same for the casinos. Flights down were largely unremarkable, though whatever aircraft we had from CLT to GPT was very cramped. I really couldn’t sleep on either flight.
So back to the place I’ve stayed many times. Geez. I didn’t write about the shitshow that was last trip, either.
The hotel had been hit by lightning during one of the numerous South Mississippi thunderstorms the night before I arrived. They had to move be down to a lower-quality room on the ground floor because the elevators didn’t work after the lightning. So, the room where I’d stayed a couple of times before, 126, and the entire place smelled of mildew due to the water infiltration during the storm.
Since I couldn’t find anything else, check that same hotel. Lower-level, accessible room….and i end up in Room 126 again.
Everything had been rehabbed during the intervening four months. It was actually pretty comfortable.
Flights down were also okay despite the government shutdown. Yes, it’s a pain. Yes, I’m supposed to point the finger at “one side” or the other. But it’s a function of the really last quarter-century of spending.
Why are air traffic controllers Federal employees?
Why are TSA agents Federal employees?
So, get down to Biloxi without too many issues. My mother was in the hospital again. Did end up getting to my grandfather’s birthday party without any issues; I’d thought we were going to be late, but I didn’t calculate the time change correctly.
Travelling west on the first day of the “fall back” screws everything up even more. Try to stay awake to adjust to both Central Time, and Standard Time.
I did have trouble staying awake to get back on schedule.
Lots of time spent with my mother. About a 90-minute FaceTime session with her best friend from college, my godmother.
Kind of just swimming on all that happened, sorry.
Did have lunch with her on her birthday. She enjoyed her potato salad and Barq’s out of the glass bottle, but didn’t touch her Po’Boy. I brought her a piece of chocolate mousse cake that she ate after I’d left, and really enjoyed.
But I was worried the whole time about travel back. Mr. Rachel Campos, and his staff, had decided to start cancelling flights because of the government shutdown. (Oh, come on. I know I’m not the only 90s high school dude from the 90s who had impure thoughts about her on The Real World: San Francisco.). Three percent of flights cancelled at busy airports on Friday. Four percent on Saturday. Going up to ten percent by the end of this week. My travel path was to/from National Airport (DCA) connecting through Charlotte (CLT). I phoned the airline as this news started breaking on Wednesday evening. I phoned the airline Wednesday night, and they hadn’t made plans yet. I know that this is coming; you all can bump me up, fly me to Dulles or BWI, stick me in an open coach seat, whatever. Nope. We’ll see, and we’ll let you know.
On Thursday, there was an alert that there might be disruptions. Do I call again and repeat my willingness to move around? Look at whether I can take the train from Hattiesburg. Um. Just a bedroom available for more than $700. And I’ve gotta figure out a way to get to Hattiesburg. My relative who’d said he was going to give me a ride to the airport in Gulfport had had to bow out, so that was going to be an Uber or Lyft trip. I didn’t bother to check what it would have cost to drive me to Hattiesburg, Slidell, or New Orleans so I could get on the train up.
There’s only a 4% chance my flights are going to be cancelled; I’ll risk it.
Yesterday (Saturday), I kind of bided my time in the hotel for a while until I went to my mom’s facility. We FaceTimed with my brother after lunch, then over to GPT. No real problems getting on the plane. But, because of the ATC staffing issues, they modified the route. Instead of flying basically northeast, they routed the flight north, then made a right turn over Tennessee/Kentucky. That change added about 30 minutes to the flight time. We did get to CLT in time to make the connection, but they were boarding as I got to the gate in a different terminal.
And I don’t remember much at all about the flight from CLT to DCA. I finished my vodka tonic, and was out until the announcement of final approach to DC. Got home, and started watching something my wife wanted me to see on Netflix.
I think I need to jot more notes if I’m going to have more entries like this in the future. The OPSEC for this one wasn’t quite as stringent as it’d been when I was still working; you could have figured out I was in Biloxi, but I really didn’t telegraph everything.
My mom is kinda okay. Have things a bit better figured out for family staying there. Distracted by just how FUBAR government is.
Following, too, this about January 6th. There was a lot tossed around about Treason during OrangeManBad’s first term. If it’s true that she was the one who planted at least one of the bombs on that day, and fired less-than-lethal munitions at the faces of protestors outside The Capitol, I think making a case for war against the country is a lot more straightforward than it was in the narrative created by the J6 committee.
Shoot. I also didn’t write much about the VA election results. Or NYC mayor. Or what CA did to get more Democrats in the House. Or the DSA Islamist in NYC, or…
Still wholeheartedly recommend Free Media. Perspective, though I’ve been informed I’m a conservative, which is news to me. Also MCM’s Stuff, with various clips that fall into IG.
I’m going to go watch football. I am home. Biloxi, and the people I care about there, are okay.
Maybe better work as I settle some the next couple of days.