Flying to Salt Lake City

The seatbelt signs have just been turned off and we’ve just reached cruising altitude on my flight to Salt Lake City. Yep, Salt Lake City. I’m visiting a customer site, and am going to be doing some training while I’m there. I suppose I could have blogged about this a little earlier, but there wasn’t really much advance warning about this trip, and when something like this comes along, one doesn’t say no to it.
Of course, they didn’t exactly treat this as a high priority trip or anything. In order to save money, they found me a cheaper hotel (and I have to pay for it, and expense it later), and they had me flying out of Buffalo, switching planes in Detroit. Man, it was a long wait to get on the Buffalo plane, and not much of one for the Detroit connection. I didn’t even have time to grab a snack or a beer before they started calling the boarding zones for my flight. To top it all off, I had to drive myself to Buffalo.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I actually like this kind of travelling, and would rather cross the border in a car, and then fly domestically like I’m doing now. Also, I’m not adverse to a little waiting, providing I’ve got something interesting to do. In the Buffalo terminal, there wasn’t really much to do, except perhaps drink, and I called it quits after one G+T.
These domestic flights are also pretty cool, in that even though the planes are on the small side, they are pretty sparsely filled. On both flights I got a row to myself. These cramped little seats are pretty comfortable if you can spread your arms out on either side.
I’ve been reading through the SkyMall catalogue, and have determined that it’s full of shiny, useless crap that probably doesn’t work. Especially all of that Sharper Image crap. I mean, they sell the Q-Ray bracelet, of all damn things. However, there are a couple of items that look very interesting. If I had a truckload of money, I might just consider getting the portable ice-maker, and the thatched umbrella cover — it makes your existing patio umbrella look like something from a Caribbean island … probably the perfect thing for a tiki party. Also, there’s one of those neat wooden chairs — the kind that folds into a step ladder. There was one in the library when I was looking at my house. My real estate agent tried valiantly to hook it in as part of the purchase agreement. I haven’t been able to find one since.
I see a hospitality cart. Time to call it a night.