jay: (Default)
jay ([personal profile] jay) wrote2002-12-22 11:16 pm

Road follies

Wednesday was fun -- despite the 6:30am flight, I got a 3-hour layover in Minneapolis, gave Nancy her Christmas present and had a laid-back lunch at an intown malt shop. After an uneventful flight into National Airport (sitting on the left side after dark is usually scenic on southbound approaches), I met [personal profile] geekchick at my hotel in Tyson's Corner. We then went out to a local diner for dinner, then over to Cathy's place with gifts in hand.

Rising the next morning with 3 hours of sleep (for the second night in a row), I headed over to NASA Headquarters, there to work out the details on some earth sciences proposal reviews for next month, and to find out what had happened to our proposal to finish the humans vs. rovers science-return study next summer. Both happened, plus a telecon in someone's borrowed office.

Rushing back to the hotel at 1pm to gather my bags, I took a wrong turn and was then trapped in horrible shopping-mall traffic for 20 minutes. Arriving at the counter in IAD at 2:15pm for my 2:45pm flight, I was told that I wouldn't make it and was rebooked for a 4pm flight. OK. But the agent didn't bother to check the departure times -- all Atlanta flights were delayed 2 hours due to storms down there. The 2:45 flight finally left at 4:30, without me. My 4pm flight left at 6pm. Arriving too late to do anything useful, I headed to my parents' house in Cobb County... stopping for dinner at an old Georgia Tech haunt, The Varsity. For the uninitiated, this is a huge fast-food establishment that can handle several hundred customers at once. It's been there since the 1920s and still has carhop service, replete with metal trays hanging on car windows. The Vidalia onion rings are worth the 3000 miles...
geekchick: (Default)

[personal profile] geekchick 2002-12-22 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Music:Eva Cassidy - Tall Trees in Georgia.

Guess that means the CD worked for you, yay! =)

[identity profile] brian1789.livejournal.com 2002-12-22 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
(grin) note the next entry...
geekchick: (Default)

[personal profile] geekchick 2002-12-23 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
I thought you might get a giggle out of that particular track. ;)

[identity profile] elorie.livejournal.com 2002-12-22 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
**indignant look** And you didn't come by to see me?!? hmmph.

[identity profile] brian1789.livejournal.com 2002-12-23 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
(grin) I would have liked to meet you, but on this trip... as it turned out the only time I had outside of work and family gatherings would have been Thursday at 11pm or at the airport at lunchtime yesterday. Sorry (upturned hands)...

[identity profile] nolly.livejournal.com 2002-12-23 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
The Vidalia onion rings are worth the 3000 miles...

Almost-1AM random trivia: I was born in Vidalia, GA.

[identity profile] hopeforyou.livejournal.com 2002-12-23 09:28 am (UTC)(link)
Your attempts to get on a flight sound like a horrid comedy of errors. It's a good thing you didn't fly by standby, though. [livejournal.com profile] sinboy and I are intimately familiar with Concourse C in the Denver Airport after having spent 13 hours there awaiting our next flight...

I've never had Vidalia onion rings, though I've been in Georgia several times. How are they different/better from/than regular onion rings?

[identity profile] brian1789.livejournal.com 2002-12-23 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
How are they different/better from/than regular onion rings?

The onion variety is known for being mild and sweet -- Granex hybrids -- but the weather and soils in south-central Georgia (waves to [personal profile] nolly produce a particularly sweet onion with a slight tang. Onion fanciers generally regard them as the best, but they don't keep or ship well. We see them irregularly in California... other Granex growers may argue (Walla Walla sweets, Kona hybrids, etc.) but the Vidalia onions are the only ones that I've heard of being counterfeited...

And I have my own delay nightmare memories of Denver, but at Stapleton (I stopped flying there after Continental pulled out). One reason that I fly Northwest a lot is that if I get stranded in Minneapolis, I have local reinforcements there ;-).

[identity profile] sisterfish125.livejournal.com 2002-12-23 01:53 pm (UTC)(link)
You forgot the other key ingredient in anything served at the Varsity though....the special grease :)

And, now I'm going to have to trek that way...you mentioning it the other day was just enough to start a little craving!