Ramblin' Man - Obi-Wan's Blog

I've had a patronize the airlines (generally United and its progeny) several times this month while traveling to training sessions for my job. I've had quite different experiences and I'm currently bored in my current class, so I'll share them here.

I hate Chicago's O'Hare airport. Let's just get that out in the open right away. Two years ago, my then-pregnant wife laid over there en route from Phoenix to Nashville. Her second flight was canceled, and the airline couldn't reschedule her for two more days. There were no public electrical outlets to recharge her cell phone, and she had only a few minutes left to find a place to stay (on her own dime, of course). Fortunately, she found a car ride back to Lincoln the next morning, but that was in spite of the airline/airport personnel. You can read more details here.

Earlier this month, I and two coworkers had to fly through O'Hare from Lincoln to Minneapolis and back. On the trip out, our flight from Lincoln was delayed an hour due to weather in Chicago. When we got there, our second flight had been canceled. They rescheduled us on two different flights the next day, but that would have made us miss the first day of training, and we'd have to pay for three hotel rooms. At the counter next to us was a family with a pregnant wife and two young kids who really had to be in MN the next morning for an appointment. I felt really sorry for them.

Instead of waiting a day, we opted instead to rent a car -- we had to ask six different renters before Hertz allowed us a one-way rental to MN -- for another $350. My companions had both checked bags, and they had made it onto a later flight, so they were waiting for us at the MSP airport.

When we finally got to Minneapolis at 2am, the Hertz GPS sent us to a return counter that was closed for the night. We dropped our keys in the non-recoverable box, then asked the security guard behind the bulletproof glass where the baggage claim was. He informed us that it was at the *other* terminal, which was a long walk, a train ride, and another long walk from our current location (right next to the other car rental drop location). It would have been nice to know this *before* we dropped our keys in the non-recoverable box.

We finally made it to the other terminal shortly before 3am, at the same time as another group who had also driven in from O'Hare. We stood there together, staring at the long line of suitcases from our flight which were all locked together with a 50' cable run through the handles. The baggage claim had closed at 12:30am, and would not reopen until 5:00am. Nobody currently on site had a key that would relinquish our baggage. My coworkers ended up rifling through their bags to pull out the next day's necessities. The airline did send the bags to our hotel for us the next day.

To get a cab to the hotel, we had to take another train ride back to the main entrance. Amazingly, the ride to the hotel was uneventful. We finally checked in at 3:30am. Class started at 9:00am.

Our planes, trains, and automobiles adventure had taken 14.5 hours. Had we merely rented a car and driven straight from Lincoln to MSP, we would have gotten there 7 hours earlier and save the hospital over $1000. Of course, we weren't given that option.

The day before our return flight, we were checking Amtrack prices and getting car rental phone numbers, just in case. Once at the airport, we heard that our flight into Chicago was once again delayed an hour due to weather. We talked to several customer service reps in order to make sure that our flight out of Chicago would not be canceled once again. If we were going to drive to Lincoln, we wanted to do it directly from MSP, not from Chicago. They assured us it would go on, and they were right. We finally left O'Hare at midnight--three hours later than advertised--and got into Lincoln at 1:30am.

Fast forward 1.5 weeks. The same group is en route to Irvine, California, for more training, this time flying from Omaha through Phoenix to John Wayne airport in Santa Anna. I'm in CA as I write this, but the trip out was uneventful, except that we had to wake up at 3:00am CDT to get here. I did get the full pat-down treatment by the TSA when I forgot to send my belt buckle through the X-ray machine, but we had plenty of time and I made it through without jail time.

Three of the four legs on this trip are spent on Airbus A319 planes owned by US Airways. I've never ridden on these planes, but I'll do what I can to fly them again. They're wonderful. They're have 3+3 seating, wider seats with side supports on the head rests, and plenty of headroom down the isle for my 6'1" frame. The flight was smooth and quiet, allowing me to both read and sleep, but that may have had more to do with the weather than the airplane.

OK, after nearly a year out of this forum, I'm back. I guess I've been kinda busy. Time to catch up.

January is the big month for Cub/Boy Scouts to run their Pinewood Derby competitions. For those not familiar with it, the Pinewood Derby is a race (sometimes accompanied by a aesthetic judging) for small cars made from blocks of pine. The cars are about 7" long, 2.5" wide, and weighing no more than 5 ounces. They're gravity powered, and race down an inclined track about 30' long. The kids make their cars on their own or with the help of an adult.

Anyway, here's a little bit of info that I wanted to document for posterity. The heavier the car is, the faster it will go, so you want your car to be as close to 5 oz as possible without going over (and thereby getting disqualified). Lead weights are attached to the car to add weight when necessary (putting it toward the rear of the car is better). If you don't have a postage scale that measures to the tenth of an ounce, then you may be able to find a cafeteria scale that measures in fractions of a pound. To help with the conversion to ounces, I made up this table:

Pounds Ounces
.0031 0.05
.0062 0.1
.0125 0.2
.0187 0.3
.0250 0.4
.0375 0.5
.0625 1.0
.0937 1.5
.1250 2.0
.1562 2.5
.1875 3.0
.2187 3.5
.2500 4.0
.2812 4.5
.2875 4.6
.2937 4.7
.3000 4.8
.3062 4.9
.3093 4.95
.3125 5.0
.3156 5.05
.3187 5.1
.3250 5.2
.3437 5.5
.3750 6.0

The "Pine Car" brand of Derby supplies that is sold by HobbyTown and Hobby Lobby makes a lead weight that's shaped like a long, narrow trapezoid and can be screwed to the bottom of the car. That weight has a large, solid center area and a perforated area at each end that can be broken off if less weight is needed. The entire weight is 2.2 oz. The smaller perforation weighs 0.4 oz, and the larger one weighs 0.7 oz. The center weighs 1.1 oz. There must be some rounding error in there, though, as the center alone weighs just a hair more than both ends together.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to see Eric Clapton live in concert at the Qwest Center in Omaha, NE. I meant to write the up earlier, but never got around to it. For some time now, EC has been near the top of my list of performers I want to see before they die. I created this list after missing opportunities to see Ray Charles and Jerry Garcia. But I digress...

This was the first time I'd been to the Qwest Center. For those not familiar with it, parking is a nightmare. You'll save lots of time by not bothering to find a close space. Just park a ways away and walk. You'll get to the doors much sooner that way.

I delayed ordering my tickets until about 10 hours after they went on sale, and consequently ended up with seats in the back corner of the upper deck. The balcony seating at Qwest is terrible. There's less leg room than in Lincoln's Persing Center, which is saying a lot. I'm 6'1" with long legs and a knee that tends to cramp up unless moved frequently, and I was uncomfortable up there. I vowed to never again buy balcony seats for Qwest. I'll pay what I have to to get on the floor, or I won't go.

The view from up there also sucked. I could see where the performers were on stage, but I couldn't identify them. Fortunately, there was a large projection TV screen above each side of the stage where they broadcast close up views of the performers. The production quality on these screens was amazing. I felt like I was watching a high quality concert DVD. Kudos to whoever ran that portion of the show. It really saved the performance for folks like me who were sitting over in Iowa.

But enough about the venue.

The Robert Cray Band opened the show with about 40 minutes of songs, most of which were from their new album Twenty. This is the third time (second in a year) that I've seen Robert Cray. He always puts on a good show. He's a talented song writer an guitarist, and his voice and facial features always remind me of Sidney Poitier. I've got his Live from Across the Pond album, recorder live over a couple nights in London's Royal Albert Hall while performing there with Clapton. I highly recommend it.

After a 15 minute break, EC took the stage. The first half of his set was comprised of songs which, while comprised of excellent guitar work, were mostly unknown to me. The latter half of the set contained more of his familiar hits. Of course, with a career as illustrious as EC's, he couldn't begin to play all of his hits. He did finish up his regular set with "Wonderful Tonight" and "Cocaine." The encore contained three songs, terminating with "Layla." Watching him on the screens, I was amazed at how laid back he was while blazing through his amazing guitar riffs. It didn't look like his hands were moving fast enough to be playing those tunes, but they were. That's how he got the "Slow hand" nickname, BTW. This backup guitarist and organist were quite talented in their own right, but I'm afraid I can no longer remember their names.

Despite the annoying venue, it was a really good show and I'm glad I went. If you enjoy good guitar work, EC is somebody you should make a point of seeing in person.

I'll be returning to the Qwest in a few days (four weeks after the EC concert) to see Billy Joel perform. This time, we're on the 18th row of the main floor. We'll see if it's much better.