It’s not that easy to get to Pierre, SD from Georgia. The only flights into Pierre are 19-seaters, which I prefer not to fly ever since I had to gate check my briefcase on one and my PC got broken. So I’m driving 75 miles from Macon to Atlanta, flying to Salt Lake City and then Rapid City, then driving about 200 miles to Pierre. Door-to-door will take about 13 hours. (Later update: due to late arrival in SLC our bags didn’t make the connection, and we had to wait 2 hours for them on the next flight. Door-to-door was 15 hours, though we did get to take an hour for dinner.)
There’s a new kind of vending machine in the Atlanta airport, run by American Express. It sells music CDs, blank CDs, diskettes, noise-cancelling headphones, airplane power supplies, cell phones, ink-jet printers and other items. You know, just the typical little items you might want to buy on a whim. Surprisingly, the prices are pretty good.
I’m on the first plane, looking at a map display of our location and route. It’s upside down. Not turned over, but reflected across a horizontal axis, even the words. The other displays look fine. I can’t figure out how this could even happen.
I didn’t get an upgrade this time, so I can’t use a PC in the 4 inches between me and the seat in front of me. Oh, well, there’s just enough room for a paperback book.
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