I gave myself plenty of time to get to the ATL airport and I’m very glad I did. It ended up taking around 3 hours just for the drive. Once I got there, all of the airport parking-lots were full. I eventually found a place to park in Park & Ride, got on the bus and headed to the airport. Once I got inside and tried to get my flight coupon I noticed that I didn’t have my wallet.
I ran, ok walked quickly, to the bus that I’d just gotten off of and it wasn’t there so the kind bus driving folks quickly got me back to my car where I found my wallet. Got back to the airport and because my ticket had been purchased the day before I got to get the pat-down. I wonder how long the silliness that is the current airport security will continue. It seems like everyone knows how dumb it is, but we all keep doing it.
Sat around the airport for a few hours and then got on the plane. Where I sat on the runway for three and a half hours. Once we finally took off, I counted 39 planes behind ours waiting to take off.
One thing I’ve learned over and over in my life is that you can never go home. When I was in college, I used to love to go to Denny’s for cheese fries. Nothing was open when I arrived in Portland three hours late, so I thought I’d go to Denny’s for cheese fries! Yea, no. They were terrible. Nothing like I’d remembered.
My hotel is a disaster zone and my room is right by the hallway door, so I got to hear the whine of the staircase and the whump of the door all night!
Despite all of this, spirits are high! I’m at OSCON after all. Keynotes just completed and I’ll do a Day 1 post this evening after I have dinner with my old pal Michael Hall.