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Yesterday I got up fairly early. Even though it was Ohio, which is pretty
far north, there was a Waffle House near my hotel.
So, I drove over and had breakfast there.
It was good enough, but the grits were not good.
When they put the bowl of them down in front of me, my first thought was “I
didn’t order oatmeal”.
The rest of the food was fine and it was a good breakfast. I just have to
remember, grits are from the south and can’t be made in the north.

I spent most of the day at the company I was visiting. They took me to
lunch at Ruby Tuesdays. It was that or Cracker Barrel. (I am not a fan of
most chain restaurants. Waffle House being an exception.)
But, the “raspberry lemonade” they had there was very good. As far as I
can tell there was no lemon in it. It seemed like they filled a glass with
raspberries and raspberry syrup and put in some water. There were so many
berries in there I couldn’t use a straw as it got clogged with them.

At 3:30 I headed out to the airport. Coming in I cut through the center of
the city. But, in the afternoon I went around on the loop road. It is a
lot more miles, but much less traffic and that time of day faster. It does
cut through Indiana, so I spent a lot of time crossing borders until I got
to the airport in Kentucky.

I knew I had to get gas for the rental car. So, I stopped at the first
exit in KY about 10 miles from the airport. There was a big sign saying
“Creationist Museum”.
So, I figured there must be gas stations as it looked like it was being
billed as a big tourist attraction.
However, there appeared to be nothing but a man on a bicycle at that exit.
The museum itself seemed to be off a fairly tiny side road that I did not
explore. (I know! I turned down a museum!)

Then it occurred to me. Of course there was no gas there. 6000 years is
not enough time for gas to have formed. The guy on the bicycle was what
they had.
Tourist attraction or not, I should have realize that was the last place in
the world to have petroleum products.
I went one more exit down the highway and bought some gas at a place next
to a McDonalds. Since they’ve got billions and billions, it was enough
time to get some gas.

The airport was not at all full. Two of the three terminals have been
abandoned and there are only flights from Terminal B.
There wasn’t a big line at security and I had two hours until the flight.
So, I decided to go through their fancy radar metal detector. It was
totally optional. They had both and you could get in either line. But, so
much has been made of these new things, I thought I’d give it a try.

You’ve got to take off everything non-metal, including your belt. (The
normal one I get to keep my belt.)
You stand in the thing with your feet apart on little feet marks, hands
over your head looking at a blank wall for 30 or so seconds. (It is the
same position you see police making people stand in when they’re being
searched.)
Then, you step out and stand on a mat with more feet marks in the same
position while they wait for the results. (They don’t get to see you scan
there. It goes off to a central security station where they review it.
You get a pass fail grade from them.)
The guy keeping me from leaving was very nice. He asked how my day was,
where I was going, talked about how the airport wasn’t very busy anymore.
After a minute or so I got my pass grade and he moved from in front of the
gate so I could go through.
It was the most polite treating me like a criminal I’ve experienced. But,
it takes forever.
I could have been through the other line with the normal one, had my shoes
back on and been half way to the gate in the time it took.

The folks running the stores there seemed very bored. If you even walk
near the store, they would come out and talk to you. The fact I was
carrying an iPad gave them a lot to suggest.
“Don’t you want to come in and browse? We’ve got iPad cases, headphones,
chargers!”
“Sorry, I’ve already got all that. With me now.”
“Oh, well have a nice day!”
I guess with 2 out of 3 terminals closed they have reasons to want to
encourage customers.

I ate dinner at a restaurant there. It was OK. I made the mistake of
telling them I was not in a rush so service was less than attentive. But,
there were people saying “I need you to get me my food in 17 minutes!” so I
didn’t worry too much about it.

The flight home was fairly full, but not like the flight out. There were
17 seats empty (out of 250) on the plane, one of which was next to me.
And, I had a window seat, which I like.
It was the very first seat in coach, which means fixed arm rests and a
little less side to side room.
That did mean I spent the whole flight tilted to my right due to the curve
of the airplane and my being taller than average. But, no one was in the
seat so it was fine.

Once we landed I had to make the trek across the whole airport to get to my
parking space. It was busier then before, so crossing to the actual lot
was a challenge.
For some reason, the crosswalk to get to the lot is past the lot on the
other side.
Why they think people will walk past the whole lot with their car to cross
and then walk back is beyond me. I didn’t even know the cross walk was
there as I didn’t think to look for it in such a useless space.
So, everyone (including me) walks across in front of the airport exit road
from terminal E. Which is busy and has lots of cabs zipping through it.
But, the option is an extra quarter mile walk, so no one does it.
Of course, once you exit the lot, you have to cross 4 lanes of traffic in
¼ mile to get to the exit or circle the airport again.
It is a real “welcome to Boston” kind of moment.

But, I got home. Despite being very tired, I couldn’t sleep.
I was very happy to be home and with my wife again. So, I did enjoy
listening to her sleep as I read.
Today I am quite tired.