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Nicole Visits the Rat
With my transfer to LAX, I acquired American Airlines benefits and it proved to be the most convenient option going to Orlando after an uneventful day of reserve. The cost for this privilege was about $3.00 for both Nicole and myself. Not a bad price to fly across the country. Poor Nicole was seated behind…
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Day 3 of Southern Road Trip and Houston Makes a Final Stand
Waking up in New Orleans on what turned out to be a relatively calm street, we played tourists and got beignets at the famous Café du Monde. Every employee appeared to be angry and Vietnamese. We asked for four beigets and the lady yelled at us and said, “No! Two! For you two!” and promptly…
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Day One of the Great Southern Road Trip
Due to the unpredictable nature of flying standby, I successfully made it to Orlando from Houston, but Nicole found herself in an oversold situation on the only United flight from LAX to Orlando for the day. After her unsuccessful first attempt, I routed her through Atlanta and on to Daytona Beach, where I picked her…
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Island Escape
Ten years ago, I spent a brief time living on O’ahu while I “studied” at Hawaii Pacific University. After a stressful week of learning that I would be spending at least another month in Houston and away from home, it seemed the perfect time to get away for a few days and try and forget…
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Unplanned New Years Visit to Minnetonka
Our flight was the only airplane going from Wichita to Minneapolis on New Years Day, and Nicole was lucky to grab a seat in the back. The same could not be said for flights going out of Minneapolis, but I’ll get into that later…The flight back to the far north was uneventful other than a…
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Mad Town
Over a month ago, I had flown a route from O’Hare to Madison and back when the temperature was an unusual 70 degrees. That was the only time in perhaps 15 years that I had been to Wisconsin’s capitol city. However, a friend of mine was getting married and after working six days straight, I…
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Completing Week One in MSP
For my final day in Minneapolis, I drove to a place called Minnehaha Park. It claimed to have a waterfall, so I was intrigued. It was a bit blustery and overcast — not really ideal weather to be going for a stroll, but at 49 degrees, it is important to have perspective and remember that…
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Manhattan & Hermosa
The stressful ordeal of yesterday’s driving made me appreciate my limited time (a whopping 24 hours) in Los Angeles that much more. Compared to Fresno, LA is like some kind of utopian paradise where people break into synchronized song and dance…almost. Being an outdoor kid, I had an itch to get out and enjoy the…
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Fall in Jersey
Two days off. Where should I go? Well, across the country of course. Nicole was keen to return to her motherland in order to shake hands and fist pump with a new arrival to her family, so I tagged along. My disdain for the garden state and the majority of its residents is rarely disguised,…
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Playing Cricket in San Antonio
As I met Nicole at the Culver City Which-Wich during her lunch break on Friday, the people around us must have been confused. “Well we can get to San José, but we can’t get back.” “Phoenix is a no go. Overbooked.” “Everyone’s going to Las Vegas this weekend, so that’s out.” “Hotels in Monterey are…
