Sunday, May 11, 2008

Park the Plane?

We travel quite a bit. Usually, if the drive is over 6 hours, we fly. Before I completely dis the airlines, I'll mention a few positives. Flying is generally quicker. It's the only way to see the Atlantic Ocean in the morning and the Pacific by the same afternoon. Flying is a great way to catch up on some reading. The structure that's in place is impressive. They move a tremendous amount of people with relatively few accidents. Unless you have months for a trip, it's the only way to see the world.

The airlines, though, are becoming a pain in the ass. They're charging more and giving less with things like baggage charges, surcharges for window or aisle seats, extra fees for food or no food at all. Then there’s the dreaded canceled, delayed and re-routed flights, broken or decrepit planes, lost baggage, etc. And I can’t fail to mention TSA which stands for Take Stuff Away, and Tough Shit Asshole.

So this trip we've decided to brave the highways of the nation and drive from NY to GA. I must admit that the experience was far better than the car trips from my childhood memories.

Compared to flying, we had much more space, food on demand, our seats to ourselves, and some amazing landscape to see. Without Take Stuff Away or strip you naked machines, our privacy was intact. On the downside, spending 15 hours behind the wheel of a car is kind of like drinking ouzo. As long as you're sitting there, all is fine. But the second you get up, oh my, the world starts moving in a most disturbing way.

If all travel time is taken into account such as; driving to the airport, waiting around for the plane, connections, waiting around for baggage, standing in line for a rental car and driving the rental from airport to the hotel. We figure it took an extra 4 hours to drive.

All in all, the drive wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. Hmm, may be we’ll drive to Texas.

1 comment:

NWJR said...

Are you there yet? Are you there yet?