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You were thinking the same thing I was, weren't you? They said the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter could spot a kitchen table on Mars. The Global Surveyor was able to spot a school bus on Mars. What do the folks at NASA know about Mars that they aren't telling us? I just wish our town could send a school bus to my kid's high school.

Did Scott Adams read my Hallwalking post? Have a look at the March 5 Dilbert strip and decide for yourself. Also note the reference to a slow computer, which could be a reference to my Slow Download speed post. If I see a reference to Saginaw in the next couple weeks, I'm definitely going to have to have a word with him.

It didn't really take four days - it was more like four hours, and it wasn't hitchhiking in the classical sense (with thumb up in the air), but this is probably the closest I'll ever come to using that line. Google it if you don't know where it comes from. You'll need to do this to understand some of the other lines in this post. If you were around during the 1970s, you have no excuse for not recognizing it.

My trip to Midland, Michigan was a success - I think. The trip from New York (LGA to Saginaw, via Detroit) was on time and uneventful. The flight from Detroit to Midland was an a DC9, which brought back a lot of childhood memories from the 1960s, when DC9s first came into service. I never met any Customer-type people, so maybe my haircut wasn't necessary. By the last day, I was starting to look somewhat geeky with three days' growth of beard. That's one of the drawbacks of travel these days. You can't bring a razor blade on the plane (yes - I still use a razor) and when you have a busy schedule and aren't staying at a high-end hotel, you have no chance to buy a disposable razor. Getting back to the trip though - lots of information was exchanged, and everyone agreed that the meetings were a huge success. I hope my management agrees.

In my opinion, Michigan weather isn't the major ordeal everyone says it is. However, we did have a significant snowfall on Wednesday night and Thursday. The Holiday Inn we stayed at was a delightful experience. It wasn't quite five-star, but it was comfortable and, like so many midwestern motels, it was a classic study in 1960s decor. Also it had free Internet service. And on Thursday morning, I looked outside my room to find that someone had cleared all the snow off my car. I don't know if this is a service they provide for all their guests, or if some other poor confused guest had trouble figuring out which car was his. After breakfast, we were driving out of the parking lot, someone pulled up next to us and started blowing the horn and hollering at us. We rolled down the window and found that they were telling us we had a flat tire. Maybe whoever cleared the snow thinking it was their car got so mad that they deflated the tire to get even with us? It wasn't totally flat, so I was able to get to a gas station, where I found they wanted 50 cents to use the pump. By the time we got to the third gas station, I realized we probably weren't going to find free air anywhere, so I paid my 50 cents and filled the tire. We arrived 30 minutes late for our meeting that day, but we were able to blame that on the snow.



The morning after. Who cleared the snow from our car?


Buying air


We had a return flight from Saginaw to LaGuardia via Detroit. We all got loaded into the plane (a Canadair commuter jet). I thought I was in luck because I scored an exit row seat, but then I found that on this plane, exit row seats are like any other seat, except you don't get an armrest at the window seat. They announced that they were closing the door and getting set to head out to the runway, but nothing seemed to be happening. Then we found out that they couldn't get the door shut. They tried and tried, mostly by slamming it so hard that the whole plane shook. Then they called lots of maintenance people out, and they tried and tried, again by slamming it even harder. Finally they rolled up the jetway and dumped us all back in the terminal. We finally were able to get on a limo (actually a small bus) to Detroit and then catch a flight to LGA from there (later than the one we were originally booked on). The driver said they get a lot of business from Northwest. I wonder why. There was an accident on the highway that blocked traffic for a long time. We ended up getting into Detroit late, but we were in luck - our flight was even later. We finally got off the ground a little over an hour late, and it was a good flight until we got to New York and encountered heavy winds. A lot of people seemed to be sick or close to it, but fortunately, a bumpy ride helps settle me down, so my head and stomach ended up feeling better than they had for the last couple days. New York was colder than Michigan. My ice scraper broke while I was clearing the windshield, so I had to rely on the defroster to dislodge the ice on the windshield.


Broken airplane


Laughing on the bus. Playing games with the faces.

It's now two days later and Michigan seems like a dream to me now. There's a fair probability I'll be out there again.