Observations and Happenings from My Trip

Some things that stuck in my mind from the weekend...

• When Kansas was made a state, someone must have used graph paper to plan the roads. Longest, straightest roads, intersected by perfect right angles. From the air, it looks like they run to infinity. Of course, you can only do that if the ground is as flat as a pancake, and it certainly was! It's no wonder that Dorothy was looking to get out of there as fast as she could!
  
• On three of the five planes I was on for this trip, the pilots and first officers could not have possibly been older than 28. Can that possibly be legal???
• Spent Saturday afternoon at the zoo. It was a cool day--temperature only reaching the mid-90s that day. But that's OK. The humidity at the zoo was about 99% due to all the tropical rainforest types of displays. No poop-flinging monkeys to worry about, but we got dive bombed by a trio of gorgeous pink cockatoos...
• The MSP terminal will always frustrate me. But I suppose my frustration should be directed at Delta. My flight into MSP on Friday landed at gate F14. The connecting flight left from gate B4 (click it to big it--it could have been worse). By using Google Maps, I estimated the distance from one to the other at approximately 5600 feet. That's over one mile of dodging luggage toting passengers, golf cart drivers, slow walkers and fast walkers. All while looking for a rest room in one of the busiest airport hubs in the country. This is why I try to allow at least a full hour between layovers there!
• I experienced something in the evenings I've never experienced before. Noisy locusts in the trees. We have an occasional chirp of something, or on some nights, a few crickets, but nothing like this! I'm told that it's the sound of the night. It would drive me bonkers. The sound of the night around here is much different! And much more quiet!
  
• Speaking of bugs--I had to drive home for another 90+ miles after arriving back in MT. Since part of my drive took me through some river and creek drainages, the bugs were incredibly thick. At times, it looked like I was driving through a snow storm! Of course, I ran out of wiper fluid early on, so I had to live with bug guts covering my windshield for most of the trip back.
• I had an unexpected 90-second meeting with someone famous at MSP. We were waiting for the tram (that one-mile trek is partially serviced with a tram). He was sharply dressed in a dark suit, but avoided eye contact with the rest of the passengers. We both got on board and stood by the same pole. I asked him if he was who I thought he was (he was), and we chit-chatted for the 90 second ride. Then we parted ways. I shook the hand of, and shared a pole with, the junior U.S. senator from Minnesota (and darned fine comedian), Senator Al Franken! (no--I didn't get a picture or an autograph. I suck.)