Saturday, August 05, 2006

South Dakota

My trip to South Dakota was a good one... Once I got there that is.
I've added two new airports to my 'don't fly through' list: Minneapolis/St. Paul and Boston Logan.
On my way out to South Dakota I flew through Detroit, to Minneapolis to Aberdeen, SD. Detroit isn't one of my favorites, but it really isn't that bad. I have a long enough layover to get where I'm going, but not so long that I'm bored. We board the plane and get out to the runway. Wait, there's bad weather in Minnesota, so we're asking to be routed around. OK. No problem. Wait, problem... the clearance takes 25 minutes to get and I've got a 30 minute layover in Minnesota before my next flight. Crap. Needless to say, after running as best I could through the Twin Cities' airport, I miss my flight. And there was no one around to get help from. Finally I find someone and then get booked on the 9pm flight. I was supposed to be on the 5pm flight. Oh well. I've got time to go find supper now. That was the hard part of getting to South Dakota.
I love the directions on how to get to the site from the airport: Turn right as you leave the airport and then make another right once you get to Groton (about 18 miles away) on 37. You should see the plant to your left soon after turning. I had an enjoyable day working with a few people from the site and things went well. I went out again on Thursday morning for about 2 hours to do some more work, since I didn't have to be at the airport until about 10:15 for my 11:00 flight. (There is only one 'gate' and they don't let you through security until about 10 minutes before boarding.)
Minneapolis was fun again, but I made my flight this time. This time I went through Boston instead of Detroit. I got to the gate for my Boston flight right in the middle of boarding. Not bad. Get routed around bad weather again so sit on the runway for a while. No big deal, I've got a human layover this time before my final leg.
Boston. Boston is just stupid and sucks. I was flying on North West since that is the only line that flies into and out of Aberdeen. The last leg of my flight is operated by Continental instead of NW, but no big deal. Wrong. Big deal at Boston. You have to leave the NW terminal (yes, back beyond security) follow the hard to find and almost non-existent signs to the other terminal and wait in line in security again. How stupid is that? I mean, all other airports I've been to with more than one terminal have managed to create buses or trams or something that go between these terminals and across the tarmac without making people go through security again. And once I got to the right gate, nothing was posted so I wasn't sure. To top it off, I was starving because I'd had a granola bar and some raisins all day. It's now just about 5pm. I grab a snack, since Gak and I are going to dinner when I get home. Luckily the last flight wasn't that long or delayed. We did get to land through a thunderstorm though. Kinda cool.
Well, yesterday was an adventure of another kind, one that I'm not quite ready to share. Partially because it's family and partially because I don't have all the details.
Peace to all in Norrath and Beyond. I should be home all this week.

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