… when you finally get even with the rental car company on the “gas option”. (That is when you prepay for a full tank but invariably land up using a small fraction of it). The state is so vast that to get from any point to any other point, it almost felt like I had to drive across the state line 🙂

Finally, by the time I returned the rental car very early this morning, I had used up the full tank that I had rightfully paid for 🙂 . Every single drop of it, in fact! Would be interesting to see how they take it to the gas station now 🙂

For a guy who finds himself way too many times 30,000 feet or more off terra firma, this is a fascinating story: Southwest Airlines planned out the wedding of two of their business and frequent flyers to each other. (The much flown couple approached the airlines who immediately jumped in).

Give it to Southwest for knowing how to make it fun. Other than bands and balloons at the gate, they handed out invitation cards along with boarding passes to the other passengers, who were of course, clueless!!!

The flower girl walked down the aisle (ha ha) handing out…. get this… peanuts!!! (you have to know the reference to Southwest ads to get this)

Whoever got them married used the stewardess’s microphone to make the announcements!! He certainly had a way of ad libbing…

“We are gathered here today…” he started as usual…. and then added “whether we intended to or not…” …. “to celebrate the wedding of ….!!! sending the whole plane into squeals of laughter!

But the absolute hilarious part was the official finishing it up with the following variant of the original words:

“If anyone can show just cause why they might not be lawfully joined together, let them push their flight attendant call button now or forever hold your peace.”

Give it up for Southwest for knowing how to make it fun!!

(BTW, in case you did not know, Southwest’s stock ticker is LUV – named after the Love Field airport they operate out of in Dallas)

Don’t feel too bad. I had none either. Here, I was – frantically looking for a place to settle down in Alexandria with a friend that I have admired a lot and only got to see him after 22 years. Obviously, I did not have any patience for too many things as I looked for a Old Town spot by the water to settle down in. But Jamey, not only caught my attention, he took my breath away.

So, here was this senior gentleman that would seemingly have spread out his table with all sorts of wine and shot glasses on his table. Given my interest in anything remotely connected to a OH molecule, I was intrigued. “Is he selling wine glasses”? I asked myself. “Why does he have all those glasses half filled with water then?”. I was surprised enough that I told my friend – “Let’s go check out”.

What I saw was unbelievable. What Jamey – the senior gentleman – was doing was this – by pulling his finger along the edge of the glasses, he was creating a musical note. This is how it works – he cleaned his fingers with soap and then dipped them in distilled water to take out as much oil from the finger ridges as he could. Then as his finger ridges traveled over the edge of the glass, it created a vibration (think about taking a serrated saw over a glass edge) and produced a sound. But then, the frequency of the note was produced by resonance from the water surface – and therefore by carefully calibrating how much water he poured in it, he modified the note in those zillions of glasses he had. It is called a Glass Harp!!!

You think that is crazy? Try this … He asked me where was I from? I said Atlanta. He asked me where I was born? I said India. And he proceeded to play “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram” for the next five minutes! My jaw dropped!

What talent! What an amazing experience for me!!!

You know what amazes me the most? He puts on his tie everyday he comes to the street corner to play!! Talk of passion!!!

[Epilogue – he told me he has a CD on Amazon and is working on a DVD. I googled him – “Jamey Turner” – up and he was all over Youtube. If you are ever in Alexandria, look him up. If you feel so inclined, buy his CD and write him a note. I know I will.]

So I am running down from the 10th floor to the 8th floor of an office building in Portland. It would be faster than waiting for the elevator. Or, so I thought. What really happened was that half way thru the stairwell, I noticed this restroom!! And I stopped. And I stared for a long time. At the restroom. In the stairwell!! Men’s restroom!! How many times have you seen a men’s restroom in the stairwell?

It had a handicapped sign!!! A HANDICAPPED SIGN!! Who, in their right minds, and in a wheelchair, is climbing up and down the stairs to a handicapped accessible restroom???? And that too, only for men???

This is too confusing for me!!

We chased our own shadow all over the Potomac river and finally touched it at the edge of the runway in DCA airport…

I don’t golf. And I don’t have any club memberships. But it is always good to have friends who do!! Today’s off site meeting is in a great golf club in idyllic settings outside Lexington, KY. My contribution was to pull rank to have the meeting in the patio instead of in the room. Beautiful set up!!! It almost looks like one of Sharmila’s paintings.

It is not often that airport Marriotts pay a lot of attention to aesthetics. They are meant for busy business passengers looking for a bed to sleep in for the night. That is why the bars are open very late at airport Marriotts 🙂
The Cincinnati airport Marriott seems to be different. Beautiful fountain in the atrium.

I am surprised I did not learn this before today. I knew Kansas City airport is not in Kansas but Missouri… but Cincinnati too??
Got down at Cincinnati, took the rental car and my iPhone instructed me to take “Kentucky 212”. I am like, “What? I am still inside the airport area”. Checked into the hotel and asked the young lady what the deal was.
And it is then that I realized Cincinnati airport is not in Ohio either. It is in Kentucky.

So, I had to look it up. A very interesting history. Copied the Wikipedia story here…

President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved preliminary funds for site development of the Greater Cincinnati Airport February 11, 1942. This was part of the Army Air Corps program to establish training facilities during World War II. At the time, air traffic in the area centered around Lunken Airport just southeast of central Cincinnati. Lunken opened in 1926 and was located in the Ohio River Valley. Due to its location, the airport frequently experienced fog, and the 1937 flood completely submerged its runways and two-story terminal building. While federal officials wanted an airfield site that would not be prone to flooding, Cincinnati officials hoped to build Lunken into the premier airport of the region.

A coalition of officials from Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties in Kentucky took advantage of Cincinnati’s short-sightedness and lobbied Congress to build an airfield there. Boone County officials offered a suitable site on the provision that Kenton County paid the acquisition cost. In October 1942, Congress provided $2 million to construct four runways.

The field officially opened August 12, 1944, with the first B-17 bombers beginning practice runs on August 15. As the tide of the war had already turned, the Air Corps only used the field until 1945 before it was declared surplus. On October 27, 1946, a small wooden terminal building opened and the airport prepared for commercial service.

The first airplane, an American Airlines DC-3 from Cleveland, Ohio, landed at the airport January 10, 1947, at 9:53 am. A Delta Air Lines flight followed moments later. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 97 weekday departures: 37 American, 26 Delta, 24 TWA, 8 Piedmont and 2 Lake Central. As late as November 1959 the airport had four 5,500 ft (1,700 m) runways at 45-degree angles, the north–south runway eventually being extended into today’s runway 18C/36C.