Had it not been for the young lady sitting next to me on my Delta flight back home a few weeks back, I would have never realized that back in 1837, Stephen H. Long, the Chief Engineer of Western and Atlantic Railroad had described Atlanta (my home for the last seven years) as “A good location for one tavern, a blacksmith shop, a grocery store and nothing else”. Or the beauty of the Atlanta airport itself (and I must have visited it – on a conservative basis five hundred times at least).

I forget where I was flying from but I remember as I sat down in my aisle seat, the lady in the window seat next to me asked “I wanted to apologize upfront for inconveniencing you. I did not get an aisle seat today and I will have to bother you to go the restroom later”.

No big deal to me. So I said “Not a problem at all. I can always do with getting up and stretching”. It appeared she always chose aisle seat, just like me. So I asked “Looks like you travel a lot”. “Every week!”, she said.

I did not reveal that that is what I have to do too. Instead, I said “I noticed the Asics shoes you are wearing. Are you a runner?”. “Yes! I try running every day”, she said. “Really?”, I asked, “Does it not interfere with your travel schedule?”. Personally, I knew how difficult that could be.

She agreed but then went on to explain the tricks she had learnt on the road to keep up with her metabolism level and diet control. Of all the tips she gave me, one stuck in my mind. She said she avoided taking trains at airports, cabs if she could help it, moving sidewalks, automated escalators and simply focused on walking or climbing stairs whenever she could in her day to day life. And that night, at the terminal train station, we wished each other well as I stepped into the airport train and she walked away. And I told myself “She had a point. I should try that next time”.

And ever since, I have stopped taking the train at Atlanta station. It actually felt good initially. Then it became a habit. I would just keep walking thru the tunnel dragging my suitcase, most likely on the phone talking to somebody, my eyes to the ground not noticing anything else. Eventually, I would reach my destination and think “That was good. I got some exercise”.

Till today.

Today, my flight was out of Terminal C. Starting from Terminal T, then A, then B and then C, that was a long walk. But I am glad I did it. Atlanta airport is always known for its art. But the walls in the tunnel between Terminal B and C is a fascinating depiction of the history of Atlanta over the last 800 years. Before today, if you had asked me of Atlanta’s past, I probably would have said “Martin Luther King”, “slaves”, “cotton farms” and pretty much stop there. I might even have incorrectly thrown in Jimmy Carter to show that I was up and up with modern history 🙂

If you ever are in Atlanta airport, especially with kids, do get off at Terminal B station and walk till Terminal C. It will give you and the kids a great understanding of the history of the place called Atlanta today. There are numerous pictures, anecdotes and quotes adorning the walls in a chronological fashion.

That quote from the Chief Engineer was awesome just to look back at it and realize how terrible we often are in predictions. Speaking of hubris, you will find a picture of a young girl – Martha Lumpkin – whose dad, once the Governor of Georgia (and infamous for brutally removing the Cherokees from Georgia) renamed the town “Marthasville” in honor of his youngest daughter! (The city was called Terminus before that because that is where Western and Atlantic Railroad terminated – one more testimony to their imaginative powers 🙂 ). Ironically, the name was changed to Atlanta primarily at the suggestion of another Chief Engineer – from a competitive railroad company!!

Another picture that caught my eye was the famed General of the Union Army – W.T. Sherman. It was not his picture so much as his quote – which is acutely relevant even in today’s world: “War is cruelty and you cannot refine it”.

That walk which should have taken me 5-6 minutes lasted a full half an hour.

And here is the real irony at the end. After walking all that distance, I was so hungry and with such little time to get to the plane that I grabbed some junk food on the way and merrily munched it away, completely oblivious of all the diet tips my fellow passenger had given me that evening. I regained all my calories and more.

I cannot wait for my next flight that might leave from Terminal D or E or F, though! I wonder what those walks will bring to me…

Sat down in my seat on the Delta flight to Milwaukee and this is the first thing that caught my eye!! What does a van for “Cabin Appearance” really do? First time in my traveling life….

This is at Milwaukee airport..

Woke up at 4 am to catch a flight at a God-forsaken hour. As the flight door was closed, the pilot announced maintenance issue and gave an estimate of a 15 minute delay to get the paperwork done. One and a half hour later, we are still drinking terrible coffee sitting right where we were.

I think all Delta pilots have a background in running IT projects 🙂

My flight was from C50. When I reached there, something struck me. See if you can see anything odd with the picture.

Note the gate C46 on the far left. And note my gate C50 on the far right . Note the doors next to the gate numbers.

Now look at gate C48. There is clearly a board declaring it is gate C48. But there is no door!!! I looked from the side and then while getting on my plane again, there is no jetway bridge either.

Why do they have the gate number there? I asked a Delta agent – she had no clue either!!

Ah well!!

You can see the runway lit up for us to take off. And two hours later, we are still grounded by the torrential rain 🙁

Even for a road warrior like me, this is a first time. I had a great start to the morning – had my coffee and quiet time, put in a run, did my stretches, went up to my room, finished my shower and then started getting dressed up for my office meetings.

I was almost done. I had to just put my shoes on. Started putting my socks on. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks!!! And I remembered what had happened. I had grabbed by black socks from the washer dryer last evening because *somebody* forgot to do it the previous night. And threw them in my suitcase together with my dress shoes. (It was an evening flight, so I had my sockless casual shoes on for the flight).

One of them was a black sock, as it turned out. The other one, much to my dismay, was the same *somebody*’s piece of unmentionable!!! After a long time today, I was totally flummoxed. I am sure you agree it would have been ridiculous wearing that with my dress shoe!!

My neon colored running socks and black dress shoes it is for today, then! Off to the meetings I go…

Denver airport is one of the most beautiful and well organized airports. Great art work, lot of nice restaurants and wine places and very well organized traffic.

If only they had made it in Denver!!

One place you will never find me in 🙂

Lucked out! The one time I come to Providence, RI turned out to be one of those Waterfire days (twice a month during summer).

Beautiful bonfires on the surface of Providence river with music from all over the world!