MaxSpeed
Jul 19, 08, 12:13 pm
Just came back from another Fun Run the other day. I call it a fun run rather than strictly an MR cause there are too many number crunchers here ready to skewer my rate of return on this small investment.
I have just about 10K more miles that I need to cobble together a round the world excursion through Dubai and Singapore.
Anyways back to the trip. I have done 3 MR's out of LAX in the last month. I chose this one because it gave me the opportunity to go thru Boise where I have never been. Had a great cruise on a CRJ-900 in Rows 3 & 4 with no seatmates. Very comfortable and lulled me into a false sense of comfort prior to a CRJ nightmare the next day (more on that later). Cruised from ORD to PBI on Ted in Seat 1F (they told me this was First Class ... who knew that an airline would lie to you??;))
For this itin, I would spend the night in West Palm Beach. I was on the ground for about 18 hours. In order to get a little bit more traveling in, I rented a PT Cruiser for about $30 from Enterprise. I cruised out to Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach after seeing Trump's 727 at PBI. I then went down south a ways and took in the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood and then went to Lauderdale and Miami South Beach. Also went by the Cruise Ports in MIA and FLL. I like to look at the ships, especially the newest biggest ones in order to help plan my next cruise. As far as the cruise ships go, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. You can pretty much look at one of these spectacular behemoths and decide that you want to go on it and don't even care where they are sailing to. Liberty of the Seas, count me in!
Arriving back at PBI, found a huge thunderstorm cell hovering over the air field. After an hour delay (hey what are they afraid of, a little lightning never hurt anyone ... what? it did ... OK never mind). When in doubt, trust the pilots. Went from PBI to CLT in a circular route way out over the Atlantic.
Arrived just in time into CLT for the CRJ torture sesssion (uhh.. I mean flight) into IAD. Somehow after scoring great seats throughout the trip. I now suddenly found myself in Seat 18D on a UA CRJ-900. For those of you not familar with this seating diagram, it puts you about 12 inches in front of the toilet. Lets just say that the aroma for the next hour was not exactly bacon and eggs in the morning. Another thing about Row 18, your head is basically between the two GE jet engines ... a little noisy to say the least. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, a 400+ pound man seated himself next to me (not disparaging anyone here, just citing the facts). Next to board was a young couple in front of my with a very small, yet extremely vocal infant. This hour long recipe for disaster nearly gave me a migraine.
Arriving into IAD late at night, found my continuing flight to LAX amongst the late night international departures in the C gates. A couple of gates down was the UA nonstop to Kuwait City. 300 brave men and 2 nervous women were there ready to board. Very scary to see this group departing for a tour of the sand box. Truly an impressive visual of the types of people who are sacrificing so much for this country.
Anyways 5 hours later with absolutely no pillows or blankets on the UA red eye back to LA la land and I was home again after a 6,680 mile jaunt (6,468 air/ 212 ground).
Regards,
Max Speed
I have just about 10K more miles that I need to cobble together a round the world excursion through Dubai and Singapore.
Anyways back to the trip. I have done 3 MR's out of LAX in the last month. I chose this one because it gave me the opportunity to go thru Boise where I have never been. Had a great cruise on a CRJ-900 in Rows 3 & 4 with no seatmates. Very comfortable and lulled me into a false sense of comfort prior to a CRJ nightmare the next day (more on that later). Cruised from ORD to PBI on Ted in Seat 1F (they told me this was First Class ... who knew that an airline would lie to you??;))
For this itin, I would spend the night in West Palm Beach. I was on the ground for about 18 hours. In order to get a little bit more traveling in, I rented a PT Cruiser for about $30 from Enterprise. I cruised out to Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach after seeing Trump's 727 at PBI. I then went down south a ways and took in the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood and then went to Lauderdale and Miami South Beach. Also went by the Cruise Ports in MIA and FLL. I like to look at the ships, especially the newest biggest ones in order to help plan my next cruise. As far as the cruise ships go, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. You can pretty much look at one of these spectacular behemoths and decide that you want to go on it and don't even care where they are sailing to. Liberty of the Seas, count me in!
Arriving back at PBI, found a huge thunderstorm cell hovering over the air field. After an hour delay (hey what are they afraid of, a little lightning never hurt anyone ... what? it did ... OK never mind). When in doubt, trust the pilots. Went from PBI to CLT in a circular route way out over the Atlantic.
Arrived just in time into CLT for the CRJ torture sesssion (uhh.. I mean flight) into IAD. Somehow after scoring great seats throughout the trip. I now suddenly found myself in Seat 18D on a UA CRJ-900. For those of you not familar with this seating diagram, it puts you about 12 inches in front of the toilet. Lets just say that the aroma for the next hour was not exactly bacon and eggs in the morning. Another thing about Row 18, your head is basically between the two GE jet engines ... a little noisy to say the least. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, a 400+ pound man seated himself next to me (not disparaging anyone here, just citing the facts). Next to board was a young couple in front of my with a very small, yet extremely vocal infant. This hour long recipe for disaster nearly gave me a migraine.
Arriving into IAD late at night, found my continuing flight to LAX amongst the late night international departures in the C gates. A couple of gates down was the UA nonstop to Kuwait City. 300 brave men and 2 nervous women were there ready to board. Very scary to see this group departing for a tour of the sand box. Truly an impressive visual of the types of people who are sacrificing so much for this country.
Anyways 5 hours later with absolutely no pillows or blankets on the UA red eye back to LA la land and I was home again after a 6,680 mile jaunt (6,468 air/ 212 ground).
Regards,
Max Speed