Travels with Disenchanted, Tropical Storm Style

Well, it’s been an interesting day. Got up at 4:45 a.m. because I needed to take a shower before The Coach took me to the airport for my 6~ish flight to Baton Rouge. Now, I am not a morning person, so this was quite the challenge for me. Luckily it was so cold that I woke up early to turn off the fan and take a piss. Too much TMI, I know. We left so early that we actually met the newspaper delivery guy as we were walking off the porch. The Coach, bless his heart, got me to the airport with plenty of time to spare. The airport in Sorta’ Cosmopolitan is so small that you really don’t have to show up until about 10 minutes before boarding time. Trust me, it takes maybe 5 minutes on a bad day to actually get through the security gate. You slip off the shoes, pull out the laptop, and make sure that you have all of your potential “terrorist threat” liquids, gels and shampoos out. No problem.

Got to Memphis, landing out on Concourse C. When I left for the A concourse, my flight to Baton Rouge was listed “on time.” By the time I made it to the A concourse, the flight was cancelled. Yes, the evil tropical storm managed to derail me for a little while. I had to go all the way to the end of the concourse to rebook my flight — and was given two options. I could wait for the afternoon flight to Baton Rouge or I could go to Houston and then hope on a Continental flight to Baton Rouge. Really, this was a no-brainer at the time. The Houston routing would put me in Baton Rouge before the other flight ever left Memphis. So, I dragged all my luggage back through A and into the B concourse and made the Houston flight.

Now, I was really nice to the chickie at the counter, but she still completely screwed me. (Maybe TQE shouldn’t have given me Air Babylon to read?) I was stuck next to a big lady — I mean, I’m a chunky ass girl, but this chick was much bigger than me. Not much room to move. I made the best of it and took a snooze while we waited to leave Memphis, waited on the runway, waited for drink service. Then, I discovered two things: (1) Our flight was actually going to take longer to get to Houston than originally planned because we had to flight around the storm; and (2) the plane was mostly empty and I could have had a whole row to myself! WTF??? Seriously?

Now, I am completely on board with the avoidance of tropical storm. I hate rocky flights. I don’t want to die in a plane. Only, when we got to Houston we were in a flight pattern for a while. Round and round. Ring around the City. A giant merry-go-round of airplanes. When we finally made it to the ground — going through some pretty bumpy air — I had 20 minutes to make my connection. Here I was, in the A concourse … and I had to get on a shuttle and go all the way to the end of Concourse B. Holy shit. Since I am not OJ Simpson (does anyone remember those old commercials besides me?), I was not about to run through the airport. Plus, the strap on my bags were long, so the bags kept hitting me in the back of the knee. Not good. But, I survived! Since there were 3 other people who had the same problem, the plane was held for us. We got to the gate about the time the plane was scheduled to take off.

Even with the late takeoff, we still ended up in Baton Rouge by our scheduled arrival time. We had a hell of a tailwind, thanks to the remnants of the storm. Our flight attendant had just finished handed out the drinks when we started to descend into the city. And let me tell you, that little plane swished and shimmied and shuttered all the way to the ground.

Went to pick up my rental car and was given the key (is it a key) to a Prius. The Enterprise lady came outside to show me how to start the car. You know, it really feels like driving a space ship or something. Press the power button. Play with the console. Look at your average miles per gallon. I have to say that while I like the concept of the Prius, I am not sold on driving it. The seat is uncomfortable and it had no pick up. Maybe I am just spoiled from driving Sally? I will admit that I do like the fact that I won’t be putting a ton of gas into the thing — but gas is 30 cents LESS a gallon here than back home.

Since the folks from Enterprise only had crappy maps and since The Black Plague of Death actually ate a hole in the middle of my map (yes, yes, he did), I stopped by Barnes and Noble to pick up a couple of maps. While there, I took a look at the Louisiana section which was a big mistake. I ended up dropping $87 on four Katrina-related books: Mikel Schaefer’s Lost in Katrina, Joshua Clark’s Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in its Disaster Zone, as well as City Adrift, a Center for Public Integrity book, and finally Year Zero: A Year of Reporting from Post-Katrina New Orleans. I felt a little bad about spending the cash, seeing how I have a moratorium on buying books. Since these are research books, I’m letting it slide. (wink, wink)

I had a little time to do archival research over at LSU — I’ll do the bulk of my work tomorrow. I’m lucky because there are only five boxes related to my particular bill and I only have 1 1/2 boxes left. Now, there are some unprocessed documents that I won’t have access to until next summer, so I am still going to make another trip back to Louisiana sometime next year.

Headed to New Orleans and am now ensconced in my hotel room. I wandered over to Mother’s earlier this evening for a Fergi and a beer, but am really just too tired to do much exploring tonight. Yawn!