Mt. McKinley (2008) - Day 01
Traveling to Anchorage
New York to Atlanta to Salt Lake City to Anchorage. This is going to be a long day. I'm taking car service to the airport. Hauling a hundred pounds in two large duffel bags is no fun on the subway and a bus. It's 9am and the driver is supposed to be here now. They're always late.
--
Finally on the road. The idiot Dial-7 driver was sitting on 31st St. without making any significant effort to contact me and let me know that he had arrived. When I finally called the car service company (to find out when the driver would be arriving) they told me that the driver was there already. And this explained the hang-up phone call I receied shortly befoe - the driver's idea of contacting me, I guess.
So, we start driving and out-of-the-blue the driver - in an accent so thick I couldn't really understand him at all - tells me what time it is. 9:17am. After much striving, I finally determined that he wanted to charge me for the time that he had to wait. Yeah, right. I called up Dial-7 and elaborated on his ineptness and they sided with me. They also denied him "priority at Laguardia". Overall he wasn't very happy with me. They need a "speaks English" checkbox on the web site. Even if it said, +$5 next to it, I'd still check it.
--
First flight. I'm on my way to Atlanta. My rubik's cube was the cause for my meating this guy Mark. He is starting a five month job some twenty miles from Talkeetna with Princess Tours. He used to live in Dunwoody (I used to live in Dunwoody). I gave him my name and email. He is supposed to email me so that I can send him pictures from the trip.
--
I'm on my way from Atlanta to Salt Lake City and I have this enormous couple sitting next to me. I guess I should be thankful that I don't have the middle seat. The in-flight movie has started and the lady (who does have the middle seat) was looking all around for the audio jack. There's no polite way to say, its on the arm rest and your enormous thigh is completely blocking it, so I instead let her use the one on my arm rest. Hysterical.
--
It's 4am ET and I'm finally in Anchorage. What a day. Ninteen hours of traveling.
--
I made it to the Holiday Inn Express, finally. They sent a van to the airport to pick me up. It's a pretty nice hotel.
And I'm starving. The lady-behind-the-counter said that Sicily's Pizza is still open (its after 1am) and that they deliver. So I've ordered a large pizza. Hopefully that'll take the edge off my hunger.
--
Okay, so, I've mocked the notion of the superiority of New York pizza - although mostly I mock the people - and this was the first time I've had pizza outside of New York in probably a year. It was terrible. Easily the worst I've ever had. I'm hoping I haven't become a New York pizza snob.
Anyway, Family Guy ended and then I caught the end of Die Hard (1). And that's a good way to end any night. I'm going to sleep now.