Feliz Cumpleanos

To celebrate the tortoise's birthday (first post was March 24, 2010), I went on a trip back to winter.  Early this morning I drove to the new St. George airport.  It took 38 minutes from my home.  I'm told it usually takes 45 -- in traffic I believe it.  But the sky was still not even thinking about getting light when the plane took off about 6:30 am, so I missed the traffic.

The waiting room at the airport is nice, they've tried to make it feel like a really large living room.  I'm amazed how many ipads I'm seeing here.

They are flying Canadair 200 regional jets to Salt Lake now.  Smooth.  Pretty quiet.  Fast -- 47 minutes of air time.  Not even enough time to give you the famous peanuts and liquid.

There was no Terreeeblay walk today.  I did walk, you can read the stats at http://terreeeblay.blogspot.com/2011/03/70.html.  We landed in Salt Lake at gate E5.  I then walked past the D gates, past the C gates, and down the corridor to B8 ... to get on another SkyWest regional jet, this one a little bigger Canadair 900.  I should get a little extra credit for messing with the luggage (you know my computer bag alone weighs as much as two bowling bags!)

In Reno I got a rental car for the fifty mile drive through the howling winds and snow to Gardnerville. (The highway department had signs up saying trucks and campers were not allowed through Washoe Valley).  Enterprise's idea of a compact car was a bright red Beetle with Utah plates.  They actually tried to talk me into upgrading to a Corolla, but I didn't need it, so I went with the people's car.  But it's not your father's Beetle.  The engine is in the front, there is not as much room, and the engine doesn't have the distinctive high pitched whine you would hear shifting 36 horses of rubber band power through the various gears to accomplish any kind of speed back in the day.  Although the modern version still didn't have much power in the passing lane.  The car did have great head room though -- a good foot above my head.

By 10:30 I had arrived and began to work.  It's all good!