Snack Sacks^® and such

Early this morning I set out with my dad for PDX in hopes of catching the early bird. Yes, this is the morning I left for Georgia (well, Phoenix then Atlanta then Valdosta) to begin my summer studying asteroids for signs of water.

As I first stated, I had a few points between here and Valdosta that I must first visit on my country-spanning journey. Boarding the plane I was first greeted by a long, fuel scented walkway. At the end was a cheery sign informing passengers to grab a Snack Sack^® before boarding. Before the aircraft's door sat an electric cooler with little sacks. I blindly grabbed one and proceeded to my seat.

I sat by a rather down-to-Earth woman. I never asked her name but learned that she is kind of a high flying horse buyer. She sounded like she lead a pretty easy going life that took her from place to place in search of a good steed. We chatted during the short flight about easily chattable things. Among them were the Snack Sacks^®. These little pathetic bundles of [what the airline calls] food were a cheap way for America West to say, "You want to be a cheap @$$? Then you're gonna get cheap food!"

Not shocked by this we made fun of the gimmick name and the package's "design" amazed that someone got paid to make this stuff up. Pathetic graphical design and a shabby title lend me to hope that America West paid a mere two-bits to a group of howler monkeys.

My arrival at Phoenix brought me to my first experience with a large, busy airport. It seemed like the population of the terminal oscillated to and fro like tides in the ocean. Waves of people poured out of the gates as splashes of others rushed to catch their flight. During my nearly 4 hour layover there, I sat and watched everyone go by. Kinda' boring really.

On the flight from Phoenix to Atlanta, I sat in a seat with much less leg room than the last plane and next to a man whose name eludes me. He didn't do much for me though. Not annoying and not exciting in any way. Except for on tidbit. After the midpoint of the flight (which was accentuated by a roller coaster of turbulence), the man discussed a picture keychain he'd been kissing to the passenger next to him. He told the man it was his fiancé. Going on and on about his undying love for her, he brought up the circumstances under which they met. AOL. Yup. For months before they even met they got to know one another on that bastard of an ISP. The day they actually met, he said, they were engaged. I eventually tuned out of that conversation with much discust and enjoyed hearing the captain's voice instruct us to fasten our seatbelts for our final approach...

When I finally got to Atlanta's airport, I was greeted by a soft-mannered woman in a SARA tee. Dr. Leake and I introduced ourselves and we shortly began our trek to the baggage claim. We chatted along the way and while I waited for my bags to magically pop out on to a silvery conveyor belt. After about 40 minutes we began to wonder. We told a skycap of our troubles and he led us to the America West ticket area where my bags were happily awaiting me. They had been shipped on an earlier Phoenix-Atlanta flight. My journey continued into the early morning traveling south on I-75 towards Valdosta. Dr. Leake and I got to know one another on the way down discussing topics from water on distant asteroids and space travel to a stretch of gaudy billboards advertising every from flower farms to nudie bars.

Needless to say, I got to Valdosta safely and was set up in my room. I got to bed at about 2:30am.

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