First things first - long haul flights suck. No way around this fact; business class makes it slightly more tolerable, but 14 hours in the air is still 14 hours. More interesting was the leg from LA to Orlando, which (despite being up the back end of the plane in an economy seat) gave me a chance to see a broad sweep of the US. If it weren't for the coast-to-coast haze of smog, I'd say it was really beautiful. The west side is all mountains, deserts, wonderful erosion gullies and tectonic shifts. The south east is all lush farm land, irrigation circles and a precision grid of roads.
Florida from the air is just amazing - not for the land itself which is truly, dreadfully flat, but for the huge mushroom-cloud storm cells that our pilot weaved between to navigate a safe passage.
The first leg of the trip was 5 days in Florida, checking out some of the labs we have instruments in and seeing how they are going. Mostly hung out with an FSE , Thad, and I watched while he did any necessary repairs. Friday night we went downtown for a meal and to hang out on Wall Street, which is a bar district that gets fenced off for the night, an '80s cover band up one end and beer vendors on the street. Church Street was an eye-opener. Every pretty girl in town is dressed in a skimpy outfit, plonked on the street, and hired to spruik the wall-to-wall line of bars and clubs from which you can apparently get the cheapest drinks in town.
Thad and I spent a Saturday at Islands of Adventure, which is the ride park next to Universal Studios in Orlando. The Incredible Hulk rollercoaster is definitely a highlight, though despite the accelerations and loops, I still have a craving for more of that freefall feeling of classic coasters. There's nothing like the rattling and flat corners of the Big Dipper to truly terrify you.
After that I flew up to Chicago to commence training some new FSEs. 7 days for the new guys, and 3 days for an advanced course (it's fun being the expert when I've only been with the company for a few months...)
In between training, a few of us spent a Saturday in Milwaukee, and Sunday in Chicago. Milwaukee was good - a great, cheap brewery tour and a quirky bike show. In the home of the Harley you don't really expect to see Vespas, KTMs, BMWs and Ducatis wheel to wheel, but here they were. Naturally there was a good representation of choppers and hogs as well.
Chicago turned out to be a day of waiting. 90 minutes for the train. 1 hour to get up Sears Tower, and the view was pretty dull (dead flat). 45 minutes for a pizza. Half an hour for a tour bus... so we missed a few sites I wanted to get to - the Museum of Art to see the impressionists, Daley Plaza, and so on - so while we did see Buckingham fountain (from the Married with Children opening credits) we missed all those places you recognise from Ferris Bueller and The Blues Brothers.
Which leads me nicely into last Sunday's gathering - home again, and Nick's fiancé Sarah was in town, so the usual uni gang gathered at our house for a video afternoon of... yes, The Blues Brothers. OK, so half of us have seen it at least 30 times, but it's still great fun. Even better with good company.
Things at home are good. Jo is getting bigger, as is Usmeshka (whom, thanks to one of my trainees who has a Russian background, I can finally pronounce properly). Meshy has been at school but isn't getting much home training, lazy us. Jo and I were at school too - prenatal class this weekend (with one more class next week). I'm sure nothing can really prepare us though.
til next time, toodles all!
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