Planes, trains, and automobiles

In the past week, I have:

• Flown to Little Rock, Arkansas, via Atlanta (on Delta)
• Taken Amtrak to Boston
• Taken a shuttle bus to my hotel in Arkansas
• Been given a ride in a personal car to the Little Rock airport
• Taken a cab ride from Penn Station to my apartment
• Taken the Boltbus from Boston to New York.
• Taken the subway in New York and Boston

I probably should have taken a detour on my way home yesterday to take the Staten Island Ferry, so I could truly claim to have taken all forms of transit, but I think this is fairly comprehensive.

Both my trips were fun. I was in Little Rock for 22 hours (and had to travel for about 16 hours), so I didn't get to see anything besides my hotel, the conference room for the meeting I was attending, and the airport. There are my usual hotel pictures plus some long-distance shots of the teeny skyline on Flickr. However, the meeting I attended was very interesting, and successful, so the craziness of the trip was worth it. I really liked the Little Rock Airport (LIT); it was just cute. I much prefer small airports, like Bradley or LIT. By the time I landed, around 7pm, everything in the airport was already all closed for the evening! I walked off the concourse, through the security exit (passing the awesome sign above), down an escalator, and right outside. I crossed a driveway and was able to wait right outside for my shuttle bus to the airport. People who drove to the airport were parked right out front. Security was very strict; it was fast and easy, but they were much more serious and competent than some of my experiences at NYC airports. I hated the Atlanta airport. It's the biggest airport I have ever seen, making getting around a real pain, the food options were uniformly terrible, and the wireless was not free. And, flying really sucks these days. Ugh.

I got home around midnight on Tuesday and left again on Thursday evening for a few days in Boston to see Dave and Kristen and Frank. I noticed that there were more people in Penn Station on a random Thursday evening than there had been in the LIT airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Yesterday Dave and I took the Boltbus down to NYC. It was pretty good, for a bus. Free wireless!! It was pretty slow, and occasionally spotty, but man, the ability to surf the internet, and in Dave's case, work, was really nice. Since the company is very new, the buses are new and shiny, and were very clean, even the bathroom. They lacked the stench of Greyhound, which always makes me slightly queasy, so that was a nice change. The driver seemed a little confused--she thought the bus left at 1 instead of 12:30, and the only way to get to NYC from Boston in 3.5 hours is if you're going 90--but she was nice, and she got us there safely. We slacked on getting tickets, buying them the day before, so they were $15, but if you buy a few weeks ahead of time, they are as cheap as $1.50. I will definitely be taking them again, when I'm not feeling flush enough for Amtrak.

And what did all this travel get me? A wretched head cold that had me in bed all day today.