Graphic artist Aaron Koblin created an animation based on 24 hours of flight travel data from across the U.S. The results are hypnotic (as is the music) — although it gets a bit wacky at the end, it’s amazing to watch the country light up from east to west as dawn creeps across and air traffic picks up.
This video is low-resolution; you can view a high-resolution version on Koblin’s website. Thanks to the New York Times for the YouTube video link.
When we walked into the Greyhound bus station in downtown Columbus today a little after 12 pm to buy my dad a one-way ticket to Cincinnati, he asked my daughter if she’d ever been to the station. “Nooo,” she said, her voice implying disdain, as if, why in the world would she ever have the reason to go there. My daughter is 15, so you can imagine. It’s the way they talk.
My son, who is 5, proclaimed that the station looked like an airport. Sure enough, it was like an airport on a holiday weekend, except there were no announcements over a load speaker every few minutes. There were lines that snaked around almost to heading out one door before coming back in another and there were the delays, we’ve all come to know with airport travel. Buses are also part of the mysterious delay game. My dad’s bus had yet to arrive. For some reason, buses out of Cleveland were 2 hours late leaving there. That was creating delays on down the line. Since a bus can’t claim air traffic congestion, I wondered what was the problem. No one at the bus station seemed to know.
For my dad, who flew from Stewart airport in Newburgh to Detroit and then to Columbus, arriving a little after 10 this morning, this delay did not do wonders to his holiday travel. His travel already survived a few snafus. The flight out of Stewart was overbooked, and he didn’t have a seat assignment. This was because, according to him, he didn’t book through Northwest’s Web site. He refused the offer of a flight a few hours later which would have routed him through Atlanta and back to Columbus. Since he held firm, the ticket person was able to get someone to agree to be bumped in my dad’s place. Good deal for them. A free ticket anywhere in the United States.
Then there was the delay leaving the Detroit airport. But, all in all, the trip was not too bad. He was waiting outside the airport at Baggage Claim when I drove up about the time I thought he’d get in after I checked the flight status. Picking him up was a matter of swinging into a spot next to the curb and swinging back into the line of cars heading out of the airport once he and his bags were safely inside the car.
After a quick visit, here we were at the bus station trying to find out information about what was going on with the bus so he could make it to his sister’s in northern Kentucky. The ticket sellers had no idea what was going on. One person told me that when she asked about a later connecting bus from Cincinnati to Louisville, she was told by a personnel guy that he didn’t have the information. Perhaps he was unfamiliar with using Greyhound’s Web site. Funny, because that’s how I found out about the 12:20 bus out of Columbus.
Eventually, a bus was brought in to start from Columbus and head to Cincinnati with as many passengers as it could fit, although the driver was surprised because he never drives that route. My dad and about six others didn’t make it on the bus. It was unclear how long the bus from Cleveland would be. Harumph!
But, at this point, things got more interesting. In between giving my kids money for Cheetos and a bottle of lemonade out of the vending machine so I could get change to put more money in the parking meter, I was chatting it up with a guy who heads to Cincinnati via bus quite often. He said with the price of gas, it was much cheaper than driving there. He’s also interested in living overseas so we talked about the pros and cons of that. After a bit, it felt like we’d become traveling pals–even though I wasn’t going anywhere.
After discovering he was going to be left behind, still at the mercy of Greyhound, the guy decided to drive to Cincinnati and that he would take the two women, who had been unable to get information earlier, and my dad with him if they’d chip in for gas. Since the guy lives near the bus station, after my dad got back all but 20 percent of the cost of his ticket, I dropped him off next to the guy’s red pick-up truck. The two women were already tucked in the seat in back. We waved as they drove off, shouting Happy Thanksgiving. I never caught this guy’s name, but he has an awesome smile.
Right about now, the TANK bus, the commuter line from Cincinnati to Florence, Kentucky, should be arriving at Sears at the Florence Mall. Hopefully, my dad is on that bus since his sister is waiting for him there. My dad’s trip back from northern Kentucky on Friday should be a lot easier. I’m driving down to get him.
Here’s how Greyhound bus ticket refunds work, in case you’re in a similar situation. Round-trip tickets are good for one year, so if you think you’ll use the ticket later on, hang onto it. One-way tickets are good for 6 months. You can get a refund of all but 20% of the cost of the ticket. That’s my understanding of it anyway. The woman connecting in Cincinnati to Louisville chose to hang onto her Columbus to Cincinnati ticket for later and will use the Cincinnati to Louisville portion today. I hope she makes it in time for the turkey.
With all the talk recently about commercial spaceflight, no one has really paid much attention to a vital piece of the puzzle that will be necessary to launch paying customers into outer space: the spaceport.
But don’t worry; Virgin Galactic has it well under control. The company, which is currently selling $200,000 tickets to outer space that will hopefully be redeemed in 2009, is working with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to build a multimillion dollar spaceport out in the American desert.
The futuristic design has been created by British architecture firm, Foster + Partners and should be completed by 2010–just about the time I hope to win the lottery so that I can afford a voyage on Virgin Galactic.
In the meantime, space nuts can check out Virgin Galactic’s future world headquarters online, or perhaps even take part in history and apply for a job building the damn thing.
One way to start off an episode of the Amazing Race with a few guffaws is to send the teams to a place most of them can’t pronounce.
“Ogogogaga?”
” Oogadoogoo? “
Ou..da..da..doo…dago..go?
Can you say Ouagadougou? (roughly pronounced aWa gaa doo goo) The blonds, Shana and Jennifer could. So could Azaria and Hendekea. The rest of them were fairly hopeless, but raced off with zest and determination to the airport in Amsterdam, the city of Episode 2, to catch a flight to Burkina Faso, West Africa via Paris. Some, though, were still not sure where they were heading for the third leg of this Amazing Race journey, even after they jumped into their taxis hoping to get on a plane first.
After reading the destination card, someone shouted, “Find out where the hell is it!” “I think it’s in Africa,” said someone else. Of course, Azaria and Hendekea, the self -proclaimed geniuses, knew where it was. “We’re from Ethiopia–so we’re comfortable,” they said, a little smugly, perhaps. Comfortable or not, they didn’t make it on the first plane.
Only Nate and Jen made it on the 7:20 am Air France flight. This strategy is called– if the flight is full, get on the waiting list. The rest of the gang were on the 8:00 a.m. flight –even Christina and Ron, who huffed along, gallantly racing through the airport while complaining that his hernia was acting up. Gotta give it to Christina–she didn’t break her stride. I had the feeling that she’d have dragged her dad by the legs if she had to in order to get him on that plane.
That flight, of course–since this is real life– was delayed due to mechanical failure. Even so, the teams tore through the Paris airport when they landed, and made it on the Ouagadougou flight–the only Air France one of the day. All were happy once more–except for Nate and Jen, who earlier had barely restrained their glee when they first settled into their seats, thinking that they had the edge. Nope.
“There’s the grandpa,” said Jen when Donald sauntered onto the plane.
“Damn,” said Nate.
You could almost hear the growl in her voice when Jen added, “Glad you made it.”
With a quick series of camera shots, Burkina Faso was introduced before the Air France plane landed. The one shot that irritated me was the one of the masked dancers. It’s the cliche shot that’s meant to capture the exotic, I suppose, but has little to do with what daily life is really like in West Africa. After that though, I found that much of the footage was an accurate portrayal of what Burkina Faso would look like to the average Westerner. I particularly loved the shots of women carrying large enamel bowls filled with goods on their heads–very typical and astounding.
The blonds, Shana and Jennifer, for example, found out that their sex appeal wasn’t going to keep them from being taken by the taxi driver who drove them to the train station. They established the price before they got in, he agreed, then switched the amount they had to pay once he got them to where they were going. The problem was they gave him a larger bill and wanted back change. Travel advice? If you’re traveling in a country where people bargain, never expect change back. Give the exact amount if you can.
As with a lot of travel in West Africa, the adage “hurry up and wait” applied here. The teams found out that the train to Bingo, a remote place in the middle of nowhere, wasn’t leaving until the next morning. This gave me the opportunity to want to smack Donald upside the head when he made sleazy comments about the sisters. He pronounced Marianna and Julia “feisty,” “hot” and a “little bitchy, but not bad.” Blech!!!
The train ride to Bingo was one of my most favorite sections of this episode. I took a 36-hour train ride from Dakar, Senegal to Bamako, Mali once, and the scenery outside the train window looked the same–vast, scrubby and dry with villages dotting the landscape. For the most part, the teams handled being in a place that was a far cry from Ireland and the Netherlands well. If any of you thought that Shana and Jennifer might have been overacting to those flies, you can’t imagine what the flies are like. Relentless and EVERYWHERE. It’s startling how many flies can converge, even on a sleeping child. It is possible to get used to the flies, but they drove me NUTS when I first moved to The Gambia. NUTS. Plus, it’s hotter than the blazes in this part of West Africa, and I bet since it rained during this episode, we’re not talking dry heat. So, I’m cutting Shana and Jennifer a break here. I can relate– and I love traveling in Africa.
Once the teams hopped off the train in Bingo, a village that didn’t appear to have one house, they were to decide which team member would milk a camel filling a calabash bowl up to a predrawn line and then drinking the milk, once the Tuareg man in charge of this activity proclaimed the bowl was full enough. This was the Road Block. Some teams breezed through this after they got the hang of it. “Nathan, you’ve got to be gentle, you’re handing a nipple,” advised Jen. Of course, blond Jennifer complained about the flies and bugs in the milk. I still can relate. TK pronounced the milk “grainy sweet and warm” after he downed it.
One by one the teams managed to get this task done, but oh, poor, poor, Lorena. She was on her hands and knees weeping in the dirt, in the rain, her calabash empty. At one point, I wanted to jump in the TV and milk that damned camel for her. Poor thing. Watching her suffer was awful in a way. It reminded me of my own hours of desperation while traveling. Always, though, rescue comes. In this case, Julia was the angel of mercy. As she and Marianna were leading their camel caravan off, she told Lorena to milk a camel that had a baby camel near it. Worked like a charm. Soon Lorena’s mouth looked like a “Got Milk?” magazine advertisement after she downed the good stuff.
While people struggled to milk camels, those who finished had to lead four camels through the Savannah to The Detour. This was where the teams had to decide if they wanted to “Teach it” or “Learn it.” Teaching it meant teaching school kids 10 English words, while learning it meant learning 10 Möre words with school kids as teachers. Möre is the language spoken in this part of Burkina Faso. This segment was my other favorite. Part of my Peace Corps job was working in a village school similar to this one. Plus, there’s something fascinating about how people learn. Of course, smarty pants Azaria and Hendekea split their word list in half so each of them only learned five. Maybe they are smarter than the rest of us common folk.
Their brilliance found them finishing in first place. This time this brother and sister duo won a trip to Bermuda. And what does Julia’s goodness get the two sisters? Going home. She and Marianna came in last place. They made it to the detour fine, but got a bit stuck on the language lesson. Lorena and Jason breezed through a little easier, particularly since Jason told Lorena he still loved her despite her serious melt down with the milking task.
See, if Julia had only left Lorena shrieking in the dirt with her spilled milk, these two women that Donald lusted after would still be in the game. But, perhaps Lorena would have ended up in a mental institute and Julia would have felt guilty that she didn’t help when she could have.
**Amazing Race photos from The Amazing Race Official Website
The first thing you need to do is track down your booking reference code. If you booked your ticket online, the airline or travel agent should have sent this to you; if not, you can call the airline, tell them what flight you’re on and they’ll tell you your reference code.
Now you need to check what airplane (or equipment) you’re flying on. This should be available from your online itinerary or again via the phone agent. If you go to your carrier’s website you should be able to plug in your reference code and last name into the front page and bring up your reservation in addition to a variety of other juicy tibits. You should also be able to change your seat from the online itinerary, but you need to hold off on that for now — first you need to cross reference your equipment with Seatguru.
Seatguru is an online database of airlines and seat maps across the board. They cover all of the domestic carriers and a few second tier airlines as well, including information on power, Audio and Video On Demand (AVOD) and meal data. It’s easier to open up Seatguru in another tab or window so you can quickly cross reference seats later.
You’ll see that once you select your carrier a drop-down box of equipment will appear, including the multitude of configurations available for your jet. Since you just checked this online it should be easy to locate your aircraft.
Take a look to see what the best seats on the plane are. These are always highlighted in green and if you hover over them an info box explaining the perks will pop up. Often you’ll also find that that bulkhead or exit seat that you wanted is not as good as it looks – many of those rows can’t recline or have limited legroom. If you can deal with those restrictions for the other perks however, go for it.
Going back to your itinerary that you brought up on your carrier’s website (or calling back the agent at the airline), try selecting new seats from your reservation. Most legacy carriers should allow you do this online, although not all of them permit it. Southwest Airlines, who don’t even assign seats to begin with, comes to mind in this case.
If you’re able to select the seat right now, great. Grab it and run. But chances are, the ideal seat in the bulkhead, exit row or window are taken right now or “not available”. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes airlines will often restrict seats for special flyers or until the last minute. That’s next. Right now, select your “worst-case-scenario” seat — the seat that you’ll accept if you can’t get that ideal that’s taken right now. I like to pick a window seat near the front of the plane.
Continue on to restrictions and openings.
