Day 24: San Diego to Dayton (and my views on air travel)

So, I made an executive decision and decided that my roadtrip day count will include my time at the conference, as I was still technically away from home and doing something in a new part of the country (believe me, I have thought way too long about this fact).

So, the NACURH conference ended today, and I made the journey across the country to continue my adventure. As my conference co-advisor Esther so eloquently put it yesterday, "[I] am flying 3,000 miles away to end up about two hours away (in LA) two weeks from now". Well when you put it that way, it does seem a little backwards...

Anyway, the conference committee had the tough task today of getting over 2,000 people to the airport at various times. I was not envious of their planning! They had different shuttles planned and different times and scheduled us for them. Since my flight was at 6:30am, I got one of the earliest shuttle times - 3:45am. Ouch! If you know me, you know I love to sleep more than anything else. However, I respected the rules of the conference and diligently followed their schedule (don't worry, I went to bed at 10pm the night before so I at least got 5 hours of sleep).

I was under the presumption that the shuttle would leave at 3:45am, make a bunch of stops, and I would still get to the airport on time. I was right in that, but my timing was off. We did make a few stops, and I did get to the airport before my flight left - around 4:15am. Seriously, I got there so early that the check-in kiosks weren't open yet. I got there so early that I was the only person in the security line. I got there so early that Starbucks wasn't open yet. Crazy! I got through security and was in front of my gate at about 4:35am and waited around for my flight. Slept through most of the first flight (probably snored a lot but who knows?) and connected in Denver for my flight to Dayton. Got in at around 3:15pm EST.

So, my thoughts on air travel. Since I moved out of California three years ago I have done a lot of flying back and forth across the country. I don't know anyone who actually likes flying (if you do more power to you), but I certainly don't dislike it or am afraid of it. I think I am more annoyed by the whole process. It is like we remove all notions of personal space bubbles from our American society but still don't have any collegiality. So it's not that I mind standing/sitting so close to people, I just mind that we have to ignore each other in polite silence and pretend like this isn't an uncomfortable situation.

Also, I don't think I am made to fly. I am tall and not the smallest person on the planet, so I am pretty much shoehorned into some of those seats. And I normally don't have the attention span to sit in one space for such a long period of time. AND I really don't take instructions well from others (don't I sound like a model employee? Thanks for your patience Mr. Lamsma...). So flying is not so much my cup of tea, especially after this road trip, where I have gotten very used to calling my own shots in a much more relaxed setting. Off the soapbox I go...

Anyway, got back to Dayton, sat through some traffic on I-75, and got to Megan's apartment. Megan was still at work, so I unpacked a little, showered, and finally felt like my day was started. Headed down to the Dayton mall to have dinner with Chelsey and caught up on some of the new surrounding her life - always a good time.

After that, I headed back up to Dayton and met up with Jenna and went to watch a Beatles cover band (named Ticket to Ride) at the Fraze Pavilion. I am not much of a Beatles superfan, so here's how I ended up at the concert.

[Conversation taking place last week]

Jenna: Do you want to see a Beatles cover band at the Fraze the Thursday you are back in town?

Me: Does the Fraze serve beer during their shows?

Jenna: Yes.

Me: Then yes.

It was still a fun concert, even past the beer (and free Krispy Kremes handed out). The Fraze is a mini-amphitheatre type concert venue with lots of grass and bleachers seating, so it is always fun to scope out who is dancing in a ridiculous way. Jenna and I were scouring the crowd, looking for the funniest middle-aged female dancers, when I noticed that the men sitting to the left of us were pointing and laughing at Jenna. So we were looking for the weirdest dancer, but the one place we didn't look...was at Jenna. Touche.

After the concert we walked back to Megan's house and ate some cake with her and Andrea. I had mentioned the delicious idea of a orange creamsicle flavored cake before I left for the conference, and those two managed to make it happen (despite the criticisms and sarcastic comments from Jenna and myself).

All in all, a good day! Tomorrow I leave Dayton for good (weird since it's been my home post for the past three weeks) and head on down to Nashville for the weekend!