Day Eight - The Return

Day Eight – The Return Home

Again, I would like to give the advice I mentioned on the first day of this trip regarding luggage. Go with the larger suitcase that is not packed completely full over a smaller suitcase that is jam packed. It doesn’t weigh less because the suitcase is smaller, and the larger, less full suitcase allows room for items that were accumulated during the trip. Items like the Padres souvenir cup that was purchased and left sitting under my seat at the ball game (idiot!).

For those who have not been to the San Diego Airport, it can be rather confusing. All drop offs for departures and pickups for arriving flights are on the same level, so when the cab driver dropped me off and I walked in the doors and saw the baggage claim area, I was a bit confused. The signage at the airport was not real great either, and it took me a while to realize I had to go up a level for the check in area. Once I was through security, I realized what a bad layout they have in the gate area. The gates are basically in the hallway, creating tons of crowding and congestion when people hurry to get in line and wait to board the plane. The seating area to wait on the planes is basically one giant area, situated around a bunch of different gates. This adds to the mystery of wondering which person at your gate will be the one sitting next to you on the plane. With so many gates sitting in one area, you also have to wonder who exactly will be on your flight.

The flight home was long, but survivable. I did come to one realization that anyone who has flown will understand, and that is the fact that it is impossible to sleep comfortably on a plane. No matter what I did, I could not completely fall asleep. When I did, I would wake up with my head tilted in some awkward position that made my neck hurt. Not only that, but I had the constant fear that being in one of those awkward positions would lead to sleeping with my mouth open and drooling. Therefore, I did everything I could to keep from falling asleep, despite my tiredness, just to make sure I didn’t embarrass myself. After landing in St. Louis, the adventure had just begun. The arrival time was scheduled for 5:53 pm. When we touched down, they announced local time at 5:55 pm. Not bad. We then proceeded to pull off the runway, and sit nowhere close to the terminal as we waited on another plane that was at our gate. Great scheduling by American Airlines. We sat for a good 15 minutes, and finally started rolling towards the terminal, only to see that the other plane was still at our gate. We waited some more. Finally, we pulled into our gate at 6:20 pm. After departing the plane, I stopped by the restroom then went to baggage claim, where the adventure continued. American Airlines had another flight that had arrived just ahead of ours, and then our flight. I know that two fights landing within a half hour of each other can be taxing on the baggage crew, but seriously. I waited for a good 20 minutes before bags from our plane started to appear at terminal M2, despite the fact that we were told our bags would come out on terminal M1. Mine was obviously the last one off the place as it took forever. Finally, around 6:50 pm, my bag appeared and I left for the metrolink station, only to find that the escalator was not on. This led to a walk across the airport to the other side and up another escalator, then back the way I came. I left the airport terminal at 6:55 pm, exactly one hour after our plane touched down. Way to go St. Louis Airport!

As I got home from the trip, there were several things that stood out in my mind as having noticed during my week long venture.

Strollers and Kids
Isn’t there an age or size limit on when kids are too old for a stroller? I saw so many parents pushing around a stroller with kids who were way too old/big to be in a stroller. Make the kid walk for crying out loud. No wonder American society is getting fatter and lazier. I realize the zoo and Sea World are exemptions to some of this, especially those kids at the border line age/size, and getting tired with all the walking in those places. I’m talking about other areas though, like around the hotel and shopping areas. When there’s a 9 or 10-year old kid in a stroller, I think that’s a bit much.

Stroller SizesS
Speaking of strollers, what is up with these SUV type strollers now days? Why is it a stroller has to be twice as big as the 6 year old kid riding in it? Some of these strollers were bigger than my car. Not only does this seem ridiculous, but it does nothing but get in the way as these idiot parents push these gigantic strollers in crowded places and bump into everyone around. These must be the same parents with the giant SUV who bang into things in parking lots.

Overweight People
This is a touchy subject for some, but I noticed a lot of overweight people walking around. Sadly, most of them were others at my conference and in my profession. It made me wonder though, with all the walking I did to see all the sites, how could these people weighting 300-plus pounds, or even the short, dumpy people, move around without getting exhausted? I saw numerous overweight people who were stopped and sitting and breathing heavily after a five-minute walk. This cannot be healthy. I felt kind of bad for some of them, as I realized that there was no way they could have seen and done all the things I did without spending an extra $100 on cab fares to get everywhere – like 10 blocks down the street. It also came to my attention at the Padres game, wondering how the 300-pound woman next to me managed to squeeze into that seat. It couldn’t have been comfortable to sit there for three hours.

Airports Good for People Watching
I think airports have to be one of the best places in the world to people watch. I spent an hour in the San Diego Airport just sitting there watching others. There’s such a wide variety of people and characters and personalities, and so many different situations and moods they could be in at an airport, that it is sometimes comical to just sit and watch.

Cell Phones are Killing Politeness and Manners
This is something I have noticed for a while now, but it was very apparent during this trip for some reason, and that is the rudeness that cell phones have brought into our society. I’m not going to say cell phones are evil, I tend to like mine very much. However, I think that some people should have their cell phone privileges revoked until they learn some common manners. The list of violations are many and not worth going into detail about, that will come in a later post at some other time. I’ll just say that cell phones seem to be the cause of a lot of rudeness in society, and it appears to be getting worse.