Years ago I blogged about going on my first Mileage Run. What's a Mileage Run? It's a term used among frequent flyers online to describe a trip taken purely for obtaining the points and status awarded in an airline's frequent flyer program. This weekend we're going on a trip to Los Angeles that started as an MR.

I note this trip started as an MR  ( Read more... )

We wrapped up our car shopping weekend with a drive home Sunday afternoon. I wish I could say we drove how in our new car but I cannot. There is no new car yet. We suffered busts Saturday and Sunday in our shopping foray. Both days, though, we did at least learn something about what we want- or don't want. We can focus our search more tightly from ( Read more... )

Saturday evening we felt sluggish. We'd started the day late after a very long drive Friday night, our car shopping was mostly a bust, but at least the pool was relaxing. We were at loose ends. Then around 6:30 I thought, "What about scenic drive?"

Mulholland Drive snakes across the top of the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. It boasts some ( Read more... )

Our first foray in LA for car shopping was a bust. One car was sold, one was in the shop, and 3 were still TBD- to be delivered. Only one car on our short list was available to test. So what did we do? Well, after testing that one car we ate a late lunch (our schedule is still lagging from driving last night until after 2am this morning) and then ( Read more... )

The plan- our revised plan- for Friday night was simple. We'd repack our bags after Hawk got home from work, load them up in our convertible (instead of the SUV, which is our park-it-at-the-airport vehicle), and drive to Valencia, California, in the northern reaches of the Los Angeles metro area. That would set us up well for starting our LA car ( Read more... )

Inland Empire Fail-log
Sitting at my desk - Fri, 28 May 2021. 4:30pm.

Right now I was supposed to be aboard a train on a journey of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and shoes) to Spokane... for the second time this month. Yes, we enjoyed our trip to the Inland Northwest two weeks ago so much that we started planning a return trip before we even ( Read more... )

Air quality in the area the past week has been has been mostly okay. There was one day where it was definitely not in the okay or semi-okay range. That was another " Orange and Blue" day when the sky faded from light blue in east to light orange in the west. (The nearest wildfires are southwest and northwest of us, so smoke generally comes from the ( Read more... )

I'm back home from my bungee trip to Los Angeles. Here's a diary of how things went in this day in the life of a traveling salesman.
Rolling to the Airport
I left my house this morning at 8:15 after calling a car via Uber. It was chilly out as I waited for the car so I wore a thermal vest beneath my sport coat. The wait on the street corner was wasn ( Read more... )

SJC AIrport - Tue, 10 Dec 2019, 9amI'm taking a "bungee" business trip today; out and back in the same day. I fly to Burbank on a 9:50 departure, land at 11, hire a ride out to Woodland Hills, CA, in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, meet with a customer from 2-4pm, then travel back to the airport for a 6:45pm flight home that lands just ( Read more... )

Flying to SJC - Tue, 15 Nov 2019, 9:15pm

I'm drafting this blog from seat 1C at about 10,000' over... Monterey, CA. These flights between SJC and BUR are so short (about 45 minutes wheels-up to touchdown) it feels like right after we level off from the climb we begin descending. And speaking of short, this was only a 28 hour trip to the Valley ( ( Read more... )