Travel Tips I - Patience

For those few readers who don't know (or can't guess) I do a lot of travelling. In the last 3 years I've flown around 325,000 km (200,000 miles). I've spent a lot of time in planes and airports. As a result I have picked up some common mistakes people make and discovered (the hard way) some important tips for travelling relatively hassle free.

I figured "Hey! I have a blog! I can tell people things! Also, the internet needs more of people telling other people what to do." So here's the first post in what will likely be a series of posts on to make your next trip on a plane go a little smoother.

I will make one final prefacing comment.  Although it may sound like I'm just bitching about the things that I think are wrong with air travel (read: air travellers), I really mean to just point out the problems that I see all the time.

Travel Tip #1 - Patience and Planning
The absolute most important thing to keep a day of air travel running smoothly is patience. The hard and fast rule of commercial air travel is "hurry up and wait". You rush to the airport to try to be on time and then stand in line for 20-30 minutes to check in. Then you rush to security only to again stand in line for 20 minutes. After that you get to rush to your gate only to, yet again, have to wait. Finally the big rush starts when you're actually allowed to board the plane...only to result in you getting to your seat and waiting yet again.

This can also be made worse when travelling internationally.  Most airlines will suggest arrival at the airport at least 2-3 hours ahead of time.  I've seen some travel agencies that recommend as much as 4 hours.  If you happen to be flying out at a relatively quiet time of the day in the airport, it can take as little as 30 minutes from arrival at the airport to sitting at your gate.  This results in a huge wait.

Now, let me be clear here: I am NOT advocating arriving at the airport as late as possible.  This is even worse than waiting.  Frequent travelers know exactly when they need to be at the airport to minimize wait time and still allow for delays.  However, that takes years of trial and error to get just right.  If you try to make it so you don't have to wait, you may end up being that guy who is holding up the plane from departing on time.  Don't be that guy.  It makes everyone else hate you and it only adds stress to your day.

Air travel is a slow and inefficient system. It sucks but it's the way things are right now. Delays happen, wait times increase, and lines are long. The simplest solution to all of these problems is to plan for the worst and be prepared for the best.  Simply put, this means arriving at the airport when your airline recommends you arrive.  Every airline has a section on their website that tells you when you need to be checking in.  Some even break it down by airport and tell you when the airport is likely to be very busy (thank you United).  The downside to this plan is if you arrive when you're told to and everything goes smoothly, you will have a bit of a wait.  The extra time is for when everything goes wrong.  You don't want to need that time.

Simply put: plan to wait.  Bring a good book/eReader/iPad/whatever, find a seat, and get comfy.

Random Start to 2011

It's another year and time for a few random tidbits scoured from the last week of internet babble.

This week, Jaunted had a really interesting story that they picked up from the National Geographic blog.  Flickr user Eric Fischer has combined geotags and photography habits of thousands of pictures from both Flicker and Picasa and turned them into a map of where locals and tourists frequently hang out in major cities.  It provides a unique view of cities such as London, New York, Hong Kong, and more in terms of where the hot spots are and where tourists generally don't go.  It's rather fascinating and utterly addictive to flick through these maps.

But now this post will take a sharp turn from "kinda random and interesting" to "WHAT?!"

First, filed under "who cares," Time reported that a group of astronomers have come out saying that astrologers are completely wrong as to which dates apply to which zodiac signs.  The result is two-fold: most people get moved to the sign before the one they're accustomed to and people born in early December now belong to the new "Ophiuchus" sign.  Many people have been making a big deal of this saying that they're quite happy with the sign that they're used to having.

However, the reality is that astrology hasn't really changed.  Most Western astrologers agree that the Western (or tropical) zodiac is fixed unlike the Eastern (or sidereal) zodiac.  Moreover, since astrology asserts that the position of the stars relative to the Earth determines a person's personality, a change in signs would imply that EVERY PERSON ON EARTH is about to go through a massive personality change.

Lastly this week, filed under "oh come on...SERIOUSLY?!," the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (aka the CBSC, Canada's equivalent of the American FCC) has banned the Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing" from all Canadian radio stations.  On first glance this isn't something shocking.  Many new songs with constant profane language and questionable subject manner get banned.  Oh wait...Money For Nothing is a 25 year old song about a grumpy delivery man.

The controversy, apparently, stems from a single complaint from someone in Newfoundland over the song's use of the word fag/faggot.  Now, I do realize that this word is considered quite offensive to someone of the LGBT crowd.  However, the song is from the point of view of a bigoted, idiotic delivery man complaining about rock stars on MTV who just play guitar and get "money for nothing and chicks for free."  The slur is not directed at a homosexual.  The word is being taken completely out of context.

On a lighter note relating to this subject, this ban has resulted in this song getting massive media attention, and much more play time on radio stations as well as TV news reports.  Ironically, the TV news doesn't seem to be subject to the same ban on the word fag as they often seem to play the offending part of the song to illustrate the "problem".

Also, I must extend kudos to Edmonton's K-97 radio station who played the song unedited and back-to-back in a one hour marathon on Friday.

A Salute to the Matrix

Back in August 2008, right before a major turning point in our relationship (our decision to move in together), Michelle purchased her first brand new car. It was a 2009 Toyota Matrix XR in silver. Very shortly afterward, I drove up to Edmonton during a stretch of days off to drive Michelle and a friend of hers down to their new place in Vancouver -- about 1200km to the SE for those who don't know Western Canada. The plan was to pack the Matrix up to the gills with their stuff and take it on the long journey to the best coast.

And so we went, departing around 1pm, if I recall; and for some reason, I remember picking up a Philly cheese steak pizza from Panago near Michelle's place just before heading out.

The trip went without a hitch, and I exercised the car quite well on the sparsely travelled Highway 5 in BC.

After arriving in Vancouver, we set about buying the sort of things that people tend to buy when they first move out on their own. Mattress, bed frame, small kitchen appliances, and, of course, all the little things you don't realize are essential until you leave your parents' abode.

The Matrix did a fantastic job hauling all of these things, and even just a few weeks ago, I hauled home a new queen size bedframe, 2 coffee tables, and a crib, all at once from Ikea, merely by folding down one of the rear and passenger seats. I have never seen a car of that size haul some of the things we hauled over our two and half years of ownership. We also used the car to move a bunch of things back to Alberta in early 2010, after a year and half of inflating our supply of pointless consumer goods in Vancouver.

Anyway, back in 2008, after leaving Michelle on her own for about 3 weeks, I took a few days off work and went down to visit her. After I arrived, we decided to go to Victoria for a couple of days to visit my cousin.

So, the Matrix crossed the Strait of Georgia, fortunately on one of the ferries that didn't involve the crew briefly setting aside their navigational duties for a ship-sinking orgy.

While in Victoria, I decided that instead of just heading back to Vancouver, we should take a different ferry across the US border to Port Angeles, and do a tour down US Route 101, the Pacific Coast Highway.

This trip took us through the Twilight land of Forks, Washington (don't ask why I know this), and eventually to our chosen destination of Seaside, Oregon. As another useless movie reference -- I do these things -- we passed through Astoria, OR, which is the setting of Kindergarten Cop, an epic Schwarzenegger film.

Don't let the 5.8/10 rating scare you away, it rates a solid 10 in my book; I mean, come on, the scene with the line "I'm the party pooper" alone makes the entire movie worth watching.

Along the way, somewhere near the Olympic National Forest, a mentally-deficient Blacktail deer made a permanent facial imprint in the passenger door of Michelle's barely month-old car (with me at the wheel). We were driving along at 80kph, when I noticed a couple of deer waiting near the side of the road to cross. I slowed down, and on a side note, one of the annoying things in the US is that they do not seem to cut the trees back from the edge of the roads at all, and carried on after they crossed. A few moments later there was a loud bang and an impact. I pulled over, fearing the worst (that the front end of the car would be totalled), and got out of the car. As I got to the front of the car, I sighed with relief, as there was no damage. Passing around to the other side, however, I saw a massive dent in the passenger door, and no sign of the deer (I was hoping it died, as some sort of offset to the vehicular damage).

Save your wildlife comments, I believe in the Simpsons' food-chain.

We enjoyed a couple of days on the beach in Seaside, and some wicked seafood, and drove back on the interstate, stopping at the then brand new Tulalip Casino, which was conveniently located to the Seattle Premium Outlets.

I recall putting the odometer over 3500km within a month of Michelle's acquisition of the car.

The Matrix served us well on many other trips, summing to the 46,000km on it at the time of our departure.

We visited SeaTac many times to avoid insane Canadian airline prices and airport customs, Whistler, Osoyoos, and did many cross-province trips from Vancouver to Edmonton and Calgary numerous times, and from Calgary to Regina Beach, Saskatchewan twice. Once we moved to Airdrie, the Matrix served me well as a commuter car when the weather was not Miata-friendly. We also made countless trips from Airdrie to Edmonton.

All in all, despite the fact that it never would have made my shortlist if I was the one doing the shopping, the Matrix did everything we asked of it without complaint, and is the new holder of the record of "longest term of car ownership" for me, surpassing the previous holder, my old 2005 Dodge SRT-4, by 3 months.

May it serve the new owners well.

For anyone who cares, I replaced the Matrix with the new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Fantastic car.

A little look at some of our road trips with it: