Weekend in The Cities

Here it is Sunday morning...too soon even to eat breakfast. So, what to do? Write, I thought, as I tested for WiFi; and yes, they have it here at Park Inn.

Got in at eight as scheduled (after our plane in GR was sidelined for maintenance and they rolled another up to the gate). Cool trip. I got my laptop andGPS goin...found I could get reception from four satalites when I held the receiver by the window. So I watched our postition across Lake M and through Wisconsin...and our altitude...and our speed. We go in and I found my way to to the right area, but then I waited for the shuttle; ten minutes, fifteen minutes. Then I called"...be right there." Twenty minutes, thirty minutes...I called again. "Had more people than we thought, have to get the big shuttle out...be right there." Well, they did have a load. NW must have had a plane problem so they started passing out vouchers to stay in hotels and about fifteen people were going to mine. They were stressed.

I thought, "You know, I am going no where until Sunday evening...I can really be a gentleman tonight." So I was last one on the shuttle, last in line to check in, ah yes, it is easy to be a gentleman when you know your time is not pressed. Those poor souls were putting in for 4:15 wakeup calls for the five a.m. shuttle back to the airport.

I have a suite...Park Inn and Suites (including a Jacuzzi tub, king size bed and two TVs), which is within walking distance of Circuit City, Michaels (fat chance I'll go in there) Fudruckers, Staples...you name it...AND the place where the conference is being held. Good spot.

I meet up with Dan today and we begin our thing. But before that there is breakfast, the pool and all that football to watch starting an hour earlier. And oh yes, Penn State cleaned Minnesota's clock yesterday, so the local news and Sunday papers will be full of that...The Cities must be football heaven for me on this Sunday, October 2. Happy Birthday to Hillery Hansen, there must me more, but she is the only one I can recall off the top of my head.