The Goodrums

Wednesday through Saturday I headed back to Washington, D.C. for a series of stakeholder meetings.

The trip began somewhat poorly. I woke up at 4am to catch my 6am flight out of Jackson. When 6am came and went, I marched back down – out through security – to find out what on earth was going on since a gate agent had never showed up at the gate (I was at the gate more than an hour and 15 minutes prior to the flight). It turned out that the crew the prior evening hadn’t arrived on time – had arrived after midnight. The FAA mandates that crews get at least 8 hours in their hotel room. While I am glad for the safety aspect of that regulation, I sure wish that some group mandated that I had to be in bed for at least 8 hours a night – especially given those 2 and 3 hour nights during our conference last week. Anyway, we finally left Jackson at almost 9am. It wouldn’t have upset me nearly as much if I hadn’t had to get up at 4am to scurry to my flight. I could have slept for at least another 3 hours. Could they have let me know the later flight time before I got out of bed at 4am?? On top of that, every time I have flown out of Jackson lately (for at least the past 4 or 5 flights) we have encountered a significant delay (in the realm of 2, 3, 4+ hours). It’s really getting old.

Thankfully, I had several hours between the initial flight and the connecting flight – so I made my connection without a problem. I had hoped to catch an earlier flight so that I could have more time to spend with the Goodrums in D.C. on Wednesday afternoon – but no such luck. I arrived around 4pm and was able to spend the remaining time I had that day with them (they left D.C. early on Thursday for a trip back to Albuquerque for a week). On the way to D.C. I realized that, during the month of June, I have spent more time in D.C. than I have at home. I have spent 11 days (June 1-7, 14-17) in D.C. and only 6 days (June 8-13) in Jackson. Crazy, I tell you… Crazy…

On Wednesday evening, I had fun exploring with Mom Goodrum. She came up with a list of fun things that she wanted to check out – and we went to town.

First, she wanted to find the images of Moses and the Ten Commandments on the Supreme Court building. As many times as I have walked by the Supreme Court building, I have never looked for Moses and the Ten Commandments. There are is an image on the exterior of the building and a couple on the interior. Unfortunately, we got there after interior visitation had been closed for the day. However, we were able to find the Moses on the outside of the building. It’s quite a challenge to get around the perimeter of the building now that security is heightened in D.C. We finally found Moses on the back side of the Supreme Court building – on Second Street. I had actually never walked down Second Street. There were several interesting things back there – a Shakespeare Museum, an interesting sculpture, a “Florida House” (similar to an embassy for Florida residents), beautiful row homes, and many other interesting people and businesses.















Moses and the Ten Commandments















Mom G with a fun sculpture - I think it might have been at the Florida House

After the Supreme Court building, I showed Mom G around Union Station. It was fun to go through there with her. She’d never been to Union Station before – and I’ve been so many times that it’s gotten routine. It was fun to rediscover some of the beauty and charm of Union Station. After a while of running through D.C. hotspots at breakneck speed, you forget to notice much of the details and beauty. I was glad to be able to slow down for a minute and “smell the roses” so to speak.

From Union Station, we took the Metro to Foggy Bottom and headed over to the Kennedy Center. The Kennedy Center is a huge performing arts center – and it was on Mom G’s list of things to do. We toured the center, looked out on the gorgeous view of the Potomac river and then listened to a free “Persian Jazz” (see June 14) concert by a former Doors drummer, John Densmore. Quite the experience! Dad Goodrum eventually met us at the Kennedy Center. He had to park clear over on Roosevelt Island (island in the Potomac River dedicated as a memorial to Teddy Roosevelt). After the concert finished, we walked back over to Roosevelt Island (about a 20 minute walk) and toured the monument. I had never been to this monument so it was fun to see something new. Here’s a picture of Mom and Dad Goodrum from our brief tour of the island:




















Dad and Mom Goodrum with Teddy Roosevelt

We explored a good portion of the D.C. metro area getting to dinner but maps are overrated! :) We ate dinner in a cute little area called Shirlington at a restaurant called Carlyle Grande café. Good food, good company! After we finished dinner, we went back to Mom & Dad G’s little abode and I caught the Metro up to my hotel in the Bethesda, Maryland area.

Two days of meetings later, I was exhausted and ready to head home. Unfortunately, the meetings ran into afternoon – which makes getting home all the way to Jackson near to impossible. So I was instead forced to take a Saturday morning flight. Saturday morning I got up before the crack of dawn and had to take a cab to the airport when I found out that the Metro wasn’t running that early. I got to the airport early so was able to jump on an earlier flight to Houston. I was in Houston by 9am. My connecting flight wasn’t until 1:30 in the afternoon so the first thing I did was to go to the gate of an earlier flight at 10:30am to see if I could connect to Jackson early. I had also looked at the Doppler radar when I got to Houston and seen a massive storm system moving into the Houston area. As much as I travel, I know what that does to airports – so I was ready to do about anything to get on that early flight to Jackson.

Unfortunately it didn’t happen. For some reason the gate agent working that flight seemed to have something against me – from the very beginning. I was first on his standby list – I had been told that by several agents, including him. Yet, when he cleared the list – he cleared two other passengers and not me.

Sure enough, the storm system moved in and shut down the entire airport for 3 hours. Nothing took off and nothing landed from 11am until 1:30/1:45pm. The airport turned into a campground and chaos began. The "10:30am" eventually left – very late around 2:30 pm but at least it got out of the airport. I had been confirmed on the supposed 1:30 flight – which was cancelled. Then began the Russian Roulette of gambling for seats aboard the 4pm and 7pm flights. I love how they say the weather is “not their fault.” Like you – the passenger – can control it either. You would think it would be their obligation to get you where they told you they would get you sometime in the timeframe of when they told you they would have you there. Sometimes I swear that airline companies are out to get you. Even my usual favorite is on my last nerve today. Between the outbound flight and the inbound flight…

So I spent 12 hours in the Houston airport. Just what I wanted to do with my Saturday. Joy of all joys. I finally arrived home around 9pm after a heck of a day. The final flight jockeying was the most fun. By the time all was said and done - the 4pm flight was boarding at 7pm. Again, I was the #1 standby passenger on the "4 pm" flight. All the way across the terminal, the "7pm" flight - on which I had a confirmed seat - showed it was also on time. So I was left to gamble between which gate to stay at. I went over and checked on the 7pm flight - they had a plane but no crew... and had no idea of when a crew would be arriving. They might board in 5 minutes - or 2 hours - or never at all. On the other side of the airport, the "4pm" flight had a plane and a crew and was boarding - but I had no clue if they had any seats available and if I would make it on that flight on standby. If I left the gate of the "7pm" flight, I could miss that flight - on which I had a confirmed seat. But the "7pm" flight wasn't guaranteed to actually take off. I finally made a decision to run across the airport and see what would happen with the "4pm" standby list. Of course, it took them 15 minutes or so to actually clear the standby list (all the while I'm terribly nervous that I'm going to miss my confirmed flight - since it's now around 7:15). Thankfully, I did get a seat on the "4pm" flight that left at 7:30pm. I was so thankful to finally be on a plane back to Jackson. I was even more grateful on Sunday morning - when I checked to find out the final arrival time for the "7pm" flight to find out that it had been cancelled. People that didn't make flights yesterday were looking at being stuck in Houston until Monday or Tuesday.

Not long ago, Michael read an article in the New York Times about how air travel this summer was going to be just awful. They sure weren't kidding!

In the meantime, Michael spent Saturday helping with the car care clinic at church. The car care clinic is a (virtually) free car maintenance service that guys at the church provide to single women, elderly, etc. in our community. They do stuff like oil changes, tire rotations, fluid checks, air filter changes and the like. They offer the service every quarter. Michael helps out regularly …and at least he got to do something productive with his day.

Afterward, Michael got to watch the US v. Italy world cup game (and several other games) with our neighbor. Michael’s been a FifaWorldCup.com fanatic in the past week or so – watching the world cup unfold. I guess your soccer roots never really leave you. I didn’t even interrupt him by arriving into Jackson during the game (my original flight would have arrived at 3pm – in the middle of the game). Lucky duck! :)

Unfortunately we’re traveling again in a few weeks. After this week’s travails, it would be fine with me if I didn’t have to fly again for a very long time. Thankfully the next trip is a vacation trip and not a work trip – and hopefully it will be a much smoother ride next time around.















A moment of beauty after a very long day