Useless Conversation

[Mrbloodworth]

Anyone know how you go about landing at a municipal airport?

Ask Buddy Holly?

 

How far is it from a real town?  If it's less than 2 hours, fly there and drive the rest of the way. 

Part of the problem is, any flight to the next real town, thats only 20 min away. Has an in air flight time of 2 hours, but total trip time of 11. 

[Strazos]

Wait...what?

[Viin]

Some carriers only do 1 trip a day to reliever/smaller airports, so you'd have to wait for that one.

Not worth it, just drive. Or, quick, get your private pilots license, rent a plane in Pittsburgh and fly yourself!

[Merusk]

Looked into seeing if there's any charter flights?  Might even turn out to be cheaper than the damn airline ticket AND you can skip all the TSA nonsense.

There's a few local charters that go to DC, Chicago and I think Atlanta.  They cost ~$500 and you can book them a few days in advance for the same price.  Guys in the office who have used them say you get full meals, bigass muffins and nicely sized seats.  The only "bad thing" is you're flying into and out of the municipal airports instead of the internationals, meaning a little more drive time once in town.

[ghost]

Unless it's dead square in the middle of Pennsylvania (I'm too lazy to look at a map) it seems to me you'd be better off to just fly into Picksburg or Philly and drive the 3-4 hours to get to where you need to be. 

[Mrbloodworth]

Looked into seeing if there's any charter flights?  Might even turn out to be cheaper than the damn airline ticket AND you can skip all the TSA nonsense.

There's a few local charters that go to DC, Chicago and I think Atlanta.  They cost ~$500 and you can book them a few days in advance for the same price.  Guys in the office who have used them say you get full meals, bigass muffins and nicely sized seats.  The only "bad thing" is you're flying into and out of the municipal airports instead of the internationals, meaning a little more drive time once in town.

I did look, but I did not see anything under 5k. If you have tips or links to sites, perhaps I can look into it for next time.

At this point in the game, we will simply split the drive by 4 hours. 4 hours is under my stabby threshold.

[Sky]

Do you guys really not do road trips? 9 hours to Maine isn't too bad. 4 hours to Vermont is nothing, a nice morning drive. Driving to Florida will push my limits, though.

Fiancee is learning how to really travel, though. It involves avoiding the highways as much as possible and exploring America's cool little byways. But then, we enjoy each other's company 

[ghost]

Fuck, you gotta drive 4 hours just to get out of San Antonio.   

[MuffinMan]

I've never really been on a road trip I've enjoyed. The problem is whenever I drive for a long period of time it's always to get somewhere as fast as possible and I have time restrictions. I think I need to take a REAL road trip with no planned destination to really enjoy it.

[rattran]

A few books to listen to on the drive, some good music to break things up, and road trips go pretty fast. The Chicago to Phoenix drive I do each spring always seems eternal though.

[ghost]

Once you hit desert I find road trips to be a real bitch.  Or driving through Kansas/Oklahoma.

[Merusk]

Do you guys really not do road trips? 9 hours to Maine isn't too bad. 4 hours to Vermont is nothing, a nice morning drive. Driving to Florida will push my limits, though.

Fiancee is learning how to really travel, though. It involves avoiding the highways as much as possible and exploring America's cool little byways. But then, we enjoy each other's company 

*I* Do road trips for personal travel because:
1) Ever price a flight for 4 people?  It would cost me $1300 to fly into Orlando if I booked a flight in October today.  I paid ~$240 in gas for the entire round-trip when I did it in '08
2) By the time you deal with layovers, time at the airport, time collecting baggage, airport security and rental cars you're damn near even time-wise on anything less than 5 hours or not cross-country.

Driving to FLA takes me 14h, flying there would take 10.  Driving to D.C. is 9hours, flying is 4.  Flying times are also dependent on if the plane leaves on time.    The 4-5 hours you "save" aren't doing you any good when they're packed with the stress and nonsense of dealing with airports.   Plus you get to stop whenever you want and look at things when driving. It's not worth it for the extra cost.

Business travel is another matter, though.  Company pays, we charge the client and those 4-5h do make a difference because of meetings, hotel stays, etc.

BW: No suggestions on finding charters.  I just knew that some guys here who travel a lot more than I do had used a few.  I thought it might be something you could hunt down.  They were all through smaller local guys tho, not places who advertise it as Private Jets, like Blue Star.

[Rasix]

You couldn't pay me to drive for more than 4 hours at a time, especially now with a 2 year old.

[Merusk]

Driving with kids is the best driving of all!

Then again, I also grew-up doing road trips at least once a summer with 3 siblings.  I'm quite used to it and now so are the kids.

[Rasix]

Yah, I hated that shit as a kid too. 

[Sky]

People who think driving on vacation is about getting somewhere as quickly as possible, using the biggest highways with as few stops as you can manage? They don't vacation with me twice. I've broken people like that more than once :)

I love exploring and finding cool and interesting places. Our favorite places to stay are all from just driving around and going "Hey, that place looks cool!" We spent a night at the Waybury, which is the inn the Newhart show was based on, just because it was on the way to a hike and we didn't know where we were going to stay that night. She's still a bit of a worrier about having a place to stay, I'm perfectly ok just playing it off the cuff, it always seems to work out just fine. In fact, any vacation where we plan ahead seems to be the least enjoyable. My ideal vacation is just picking a direction and driving, going where the road takes you.

[Nebu]

You couldn't pay me to drive for more than 4 hours at a time, especially now with a 2 year old.

I just drove at night.  The motion of the car helps them sleep.  It's a win-win.

[ghost]

You couldn't pay me to drive for more than 4 hours at a time, especially now with a 2 year old.

Fuck yes.  No driving with small children. 

[WayAbvPar]

I am sort of in Sky's camp. I like to take a bit longer to travel if possible- I loathe driving on the freeway for long stretches. I worked as a courier and dispatcher for most of the 90s, so I know all about driving places quickly. Now I like to see the sites.

[Bunk]

I grew up with a dad who thinks its perfectly normal to load the family in to the truck and drive five hours straight without stopping to see a sight for an hour, then hop back in the truck and drive back. We learned to interpret dad time as being 1/3 of real time when we asked him how far away something was.

Mind you, he spent nearly a year doing a twice a week commute between Langley and Campbell River (2.5 hours driving + 1.5 hour ferry) for work without batting an eye. The man just likes to drive.

[Mrbloodworth]

If this was just a leisurely drive, sure, maybe. Its 8 hours of boring, boring car ride. I can't sleep in a car, the GF does not have this issue, 30 min after I take the wheel, she will be out.

Splitting it up in 4 hour chunks is a fine compromise. In two weeks, ill be in Disney world in an hour.

[Sky]

I can't really sleep in a car anymore. The last THREE times I fell asleep in a vehicle, I've woken up to imminent collision with an 18-wheeler that was only prevented by me waking up and yelling.

THREE TIMES.

edited for clarification: I was not the driver in any of those instances 

[ghost]

I absolutely, 100% of the time have to drive.  I get so car sick that I can't ride with anyone else.  Plus everyone else I know drives like shit.   

[Minvaren]

Well, I found out why there's been no water pressure at my house the last week or so...

700 water main breaks per day in Houston.   

[MisterNoisy]

*I* Do road trips for personal travel because:
2) By the time you deal with layovers, time at the airport, time collecting baggage, airport security and rental cars you're damn near even time-wise on anything less than 5 hours or not cross-country.

Driving to FLA takes me 14h, flying there would take 10.  Driving to D.C. is 9hours, flying is 4.  Flying times are also dependent on if the plane leaves on time.    The 4-5 hours you "save" aren't doing you any good when they're packed with the stress and nonsense of dealing with airports.   Plus you get to stop whenever you want and look at things when driving. It's not worth it for the extra cost.

Oh god, yes - the best parts about driving compared to flying are the accommodations and the company.  Everything else (cost/time) is a wash, but being in my comfy private road capsule beats the ever loving crap out of dealing with flying in it's current form.  It was bad before the TSA crap - now it's about even with getting kicked in the junk for eight hours straight on the list of 'things I'd rather not do'.

[Nebu]

Well, I found out why there's been no water pressure at my house the last week or so...

700 water main breaks per day in Houston.   

Texas doesn't care about spending money on silly things like infrastructure. 

[Yegolev]

Infrastructure is for liberals.

Also, not enough Groundhog Day jokes.

[JWIV]

Infrastructure is for liberals.

Also, not enough Groundhog Day jokes.

If only that were true - Maryland wouldn't be  rushing around like its the end of the world since raiding the transportation fund for two decades instead of spending it on things like I dunno FIXING A GOD DAMN BRIDGE OR THREE, seems to have finally caught up to us.

[Selby]

People who think driving on vacation is about getting somewhere as quickly as possible, using the biggest highways with as few stops as you can manage? They don't vacation with me twice. I've broken people like that more than once :)

You guys also live in a part of the country where there is such thing as scenery and beauty.  San Diego to San Francisco?  Mostly barren farm land and urban sprawl for 8 hours.  LA to Phoenix\New Mexico?  All barren desert and quite a bit of urban sprawl.  El Paso to San Antonio?  Kill me fucking now, there isn't a damn thing there and you pray the few gas stations along the way are open for business when you need them to be.

[Strazos]

The drive up to VT from NJ is a bitch.

[Sand]

End of the month you wont have me to kick around for a bit.
29th is colonoscopy. 30th I go under the knife to have a laprascopic colectomy (partial removal of the colon using laprascopic surgery).

If everything goes well and there are no infections I should be out and at home recovering within 3 days.
If you dont hear from me by the 5th of September I request donations to be made to Outdoor Alliance the F13 server fund in lieu of flowers.  


Edit: Fixed it for myself.

[Mrbloodworth]

Bummer, good luck dude. Hope all goes well.

[Morat20]

Well, I found out why there's been no water pressure at my house the last week or so...

700 water main breaks per day in Houston.   

Texas doesn't care about spending money on silly things like infrastructure. 

It's not Texas. It's pretty much everywhere. Bridges, pipes, roads -- all the stuff that underlies modern society is old and breaking.

[Rasix]

Fucking VMware. 

[MisterNoisy]

End of the month you wont have me to kick around for a bit.
29th is colonoscopy. 30th I go under the knife to have a laprascopic colectomy (partial removal of the colon using laprascopic surgery).

Ack - good luck.

So my workplace got a Keurig machine for the break room, etc.  Does anyone actually like these things, because the coffee I tried from it tasted like Satan's own beer shits.