Travel Log

I traveled to Tulsa-town this weekend to rehearse with the Triibe. We are going to England next month for an international leadership conference, and we have been wanting to prepare some new material.

During my trip here, I had a little fun making notes about odd things I noticed. Here's some of my miscellaneous thoughts:

Generosity Stolen

Location: Las Vegas Airport

Situation: In between flights, at the cashier, buying my personal pan pizza, m&m’s and water. (hey, at least I got water)

Total: $10.96 USD

Cashier: “That’s eleven hundred”, with a slight chuckle at her own ability to break down dollar amounts into the hundreds.

Me: “Oookay, here ya go”, giving her eleven bucks.

Cashier: “Thank you.” She closes the drawer and looks to the next sap.

I say “sure”, or something and walk away.

At first I thought, no biggie, it’s four cents. Then I thought deeper into it.

I would normally say, “please keep the change”, not wanting to deal with the pennies, etc. You see those change cups by registers all the time, and I frequently throw coinage in them. My beef was that I wasn’t given the option to give the money away. I was robbed of that “to give is better than to receive” feeling.

As I ponder my shallowness while waiting at my gate, an m&m bounces off my front tooth as I try to toss it in my mouth, then I realize that I have never thought it odd when a cashier forgives a few cents owed to them, like if a total is $11.04. I pick up the m&m and move on with my life.

On airport bathrooms:

I love going to the bathroom at airports these days. Everything is automated. You don’t have to touch anything that doesn’t belong to you. There is no main door, the toilets & urinals flush automatically, the sink is automatic, now even the soap is automated. The towel dispensers are automatic, but I guess I don’t wave nice enough for them to spit out towels for me. Wave wave wave. Stop, look, wait. Wave wa- there's a towel. Repeat.

On airplane windows:

I’m 6’1”. (and a half – I have to say that as I vainly try to keep up with my oldest son who is about 6’3”) Anyhoo, I’m 6’1”. Tall, but not super tall. Not freakishly Yao-tall. So, why are all airplane windows designed for people 5’4” and below? It’s a neck breaker to take a peep through them.

On airplane comforts:

I have a new invention idea. I know I’ll never market this idea, so you can have it. (just send me a nice gift card if it does well for you) It’s a travel aid called “No Splay”. It would be a simple Velcro strap you wrap around your legs, to keep them together as you nod off in your undersized seat on the plane. This cuts down on the awkward involuntary leg bumping with your neighbors. (thanks Martin for the name)

On window gazing:

While flying, where does that barrier exist between the houses, cars, roads looking like a clean, beautiful and elaborate train set, to just some regular, full-size houses, cars and roads? I think about 50 feet up, there is a magical line where everything transforms to the coolest toy collection ever, and I have always wanted to play with it.