I am not counting Pennsylvania or Nevada in my trip since I’m only using the airports, but I do think they deserve an honorable mention since I have visited there for actual non-transportation related activities in the distant past. I decided to fly PHL -> LAS -> SLC on Southwest where “Bags Fly Free” (screw you Delta). Even though LGA is closer, PHL has fewer hassles.

Southwest has at least three aircraft that are painted to resemble Shamu from Sea World. I was excited to see one of these aircraft landing as I got to my gate. Unfortunately she parked at a different gate so I flew on a jet with the standard Southwest color. Our flight was delayed out of PHL by about 45 minutes, but they made up time and arrived at LAS on time. One of the passengers remarked, “If they can fly this fast when they are late, then why can’t they always fly this fast?” Well, I can think of at least two reasons:

1. Fuel economy, it costs more and consumes more fuel to fly faster.
2. Scheduling on the assumption that all aircraft will fly as fast as possible, without any hiccups or technical problems would mean delays would be more disruptive to the system as a whole, flights waiting for delayed aircraft would snowball and we’d all be late for dinner.

but thanks for thinking about yourself.

Philadelphia, which was once the capitol of the United States, has tones of historical interest in it. The thing that had me drive down twice when I was still living in New York State was the USS Olympia, which I mentioned is parked on the opposite bank to the USS New Jersey. The Olympia is interesting because it represents a transition period when the navies of the world were switching from wooden to steel warships. Even though the outside is steel and bristling with guns, much of the inside is slightly warped wood, reminding me of an old hotel with twisting hallways I stayed at in Warwick. It’s also interesting for its historic role in the Spanish American War when it was Commodore Dewey’s flagship in the Battle of Manila Bay.

When I got off the plane in Vegas they had done away with the terminal and brought us directly to the casino. Seriously… there are no clocks (in an airport) and more space devoted to slot machines than places to eat. I suppose you could say that I don’t like gambling, but it exists in so many places that I think that so long as it is limited to the casinos and other places I can avoid it’s okay. In Vegas it is so pervasive that I can’t!