Tucson Mileage Run Trip Report

I found a good fare out of Colorado Springs and decided to do a mileage run to Tucson. My trip was as follows: COS-IAH-LAX-TUS-LAX-IAH-COS and spanned the course of two days.

The trip started at Colorado Springs Airport. I wish I could fly out of smaller airports like this one more because they are so much easier than the giant airports. I made it through security in less than 2 minutes. The airport was pretty empty and had plenty of seating and free WiFi, so I was happy.

Poorly taken photo of COS

While I was waiting to board, I heard a baby crying...not just usual crying...this kid was screaming at the top of their lungs and the sound reverberated throughout the entire airport. I prayed to God, Allah, and Vishnu that this baby would not be on my flight, but of course the baby was on my flight. After I boarded, I realized there were actually two other babies on the flight (what the hell!!?? was there a baby convention in town). Once we were airborne, all three babies proceeded to have a crying contest. At this point, I considered cutting my ears off, but unfortunately I did not have anything sharp enough - thanks TSA.


Luckily, the flight wasn't too long. We landed in Houston on time and I headed over to the food court for some heart attack inducing airport food. The next flight to LA was pretty uneventful except for the Mexican woman sitting next to me who was blasting mariachi music from her headphones. 


 After a fairly long layover at LAX, I boarded my last flight of the day to Tucson.  When I arrived in Tucson, I took a hotel shuttle to the Palo Verde Inn. I only stayed here because it was close to the airport and the rate was $35 per night. For $35 my expectations were exceeded. I got a large room with a balcony and some good A/C (which is very necessary in Tucson). The only real problem was the WiFi was dreadfully slow. Why is it so challenging for hotels to provide decent WiFi?

Decent bathroom - no complaints

Shower

Herpes infused bedspread

Closeup of the bedspread (time to whip out my blacklight)

A Kleenex box holder/bottle opener - that's how you know you're staying at a classy hotel

When I first arrived at the hotel, I was extremely thirsty. The first thing I did when I got to my room was head to the sink for some water, but all that came out of the tap was boiling hot, undrinkable Tucson water. I looked all over the hotel for an ice machine, but couldn't find one. There was a soda vending machine, but I didn't have any cash on me. I ended up just making do with what I had. I filled every cup they gave me with the boiling tap water and stuck them in the fridge.

After a decent night's sleep, I woke up the next morning and checked out. I inquired to see if the airport shuttle was running and the front desk lady told me the hotel manager would drive me. The manager was very friendly and while driving to the airport in the shuttle, he asked, "So what brings you to Tucson?" I never know quite how to answer this question when I'm on mileage run. I don't really like telling people I'm on a mileage run because the response tends to be, "Wow what a waste of money...how can u stand being on planes for no reason?" I just told him I was visiting friends. But then he probed further. He started asking why I stayed at the hotel instead of at my friends place. I said their place wasn't big enough. The questions kept coming. What do your friends do out here in Tucson? How do you know them? I found myself having to craft an elaborate story about my imaginary Tucson friends.


When I arrived at Tucson Airport, I was pleasantly surprised. I had been there the night before, but hadn't really realized how nice it is. I made it through security in a flash and was quickly at my gate. The chairs in the terminal were all very new and there were plenty of places to plug in a laptop. Also, there was free WiFi which was blazing fast.

View of the mountains from Tucson Airport

Tucson Airport

Free WiFi and actual places to plug in a laptop!

My plane

I boarded my flight to LA which was one of the better flight experiences I've had in a while. I got seat 1C and no one was sitting next to me. Also, the flight attendant servicing this CRJ-200 was very good. He was extremely friendly and constantly checked to see if people needed refills. I felt like I was in first class even though this plane didn't have a first class.

My drink was constantly filled

View from the plane

Approaching LAX

After landing in LA, it was time for some lunch so I headed over to Wolfgang Puck for some pizza.

Wolfgang Puck pizza

Wolfgang, you corporate whore you

I then headed to the gate for my flight to Houston.

Plane to Houston

I boarded my full flight to Houston.  I was sitting next to a girl that seemed very excited to be on the plane. She told me it was her first time on a plane. As we started taxiing out, the TV monitors came out and the safety video started. The look on the girls face can only be described as pure amazement.  "The plane has TVs?" she exclaimed. I thought to myself, "Wow, she really doesn't get out much"


As we were about to take off, the girl said "this is going to be a long flight" to which the other woman in our row replied, "that's a good thing because I've got a ton of work to get done". The woman then proceeded to play Angry Birds on her iPad nonstop for the next three hours (getting lots of work done). The thing that annoyed me was she had her sound on full blast. For those of you that have played Angry Birds before, you know the sounds for this game are not pleasant. Here's a clip of what I was forced to endure for the duration of the flight. Note: Turn your sound up full blast before playing the video to get the full effect of what I felt.

I should have told the woman to turn the sound off or use headphones, but I was too busy groveling over how stupid she was. Did she not realize she was on a plane with other people? Did she think she was just sitting in her living room? What ever happened to common decency?


One last rant and then I'll shut up. What's the deal with people pulling on the chair of the person in front of them in order to get up out of their chair. Use your freaking arm rests to pull yourself out of the chair! There's no need to violently pull my seat back. I was peacefully napping when suddenly the guy behind me violently yanked my chair back. Come on now! I don't need none of that, especially when I've already been subject to squawking bird torture for the last two hours.


When I arrived in Houston there was big storm brewing and my final flight of the mileage run to Colorado Springs was delayed by about three and a half hours. Uggghhh! I finally made it back home by about 4 AM, and immediately passed out on my bed.


Besides the crying babies, Angry Birds, and the utter soul crushing dehumanization that comes with flying in coach, my flights were all really nice in that they allowed me to catch up on my reading. I had a ton of business strategy and management consulting case study books I wanted to read but hadn't had time until now. Reading up on best business practices, I couldn't help but think of some ways the airlines could vastly improve. For one, how about banning babies from flights or at least charging an extremely high fee to discourage people from bringing babies on board. Why the hell do you need to take your baby on vacation with you? They are a nuisance to take care of and if grandma in Florida really wants to see them, she can come visit you. Leave the baby at home with a babysitter and save your fellow plane passengers the pure torture of being trapped in a metal tube with your crying poop machine. You're probably starting to think I hate babies. I love babies, just not being stuck with them on a plane. But seriously, there should be a $500 fee to bring your baby on a plane. It would make the world a much better place.

Morocco Trip Report

I know this is kind of a belated posting, but back in April I took a short trip to Tangier, Morocco.  I was somewhat reluctant to go to Morocco, considering all the political uprisings that were happening in Egypt and other places in the Middle East, but eventually decided the opportunity was too good to pass up.  My trip went from BVA-TNG-MAD-CDG.  I started off taking the RER to the Porte Maillot metro stop to hop a bus out to Paris Beauvais Airport (the airport Ryanair and other budget airlines fly out of).  I had a direct flight to Tangier and it had only cost me €12 one way on Ryanair.  The bus to Beauvais Airport actually cost €15 each way, so it was more than my plane ticket.  


After a pleasant hour long bus ride, I arrived at Beauvais and proceeded to stand in an extremely long security line.  When I finally got to the front, they told me I had to get out of line and go to the ticket counter so they could check my passport and stamp my boarding pass.  I did this, and after waiting in line the second time, I was through in no time.  


Beauvais Airport is pretty basic, as you might assume. It looks very similar to a bus station.  My plane wasn't leaving for a while, and I hadn't eaten anything all day.  There was a little coffee shop with sandwiches, but it was extremely overpriced.  I then came across a vending machine.  I put some money in, punched in the number for a candy bar, and nothing happened.  I pushed the coin return button....still nothing.  My blood started to boil.  I then began shaking the machine violently in a fit of rage and hunger, but it was no use.  Right at that time, I noticed people started lining up at my gate to board the flight to Tangier.


We then entered into a waiting area with a little booth where they check your passport.  Now, if there's one thing the French are bad at, it's forming orderly lines.  It was complete chaos.  Everybody was trying to get through the passport control all at once.  I finally made it through to another waiting area, and after an hour or so, we finally began boarding.  

Very Minimal Legroom (As you may have guessed)

The plane's interior was blue and bright yellow, as all Ryanair planes are.  I have no clue why they have to make it those headache-inducing colors, but I guess Ryanair's big thing is making the experience as terrible as possible for the customer.  Actually though, the flight was pretty good.  The pilot was a friendly Irishman, the flight attendants were very courteous, and there were some great views out my window.  What more could you want for €12?

Spanish Coast

After a fairly short flight, we arrived in Tangier.  

Tangier Airport

Once in the terminal, I got some dirhams from the ATM.  I noticed a sign saying that all taxi rides into town were 100 dirhams ($12.53).....kind of expensive for Morocco.  I grabbed the first taxi I saw and was off to the Hotel El Oumnia Puerto.  The taxi ride took about 15 minutes, and the hotel was very nice.  I went up to my room to find my friend, who had arrived the night before, enjoying some Al Jazeera English. 

Hotel Lobby

Room

Bathroom

View from Window

We then decided to walk around a bit and grab a bite to eat.  

We went to this restaurant that seemed to be the nicest place to eat in Tangier. The food was extremely cheap.  I got this giant Nicoise Salad and an ice cream sundae for the equivalent of about $4.  

Odd Menu Translation

After eating, we began walking some more.  One thing about Morocco is that there are constantly people coming up to you trying to sell you drugs and prostitutes.  One older man came up to try to sell us some drugs, and after we declined, he continued to follow us.  He was very friendly, but didn't speak English very well.  After about 30 minutes of him following us, we began to get sick of him.  We walked into a store and he waited outside.  When we came out about 10 minutes later, he was still there waiting for us.  I tried to explain to him that we just wanted to explore on our own without him.  He didn't really seem to understand.  After a while, we said that we were just going to go back to our hotel.  He asked us which hotel we were staying at, but we did not tell him.  He said he would come to our hotel tomorrow morning to take us on a tour of the medina.  We declined, but he persisted.  We finally ended up giving him some money, and then he thankfully left.

After parting ways with our pal, we decided it was about time for dinner.  We walked into a nearby restaurant and sat down.  I ordered a three course meal that came with soup, fish, and a lemon tart.

Delicious Mint Tea

Soup

Fish

Disgusting Rubbery Lemon Tart

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed.  The next morning, we headed down to breakfast at the hotel.  They had a pretty nice spread with pastries and fruit.  

Breakfast

After breakfast, we headed over to check out the medina.  There really wasn't all that much to see.  Just people selling used clothing and cell phones for the most part.

Medina

Pet Store or Grocery Store?

After that, the rest of the trip was pretty much spent just relaxing in the hotel.  I headed to the airport the next morning for my flight back.  I ordered some food at a little cafe and it was delicious.  They had the best mint tea I've ever had.

Airport Food is the Best!

One interesting thing about the Tangier Airport is that security has separate lines for men and women.

Really Bad Photo of Gender Separated Security Lines

After waiting what seemed like forever, I boarded my Ryanair flight to Madrid.  It was a very short flight, and I had a long layover in Madrid.  After wandering aimlessly around the Madrid airport for a few hours and purchasing an extremely overpriced sandwich, I boarded my EasyJet flight back to Paris.  This was quite possibly the worst flight of my life.  My seatmate had the smell of a thousand skunks.  Not to offend any French people out there, but you guys seriously need to shower more than once a month.  I tried very hard to not to breathe through my nose during the flight, but when I breathed through my mouth, I could taste his stench.  When I arrived at CDG, I took a huge breath of fresh air.  Sadly, my flight had gotten in about two and a half hours late, so the RER was closed.  I took the public bus into the city and then a taxi to my apartment, where I quickly passed out on my bed.  Overall though, it was a great trip and  I'd definitely like to visit some other cities in Morocco.