The long journey

The last two days were one of the most confusing and frustrating travel ravel experiences I have had.  I believe the flight systems are a mess. Yesterday, all three of my flights were delayed. It wasn’t just my flight, it was most of them around me.

After having my travel route and times changed three times, I did finally arrive in Nashville, TN. Because I was landing so late (and on a different flight than when I booked my car), I called Hertz. This lady was unhelpful to be kind. She informed me that the Nashville center closed at midnight, no matter what. That made no sense to me, from a customer service standpoint.

when we arrived early, about 11:50pm, I rushed to baggage claim, but the bags weren’t there yet. Then I remembered that car rentals were just down one floor. I rushed down there only to find that Hertz had moved outside, across the street, down the way, and up two floors. So, I waited for my bag, which came about 12:15am. During the wait, I tried to find lodging using apps on my phone, but they don’t allow you to book “that night.”

Anyway, I made the long journey to the Hertz Gold kiosk, and she was open. Thank heavens. She gave me a Yaris, which is a weird car with the driving console in the center. This is a new one with the console in front of the driver. After checking out through their new security system, I was on my way.

what I learned last night about Tennessee is:

• Gas is $3.30 to $3.35 per gallon. (Very low compared to Oregon.)
• There seem to be a lot of bright signs advertising adult stores.
• Trucks and their drivers may park and rest along the freeway.
• Trucks may also travel the same speed as cars, which on the freeway was 70.

The coolest thing was that I saw an armadillo on the while line at the right side of the road. It took me a while to figure our the shape of that weird possum, but it was an armadillo!! I looked it up, and they have invaded here.

More to come…

Advertisement

Tennessee Presentation

This was a great group of people. I am not sure if they were full (after dinner), tired, or too hot, but there were no questions at the end. Afterwards I did have a few people talk with me individually. One person asked me about my approach, so I shall explain it here.

I started with defining the different generations, and I settled with Lancaster and Stillman’s (2002). I then looked at stereotypical beliefs and biases about the generations.

Developmental theory suggests that events during our formative high school years shape our world views, expectations, and behaviors as adults. Therefore, I researched major events that may have had an influence during each generations high school years.

Finally, I used common team building strategies as tips for how to work with people across the various generations.

Combinations of the generations are possible depending on the age of the parents and the situation in which the child was raised.

Unfortunately, I have no photos of my presentation at the Tennessee HiA Conference, but the campus was beautiful.

 

Union University

 

Another flight delay

So, once again, my flights are out of sync. I checked the flight status at 7am, and everything was on schedule. When I arrived at check-in, the attendant took 30 minutes to reroute a family for international travel. Our flight here that should leave at 9:25 is delayed until 11:08 according to the latest update. The poor guy at the counter had to call for technical help to resync my flights.

I was traveling SFO to Houston to Nashville, but the guy said my only option was an overnight to arrive Thursday morning. My expression must have shouted, “NO” because then he mentioned looking for a US Airlines flight (I originally booked on US Airlines).

Now, I go from SFO to Charlotte to Nashville, and I should arrive there about 10:45pm.

I learned that Hertz holds my car reservation for 48 hours because they expect flight delays. Also, the motel said that arriving late was expected.

The flight delay is due to weather in San Fran. We may leave at 10:30 if the weather clears. The plane is here, and they are just waiting for clearance from SFO flight control.

Not on a plane

Right now, I should be in the air heading to the San Francisco airport. Nope.

On the way to the airport, I had a phone call from United (the first flight was booked on US Airways, but somehow it was a United flight). The automated message said there was a change and my SFO flight would leave tomorrow (not tonight) at 11:30-ish am for Houston. Then from Houston, I would fly to Nashville, arriving at 9:38 pm. That didn’t make me very happy because it meant an overnight at SFO.

When I arrived at the Eugene airport, I quickly learned that the SFO flight was cancelled. Of course there was only one person working the counter. Everyone was on their phone trying to rebook. I guess that I got lucky (sarcasm) because I had a very nice woman who explained my SFO to Houston to Nashville flight. What she failed to understand was that I needed to get from Eugene to SFO. I was on the phone with her for 54 minutes, and she was unable to get me on a 9:30am flight to SFO. She says that I have a spot reserved, and the counter can issue the ticket in the morning. We’ll see.

So, Max drove me to the airport (because I don’t want to risk my car being stolen again), and then he had to come get me. Please don’t ask him how he spent his evening. I don’t think chauffeuring his mother to and from the airport is his idea of fun.

Hopefully tomorrow goes better. The good part is that I won’t need to sleep on the plane.

I leave in a few hours

I just had a slight panic when I tried to check-in online. An error messaged said that my reservations were “out of sync,” and I was instructed to call the airline. So, I did. The guy there, Sebastian, told me that the last two flights of my journey to Nashville had been removed by the booking agent. WHAT? So, I called the booking agent and was told by Abraham that everything was just fine. Apparently US Airways cannot handle it when other parts of the travel are with other airlines.

Back to packing. I am so excited (and terrified and thrilled and nervous) to go on this short jaunt. This is something like a teaser for the big tour in a few weeks. Jittery…

Here’s my intended route from Nashville, TN to Jackson, TN to Somerset, KY back to Nashville, TN.

Nashville to Jackson (blue line) to Somerset (green line) and back to Nashville (orange line)