Thanks for Coming

Another year.  Another incredible Final Four experience.  Going to the Final Four is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t been.  Maybe the best way to describe the draw for basketball fans is this: I saw two USC Gamecock fans this year in San Antonio.  USC wasn’t playing this year.  Last year they did though, and my guess is that these two guys(and more than likely more) had such a fun experience that they wanted to come back and experience it yet again.  

For me I got to see my guys yet again and hang out for several days in beautiful San Antonio.  There’s something so exciting to be around the crescendo of the the college basketball season while hanging out with guys that I’ve either worked with or gotten to know over the years.  There really is a special bond that I’m thankful to be able to be apart of.  The relationships I have with each of them is special to me.
We had some good food, good times, lots of laughs, and told old stories like old times.....I can't wait to do the same next year.
Minneapolis 2019 here I come!

It Wouldn’t Be Me Unless....

I did something a little nutty, right?

I arrived in Houston and felt pretty proud of myself for getting a $3 ride all day pass on the metro.  I figured that would be a great way to navigate the city until I got to the airport and heck maybe even a great way to get to the airport.  

So I got my pass, boarded the light rail and arrived at the Holocaust Museum to find it(yep you guessed it) under renovation. So I did the next best thing and got a great burrito and some of the best plantains I've had before boarding the light rail back to the Transfer Station where I couldn't find the bus to the airport.  (Long sentence.  Don't care).  So I hopped back on the light rail north a little further and am now in an Uber to the airport like I originally planned.  

Until next time, Houston!

Megabus

Long story short: I like doing quirky things.

Long story a little longer: I found a cheap one-way flight to San Antonio so I jumped on it a while back. That flight was out of Augusta which I highly recommend when flying west. I've found a couple of good deals over the years from there through Atlanta and you'll be through security by the time I finish this senten....
Ok by the time I decided I was going to fly home, flights out of San Antonio were outrageous. So after a little Google Flight searching(which I now love way more than Kayak) I was able to find a direct flight from Houston to Columbia for a reasonable price. Problem is Houston is a 3 hour drive from San Antonio. Well, Megabus stepped in and proclaimed "problem solved" by getting me a reserved seat on the top deck at the front(which was recommended from a fellow blogger) for $15.50. Hard to beat that. I'll have a long layover in Houston so I may hit the Holocaust museum where I can check my bags and spend some time there before ubering(it's a verb now) out to the airport for my flight tonight.

I was a little nervous about Megabus prior to boarding but it has been a very smooth experience and provided a good conversation with a guy from New Orleans that went to the game last night.

I'll be taking Megabus again without a doubt.

Welp

Welp. I thought my trip was going as smoothly as possible. I had a great breakfast with BC, had a nice drive to IND, got through security quickly and easily, got to see Charlie as he was flying back to CLT, boarded our plane, got a seat all to myself, had no problems getting into DCA, turned off airplane mode on my "cellphone" and then BAM: "Flight 5182 has been canceled" pops up on my phone.

I thought, "Surely there has been a mistake." There was no mistake.

I quickly did what any millennial would do and I contact American Airlines customer service. And by "contacted" I mean I DMed them on Twitter. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Call them? Haha that's hilarious.

When I didn't hear back from them on Twitter(yes I know how asinine that sounds) within a reasonable amount of time, I called. And by "reasonable amount of time" I mean about 4 minutes. I mean, come on. Companies need to respond within 4 minutes of DM from a regular customer such as myself right? Right. I didn't think so either.

Anyway, they rebooked me on a flight out Monday morning. That wasn't going to cut it for me. I checked with the gate agent inside and they couldn't legitimately get me in to CAE tonight. They could get me to Charlotte but it was going to be way late. So a hotel at DCA was going to be my best bet up until they found a flight out of Dulles (on United) tonight at 10pm going into CAE. Now, who's flying from DC to Columbia on a Sunday night? Me and about 19 of my fellow United customers fearful that we'll be the next people dragged off a plane, that's who.

So, one $12 dinner voucher and one taxi cab voucher later plus 45 minutes I arrived at Dulles. I've had a service called Priority Pass for quite a while through one of my credit cards(yes Dave Ramsey, I still have a few) but I've never used it before. It basically allows me access ten times per year to airline lounges. Tonight I stopped in the Turkish Airways lounge and boy have I been missing out. This place was very peaceful, had free food and drink, and was a nice spot to kill about 3 hours. The humorous part was that I stopped in the Air France lounge first, and they politely asked me to come back in 10 or 15 minutes. I guess the French still don't like me. See some of my posts from 2009 for more info on that.

Anyway, I'm glad I ended up in Turkey. I enjoyed it. And even though I chose not to use the pray rooms, of which there were three, I'll go back when I'm in DCA.

Terredise

And so another trip to Indiana wraps up.  I'm doing what I've done about 100 times(according to Kristin) and that's sitting in the Indianapolis airport.  I've talked extensively about how much I love this airport(http://roseoverexposed.blogspot.com/2016/02/indy-redux.html) and this city.  This time, I'll talk about Terre Haute or "Terredise"‌ as I was taught yesterday.

Don't get me wrong.  There's not a whole lot going on in Terre Haute, IN.  It's a small town that reminds me of the SoBro(South Broad Ripple) area of Indianapolis.  Lots of residential areas with some small and quirky restaurant/bars strewn about.  Indiana State University seems to be a huge part of Terre Haute.

Let me pause here for a moment and let you know that I just saw Charlie Wentzky in the Indianapolis airport.  So officially I have seen two major celebrities the last two times I've been here:

Amos Lee

Charlie Wentzky

Back to Terre Haute:

It was great meeting Sherard, Greg, Vickie, Ace, Coach Lansing, Marcus, TP, James, Dennis, Angie, Stacey, Nicole, Kristi, Tanya, Troy, Luke, Janet, Evan and probably some more that I'm leaving out.  All of the above work with the ISU Athletic Department at some level(some at the top) and they were ALL extremely welcoming and warm to me.

One of the highlights of the trip was talking with Greg about some seriously challenging topics around leadership, people, philosophies and more.   I really enjoyed talking with him.  He helped me see that I have a lot of growing to do in the area of being welcoming and not hiding behind technology, but rather to get out from behind the desk and build deeper and better relationships with coaches and kids.  I thank him for challenging me in a loving way.

Brett was a gracious host as always and I'm so happy to see how well things are going for him up here.  

A couple of cool things to me in the pictures:

I love how close to downtown DC Reagan National is.  I got some great views of the monuments and of Watergate(I think that's what that is) 

The Indy airport is the most beautiful I've ever seen even though the "I" in Indy is missing currently 

Brett stops regularly at Dunkin for coffee and the folks know what he wants so well that they make it for him as he enters and, no lie, handed it to him when he went to the cash register to order 

I sat in the arena where Larry Bird buried jumpers for three years. 

The Clabber Girl museum offered a look into the past of Indiana and the Hulman family

No trip to Indiana wouldn't be complete without a Mellencamp siting 

Larry Legend

Great to see Larry Bird hanging out in Terre Haute today. I'm guessing he knocked this jumper down

“Cellphones” Are the New Headphones

What is the universal sign for, "Hey, don't talk to me?" Correct. Earbuds in the ear. Pop those suckers in and no one will try to talk with you unless they are incredibly inept at reading social cues.

Yes. That is the first time I have ever used the word "inept."

I'd like to add a new universal sign to the "Leave Me Alone" cue list. And it's not really that new I presume, but it's the lovely cellphone. And I suppose they aren't really cellphones anymore are they? I feel like I've discussed this with someone, or maybe here, but what should we really call these devices we carry around with us everywhere we go?(and I do mean everywhere) I'll come back to that thread shortly.

But nothing says, "Listen, I get it. You're on a plane sitting incredibly and uncomfortably close to me, a stranger. However I really don't want to talk" like burying your head in your "cellphone." Why am I writing this? Because it just happened.

Hey, listen, no judgement here. I respect a person's right to do whatever they want to do(within reason), but I am one that enjoys talking with people. Especially people I don't get to run into on a daily basis. So as much as I enjoy writing this post(truly I do enjoy writing) that no one will read(also true), I would much rather be talking with the lady next to me.

But it's cool.

Now seriously, what do we call "cellphones?" We need a better name. Think of one whilst I'm in the air.

What City...

....has the second most monuments and memorials behind Washington DC? King's Landing is not correct. (Fun fact: I wouldn't have known what King's Landing was until about 3 weeks ago when I started binge watching Game of Thrones)

The answer is Indianapolis. Avid readers of this blog, of which there are 3, know my love affair with Indianapolis. I'm thankful to be going back even though I'll just be passing through on my way to Terre Haute to watch my boy Brett's team play on Saturday.

It'll be good to see another part of Indiana this time around.

Wheels up tomorrow from CAE. It's been a while since I've flown out of the metro. One of my favorite parts of CAE? Yep. The bathrooms. They're gorgeous. And for once, I'm not joking.

Another One in the Books

It's been a 24 hour day officially and I'm thankful yet again to have been able to go on another trip overseas.

CLT was lit up beautifully tonight in my opinion.

Now, it's time for some sleep

High Steppin'

Not exorbitant numbers by any means, but 98,510 total and 16,418 average steps per day for 6 days is pretty solid if I must say so myself. It appears I just did.

Also, I had no idea how to spell exorbitant. Thanks for the assist Apple.

Not So Fast

For the second time in about a week I have arrived at the Barcelona Airport. This time I didn't even have to fly. We pushed back from the "stand" as British Airways calls it to take off for London. However, there is a passenger on board not feeling well apparently so we had to return to the stand so said passenger can deplane. However, curiously I have been typing this post for a few minutes now and no one has left the plane. It may be just some more airline smoke and mirrors. Smoke probably isn't the best word to use on a plane. I just got some funny looks when I typed that. That's not true at all.

Good thing I had a five hour layover in London.

I Wanna Go Fast

There are two customary ways to help yourself wake up in Spain.  The first is pretty universal:  a nice, warm cup of coffee in some form.  In Spain there are lots of choices from cappuccinos to cafe cortados to espressos and more.  These usually do a great job of waking a human up. 

The other is to take a cab with the driver I had this morning from the hotel to the airport.  Listen, I do enjoy going fast, and maybe this guy knew that because it seemed that he couldn't hit the gas hard enough in the city streets to get us down the road.  I've been in the back of a BMW 3 series as a former race car driver took us around the test track before at high speeds, and this experience this morning did slightly approach the BMW test track experience.  Don't get me wrong, I had fun. I just didn't expect to be pick up by Mario Andretti. 

I know, I know.  Mario is Italian. And yes.  Yes I had to google that.  

Arcano

Not that the other meals we had in Barcelona weren't real, but the meal we had last night in Arcano was real.  The service was great, the food was fresh and extremely high quality, and the experience we had there from entrance to exit was a 10.  And not that waiters and waitresses were cold (but they kinda were most places we went), the wait staff at Arcano treated us like extraordinarily well from right when we entered the restaurant.  In my opinion, they could have mailed it in because we were the only group in the restaurant for quite a while.  However, they were very warm and kind, and they created a wonderful atmosphere for us to enjoy a fine meal on my last night in Barcelona. 

I highly recommend Arcano if you are ever in Barcelona.  

And yes.  That is tiramisu in a white "bucket" made to look like a plant.  That's the kind of attention to detail these guys have at Arcano.   

Montserrat

Montserrat is a monastery about 75 minutes outside of Barcelona, and it is totally worth the trip out there. There are several ways to get there. We chose to go with Julia Travel which was a very professional tour and guide. However we found that we wanted more time to explore all that Montserrat has to offer however with the tour, we had less time to explore. The inside of the Basilica is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen. I fought the urge to disobey the "no photo" signs but was able to keep my phone in my pocket and enjoy the beauty and aura of Montserrat. I highly recommend getting here.

I'm Ready Hank

Hank, you supply the paddles and I'll supply the ping pong balls. See you and Sally on la playa en Barcelona!

Perros

I'm blown away at how well behaved the dogs are here. Dog owners here routinely have their dogs off leash and leave their perros(dogs) outside of businesses while they go inside to either pick something up or, as I saw yesterday, sit down and enjoy a meal. These dogs are more well behaved than most human kids I've seen