The Garden of the Blind

I celebrated the last days before my travel moratorium by going to the Garden State. I know that people find the name ironic, but it really isn't that inappropriate since the place does bring fertilizer to mind (not as much as the city across the river though).

It seems that travel woes followed me to the bitter end. When I checked in to fly there, my flight was already delayed about 75 minutes. Despite bad weather at our destination, they boarded the plane on time but the moment that the last passenger sat down, they announced that our flight was delayed another hour. We finally took off just shy of 3 hours after our scheduled departure.

While on approach to New Jersey, I looked out the window and saw buildings below us. Given the cloudy skies, that meant that we were pretty close to the ground. Right about then, we hit what felt like the worst turbulence I've ever experienced. We were tossed side to side and then it felt like we were falling. Then we stabilized and turned to the north on a long loop to the airport. I didn't notice anything more than a gentle rumble during the entire rest of the flight. I'm glad for that since the lady next to me had her air sickness bag out and was ready to use it if we hit another bump.

This trip was really quite uneventful in every respect. I was a little disappointed that every waiter/waitress I had wasn't very good. I was also disappointed that the steak I had on my last night tasted like bland pot roast. It was like the roasts I've had for countless Sunday dinners, but not as flavorful. I commented on this to the waiter and he brought the manager over (the first of two times during the trip that I met the manager of the restaurant I was eating at), and apparently it tastes like it was supposed to taste. I guess that restaurant (a steakhouse!) specializes in bland steak.

Less than four hours before the official start of my travel hiatus, I arrived back home. I'm not going anywhere for a while, including to Las Vegas this month. Maybe that means that I'll be able to get some work done. Or that my son will start taking it for granted that I'll be home to put him to bed.