Travel Days

How many planes does it take to get to Orlando from Dallas? Well, today it required two. After boarding all passengers this morning, AA announced that our plane was experiencing issues with its pressurization system.

We sat at the gate waiting to see if it could be fixed, but finally they announced that the plane was being taken out of service. We had to disembark and move to another plane a few gates down from where we were stationed.

Ah, the joys of air travel! I guess that’s one good thing about the economic downturn and the resulting travel restrictions at Cisco. I’m traveling less and not wasting as much time dealing with flight delays.

After boarding the second plane, we had to wait again — this time for fuel. Once we got in the air, the flight was mostly uneventful. Amazingly enough, there were no screaming, unruly children on this flight. I think it’s the first time in all my flights to Orlando that I actually had a pleasant flight.

Due to the delays, I didn’t have any time to spare once I arrived in Orlando. I shared a cab with co-workers, checked into the hotel, dropped off my luggage, and went to the pre-show meeting to hear about all the great things Cisco has planned for the VoiceCon 2009.

The meeting wrapped around 8:45 pm. After chatting with colleagues and catching up with those I haven’t seen in months, we decided to run downstairs for a late dinner at a sushi bar.

Okay, don’t freak out. I did not eat sushi. I will not eat sushi. It’s just not my thing. Luckily, they did have some cooked food, but I stuck with the edamame and steamed pork dumplings. The eel dragon rolls were just too adventurous for me!

VoiceCon begins tomorrow. It will be a long day, starting around 7:30 am and running til 9:30 pm with almost no break.

Oh yeah, trade shows are just great.

I did get a room with a decent view at the Gaylord this year. My room has a balcony overlooking the “everglades” area of the atrium. Here’s the view taken from my cell phone at night…enjoy!