Thursday, January 27, 2011

Indianapolis

A short business trip to Indianapolis last week didn't glean me much in the way of new sights or travel experience. Long travel days were the standard - a shuttle bus to Detroit (2.25 hours), a flight to somewhere else than Indy (outbound, Chicago - inbound, BALTIMORE FOR GOODNESS SAKE!) - and then another flight to my destination. Travel time was more than 6 hours each way, which in good weather would have been a shorter drive than that. However, it is January, and Indiana had a major snowstorm which began shortly after I arrived. So I am glad ultimately I flew.

It was my first time flying Southwest - which had an incredibly cheap fare offer but partly explains why I ended up with such a peculiar routing. Apparently nothing goes direct. All the planes are on their way somewhere else... Detroit to Chicago went on to Kansas City. Chicago to Indianapolis was going on to Orlando (wish I could have also).

On the other hand, because Southwest doesn't have assigned seats, just boarding numbers, I could always get an aisle seat. Also, the planes were not full. Not one of the four. Which meant that practically no one had to sit in one of those cursed middle seats. They were all empty and that was great.

The only thing I actually got to view in downtown Indianapolis before the snow began was the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It's impressive and kind of neat to look at.
Other than that, it was an uneventful trip. Most of the time I was in a meeting room in the hotel, in the workout room or the restaurant or in my own room. I saw very little.