Up at the crack of dawn to board Southwest Airlines Flight 2755 non-stop to San Diego. It's been so long since I flew that I wasn't even sure I knew how to go through security. No need to worry. They tell you everything you need to know. Jackets and shoes still have to come off although I distinctly remember seeing somewhere that that rule had been relaxed. The new parking structure at the Sacramento Airport makes parking really convenient - at least on a non-busy day like today. But the plane is full. No empty seats.
Although I'm flying with a friend and colleague, we mostly read or nap on the way. We're both more the quiet type anyway. He hasn't made any arangements for ground transportation in San Diego so I agree to let him ride with me.
Landing at San Diego's Lindberg Field is just as exciting as I'd heard. I've never landed here before that I recall. Whenever we had meetings in San Diego, I always preferred the one and a half to two hour drive from Long Beach. The plane literally dives between the downtown skyscrapers to hit the runway. Almost close enough to look into the windows of the upper floors.
I have the Dollar.Express reservation so we're shuttled to the head of the line at Dollar Rent-A-Car and on our way before others who had ridden on the same airport shuttle are even handed their paperwork. Nice that I have traveled some before. I also have my route plotted on my PDA so the 15 minute drive to the San Diego Regional Center is a snap.
The meeting is both exciting and frustrating. Exciting because we're seeing some new software development that could make things much nicer for regional centers. Frustrating because whether we get to use this software is going to depend on a political decision about other software without this software even being considered. We're not even making a recommendation on this software we are seeing today. Just a recommendation about whether this would be a reasonable fall back position if the other system is scuttled. Most, but certainly not all, think it would be a great fall back position and some of us think it should be the first choice.
Meeting over, the drive back to drop off the rental and shuttle to the airport is uneventful. What should be a comfortable two hour wait for the return flight, is stretched to almost 3 hours when our Texas originating plane runs into bad weather. Still, I'm on the ground in Sacramento almost exactly 12 hours after arriving at the airport this morning. Long day. Good travel. Good meeting. Nice to see friends and colleagues, some that I've known for upwards of 20 years. But even nicer to be back home with my sweetheart.
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