Too often I rage on a plane because of man’s inhumanity to man … but today has been a glorious flying experience, or GFE, on American Airlines. First of all, I am not squeezed into the seat next to any sort of circus performer or social misfit. Praise the Lord and pass the peanuts … Oh, wrong airline.
Or, maybe I am in a great mood because finally, after several Wi-Fi-less flights, this plane is all a-Gogo with wireless Internet service. What could make more sense? Did I even blink when asked to shell out $9.95 for a 4-hour flight from Fort Worth to Seattle? No way Jose! I said bring it. It’s what I do … and it lets me do those other things too … all at once … all multi-taskin. Ha … I will get my money’s worth and then some.
How can you not love tweeting, IMing, e-mailing, blogging and “liking” yet another funny post on Facebook … at the same time, all at 40,000 feet?
On Facebook, I gave my family and friends a shout out below, when the pilot announced we were flying over the Amarillo area, home to Pings for generations and the infamous PingWind farm. Wouldn’t that be cool to look out the window and actually be able to pick out your own farm from the air. I couldn’t.
There were a few tweets to and from West Coast friends at Boingo … which was providing roaming Wi-Fi back at DFW Airport … another favorite provider.
And even a few messages from friends in the destination city of Seattle. Yes, how fun to be flying … travel writing and in touch with friends along the way. In Seattle, they have one of those disaster things — my side jobs I call “Dirty Gigs” waiting for me — and of course I can’t wait to sip the local Wi-Fi dry at the great coffee houses.
Yes, you are correct, if you identified the photo of lights flashing in this Web site’s banner as those of the original Starbucks in Pike Place Market. I will try to get over there again on this trip. But, I am dying to know if my old Wi-Fi Guy favorite shop is still open. Anyone have the scoop on a coffee joint downtown called Zeitgeist? (The Wi-Fi Guy was my first blog … and I still use the name on Facebook. Are we FB friends or even BFFs? If no, then why the heck not?)
Favorite tweeted observation — “Yes, the pivot irrigation systems look like green polka dots on brown cloth, but the rugged shapes of the canyon lands look like paisleys.” Trippy, yet fashionable … LOL. (That was back near the border of Texas and New Mexico.) Just now, we are starting to see some of the snowcaps in Utah. Man I love Utah! Wow … still lots of snow left.
Oh, and don’t let me forget to rave about the soundtrack. Nothing like some iTunes radio — via Wi-Fi — to make travel more enjoyable. Earlier I was jamming to the Absolute ReggaeTrade station … but bummer, mon! … the stream was rebuffering too often … minor deduction in the Gogo/American Airlines scoring for that but no biggie. Of course I had my personal iTunes library queued up and the music (on iPad shuffle) is about as varied as the terrain below. I always have to laugh at my tastes, for example when I hear “The Theme From ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly'” from my playlist … who else has songs from “spaghetti westerns” followed by Magnetic Zeros? … and then Ravi Shankar on his sitar on their iPod?
Well gotta go … I think I have spotted an ancient lava flow at the foot of the mountains below … yes … I can list rockhound among my various nerd tendencies as well.
Oh but first, the score! Gogo and American Airlines are treating me like Ping Tut! I am social media on overload, in the air, with very little turbulence — except for breakin my rhythm during the reggae thing – 6 pings on a scale of 1 to 7.
Know what I sayin?
