My planning went very well on this trip... except that I apparently thought I was superman. I had tickets to see the Beavers season opener against Utah which of course I couldn't miss - the only problem was that it was the night before my flight. I left the game (which we won) and got back to my apartment in Beaverton at about 1AM as the game got over at 11:30.. damn pac-10 pass happy games take forever. My plane was to leave at 6:30 AM so still feeling like the college student I decided to pull an all-nighter and played Wii until the MAX started running at 4:00AM.
I decided to hoof it to the max, which was about 1 mile away, while carrying all of my carry-on stuff. The walk was horrible but at least I was able to pick up 3 red-bulls along the way at the gas station. Long story short, I got to the Airport and made it through security in no time at all. I was tired at this point since I had gotten up 23 hours earlier to go to work before the football game. Instead of napping I played DS, wise move.
The plane was a Boeing 757 which are usually a good ride, and for the most part the turbulence was kept to a minimum. By the time we were over Idaho or so I started to freak out from being tired... I was delerious to the point that I found Shrek 3 (for the second time i saw it) funny. Moral of this story is to sleep on the plane... take drugs and do whatever, it has to happen if you take a red-eye or early morning flight. Afterwards I landed, and walked the mile or so from Terminal E in Atlanta to the terminal where Katie was waiting for me. I was finally able to get some sleep like 40 hours or so after my last nap.
I got to see tons of great stuff in the South... I learned what Chick-fil-a was and that it was awesome. I got to see a SEC football game... PAC-10 is good but the atmosphere at UGA with 92,000 crazy fans was something to behold.. oh yeah and I found out what breathing water was like as I tried to find the gills on the natives.
Highlights:
Little Italy Pizza - Best pizza on the face of the earth, plus an extra large was 13 bux and fed us for 3 days.
Chick-fil-a - Best fast food ever.
Sweet Tea - Nowhere do they serve this in the NW... I miss it - especially from Chick-fil-a.
UGA Football - Good Time!
Friendly People - Southern hospitality is a real thing, people all over are friendly which creeped me out at first being from the Portland area but once I realized that people are just like that it is actually really cool.
Areas for improvement:
Get some sleep - It helps!
Humidity - Not bad once you get used to it but dont make any major plans for the first day or two.
The trip home was on the same kind of plane and was unremarkable except for the lesson I learned of not flying while sick - oh yeah I had a sinus/ear infection while I was there but had a blast anyway. As we decended into PDX my ears never popped. The pressure was horrible and took 3+ weeks and at least 5 doctors visits to clear it up. I am convinced that the crap was still in my head 6 months later. If you get sick... dont fly I beg you.
Overall this trip was one of the best weeks of my life and I recommend that everyone make it to the south at some point, but stay out of Atlanta if you can.
-Nathan
