I have spent the last 2 weeks traveling from one side of the United States to the other. Now I am back in Utah and happy to be home. My wife and I enjoyed the time together and got to see some amazing things. We also consider ourselves fortunate not to be affected by the government shutdown. I understand that is about to change in a couple of days though. My hope is that our dysfunctional government will figure it out and pass a budget that meets the needs of its tax-paying citizens.
We started our 2 week adventure flying from Salt Lake City to Columbus, Ohio. We spent a week visiting our youngest son and his family. That included a trip to our country's newest National Park in New River Gorge. It didn't become a National Park until 2022 and is well worth a visit. Fortunately the state of West Virginia sees the value of the park and covered costs to keep it open until the end of October. We experienced a fully staffed visitor's center complete with knowledge of the park and places to visit.
My wife and I then flew home long enough to do laundry and repack our bags. We had a relaxing Sunday and then headed to the airport that night for an 11pm flight to Los Angeles. Before leaving for the airport we received word of our delayed flight. That gave us a bit of time at home. The downside is it meant we would arrive in Los Angeles really late. Once at the airport we discovered the cause of the delay and couldn't blame it on air traffic control (ATC) but instead discovered a series of cascading delays caused by the airline.
The delay meant we didn't get into LAX until after 2am. We quickly walked to the Uber lot where we found a ride and got to our hotel sometime around 3am. I considered myself fortunate that I didn't have any early meetings and could sleep in relatively late before heading to the office. My wife came with me and did a walking tour of Culver City that she downloaded to her smartphone for only $9. We then met back at the hotel at the end of the day.
My wife's office closed for a week because of Fall break for our local school district. That meant she could tour the area while I spent the time working on the Sony Pictures Lot. While spending time on a movie lot is a lot of fun, my wife got the better end of the deal. She made use of the area's transit system and figured out how to get from LAX to Disneyland for only $5 round trip. The tradeoff is that it took 2 and a half hours each way. I'm glad she figured it out because Uber runs about $130 each way and still takes an hour plus. My wife also visited the fashion district and the Getty Museum. On the last day of the trip, I only had one meeting and set my wife up on a tour of the Sony Pictures Lot. When she finished the tour, I asked her where they took her and then showed her all of the interesting places the tour didn't go. We even had lunch at the commissary, which is a great place to eat.
We both felt exhausted at the end of the week and a 5:45am flight back to Salt Lake on Saturday morning meant we felt tired all day. I tried to watch the World Series game that night but fell asleep around 8pm. We both went to sleep early and slept late on Sunday morning. Now I am looking forward to staying home for awhile.
We used a lot of technology over the 2-week period to make the most of our travel. We continually checked into the status of the National Park to ensure we wouldn't be locked out. The airlines constantly notified us about the status of our flights which allowed us to wait comfortably instead of bored at the various airports. My wife even used her smartphone to pay for bus and train tickets in Los Angeles, saving her a few bucks. The ease of our 2-week adventure serves as an example as to how our daily lives are made easier through technology.
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