Honey & the TSA

This is a repost from our bee blog but since it fits the topic, I know you won't mind since it means I actually posted here! :-)

Have you ever found yourself wondering if honey travels well? I do a bit of travel for my training job with the steel making company and I like to take a bit of home with me whenever I can in order to reduce homesickness. I typically take one squeeze bottle with me and every single time I have honey in the suitcase (since you can’t carry it on unfortunately), my suitcase gets inspected and they leave me a personal note to let me know. Isn’t that awesome? This time, I made them work for it. I packed two glass jars for a friend to save her some shipping cost and added in six 1-pound squeeze bottles (coworkers wanted to sample them). I individually seal each jar in a Ziploc bag so any leaks could be contained. I would love to know what those TSA people think when they open my suitcase. I also count this as good and free advertising since it puts our name in front of at least one new person. Maybe more if they tell a coworker, “Yea, look at this crazy lady carrying eight pounds of honey around…” You never know.

Harrrisonburg, Virginia

Well, the first picture is not yet Harrisonburg. It was my view for a while as I waited and waited in Denver on the tarmac. But thankfully Denver was not as bad as Atlanta so at least I didn't have to spend the night at the airport. Yay Denver! They had a ton of de-icing trucks out there - very impressive. Traveling out of San Antonio and flying east (or west also, most of the time) is typically an all day or most of the day event because we have to connect somewhere along the way. This time, I chose Denver because I didn't want to go north to Chicago since the blizzard was blowing that way soon. Denver did a great job getting us landed, loaded and off the ground again without it taking hours. Still, I was an hour later getting to Dulles than planned but oh well.



Once I got to Dulles, I got in the car and drove about two hours to Virginia and since it was dark and I had a splitting headache, I can't tell you much except for thank goodness for GPS units. For the most part, they get me where I need to go. The Marriott Residence Inn in Harrisonburg is fabulous! Worth the drive and made me glad I chose it over the Hampton even though I have more reward points with HHonors. LOVED the kitchenette and ate in most of the week, which made it feel less like I was away from home (sort of). There's a Kroger nearby so I was set for dining in and I brought our Gretchen Bee Ranch candles - felt very cozy. The staff of Residence Inn was also awesome so I highly recommend this hotel. I go back next week so guess where I'll be staying. :-) And check out this service below - I didn't use it but I thought it was very cool that it was available. Neat!

As seen from the sky...

Flying over Florida - love to see the ocean like this! :-)

Sky Watch Over Irving (Tx)

I took this as we were starting to approach Dallas Love Field Airport in Irving, Texas. I really liked the cloudy, dark sky. Plus I noticed the wing was really, really clean. Almost new looking. And it made me feel good. :)

Travel Break

Hi everyone. Looks like we are going to be on a bit of a travel break these days as we ride out this shaky economic phase we are in. The company is cutting back on all unnecessary travel so that means more home time for our little training team. Woo hoo! Well, I say woo hoo but I do sort of miss the travel at times. I think it's just taken me about a month to finally get back into the routine of enjoying home and the work homebase...I'm just so used to speeding around getting ready to go somewhere or recovering and catching up from being on the road. It's a funny feeling to have the plug pulled on all that travel all of a sudden.

I may not post much for a while but if we take any trips or have any adventures even close to homebase, I'll let you know. :)

Delta Media Options

Did you know that on some of the bigger Delta planes offer television, HBO shows, music channels and over 25 CDs in a variety of genres? Well, I found this out during the Atlanta to Newark (NJ) leg of our trip because we stayed in the air for about 6 hours since no flights could land in Newark (reason still unknown to us). Airlines are SO terrible about informing passengers. Have you noticed that? They never tell you anything. And if they do, it's really vague. Ugh. Frustrating.

So, we watched CNN, HGTV, Food Network, the Spurs/Lakers WNBA Western Conference Finals (go Starz!). And the music was great. I listened to my favorite Diana Krall songs and that made the hours onboard bearable. That and talking to Ronnie. It makes such a big difference when you are sit next to someone with whom you get along so that the talks make the flights just zip by in a flash.

Travel Fatigue

Taken with the A737 Samsung phone by Sonia.

Here we are in our 4th week and obviously sort of tired from the travel and some late nights but it's been a great trip. I was told that typically, if you fly late in the day, there are fewer people on the flights and you can have your pick of seats for stretching out. Well, here's our Project Manager enjoying the empty plane. But when I finally decided to take the 8pm Southwest flight from SA to Phoenix, it was pretty much full. Even the stretch from Phoenix to Ontario, CA was full. Let's hope my flight home tomorrow night is as empty as the one above.

Update: On my return flight, Ontario (CA) to Phoenix was almost full but the Phoenix to SA flight was nice and empty. Plenty of space for stretching out.

Is the window mine? Or hers?

When you have a window such as this, to whom does it belong? It's up far enough to just possibly be hers but I don't want to be rude and just do what I will with it. So I didn't touch it; nor did she for most of the trip. Then she finally closed it and we both slept a bit.

I miss sitting in the exit rows. And after all that practicing with Sonia for evacuating fellow passengers and for operating the exits. Sigh, we should run a drill. I told Jess if we keep doing site visits together, I will have to ask her to start practicing evacuation drills with me. :)