The Joys of Business Travel

I have recently been doing a fair amount of business travel. Here are the highlights from my trip home last Friday.

KANSAS CITY INTERNATIONAL: AMERICA'S CLOCKLESS AIRPORT

I had an important late-afternoon meeting that I expected would leave me with little time to make it to the airport. As it turned out, I left the rental car lot with about an hour before my flight home would begin boarding. However, after checking in (electronically of course, so as to avoid any human contact), I realized that I had no idea what time it was. My iPod battery was dead and my phone was deep in my bag. To my dismay, I could not see a clock anywhere, so I bought something because the time would appear on the receipt.

AIRPORT BARTENDRESS UNABLE TO PUT CHIEFS GAME ON BECAUSE MANAGER WITH AUTHORITY TO CHANGE CHANNEL WATCHING CHIEFS GAME IN OTHER AIRPORT BAR

There's not much more to this than the headline suggests, but I thought it was pretty funny.

AIRPORT SPRINKLERS, ON DURING RAIN STORM, AIMED PRIMARILY AT PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY

I arrived to a mild rain at Reagan National Airport around 11 p.m. I managed to stay relatively dry until I hit the pedestrian walkway to the remote parking lot I had parked in. Bounded by walls on both sides, there was no way to avoid being hit by the sprinklers that were apparently dedicated to watering 10% of the surrounding greenery and 100% of the sidewalk.

BARRAGE OF CONTRADICTORY TRAFFIC SIGNS APPEARS TO PROHIBIT EVERY CONCEIVABLE EXIT FROM PARKING LOT

Again, not much more to it than that.