Sat Aug 11 - Flying Back West

I got about 4 hours sleep after being out late with my old home-town college buddies Greg, Tim and Pete. We almost never see each other but it is just like old times when we do. We are much more responsible, mature and generally better behaved now. We grew up together in the same town (Putney VT) and then were roomates for a year in college (a crazy year I might add). So I was not too crisp but managed to get everything packed. The flights left mid morning so not the usual wee hour stuff.
Deb and I went on 2 seperate flights (freq flyer miles, etc). We had 2 huge bags between all of the usual stuff and 2 helmets, camping stuff, half gallon of syrup and motorcycle clothes, but everything fit (even the Razor scooter). I flew from Burlington to Philly to Phoenix to Portland and Deb flew from Burlington to Philly to Portland. On my last flight from Phoenix, I sat next to a 4 year old boy named Alex who told me pretty much everything going on in his world. I tried to help his dad channel all that boy energy for the 2-3 hours of the flight. How kids that age be that active for that long on a bag of peanuts and a juice box defies physics.
I arrived an hour before Deb did and hung out near baggage claim reading my book and doing my usual socio-profiling. Baggage claim is where you get a snapshot of who lives here. They are young, crunchy, clean, plaid and baggy clothes and pretty darn happy folks here in Portland.
After lots of calls, we found what seemed to be the last hotel room within shuttle range. The woman on the phone came and picked us up and explained that the fewer the rooms left, the higher the price, which is why our room was so expensive. She was very nice about it. The room was postage stamped size but fine. The one interesting thing about the trip for me was getting off the plane in Phoenix. As I stepped off the plane onto the ramp I noticed how hot it was immediately, shockingly hot. I checked the temp with my phone and it was 114 degrees outside. We walked across the street from the hotel and got dinner in a bar type place and watched Olympics on the big screen TVs. I rode the Razor up and down the halls of the hotel to get the Endomondo challenge thing points. It was late and I was glad nobody came out of their rooms to complain about me buzzing up and down the hallways with my scooter. As always after long flights and time changes, we were exhausted and crashed.