IND in One Day

A quick little trip to Indianapolis yesterday. I've been there a number of times, last time commenting on the new airport (which I like a lot). I used to do more one-day trips, but with how much of a hassle air travel has become and the cost of missing a meeting its more overnights now. So, yesterday's one day trip was more unusual than in the past. It makes for a long day, catching am 8:30 flight now means getting to the airport by 7 which means leaving the house by 6.

The January weather yesterday was quite nice, it was in the 40s when I was walking into the airport and the sun was hitting the Washington buildings from the low morning angle which brings out all the texture. I had a window seat on the small Embraer 175 on takeoff on the side of the plane looking over the river, and we stayed straight off the runway long enough to watch the sliding show from low over the water and monuments to high above Wisconsin avenue over Bethesda. Just as Rockville was coming into view the plane banked to the west and we were up through the clouds and the ground then becomes that far away picture with no detail.

Indianapolis was cloudy and rainy the whole day, but it was a nice day and we discovered a new place to eat. A good meeting, then back to the airport.

The flight back was on the tiny Embraer 135, and there was solid cloud cover the whole time. The closing sunlight of the day created fantastic light against the cloud layer, and the whole flight back was a very sureal view of another planet. As we landed my seat was now on the wrong side of the plane facing Virginia, but we headed south of the airport to turn around a head up the river. The fading sunlight and the time of day when all the artificial lighting is turning on below created another beautiful visual experience as all the cars clogged the roads for rush hour and the cities were lighting up with their own nightlife. As the plane backed to the left to head up the river I could see where the Potomac dumps into the Cheasapeake Bay and could see much of the bay off in the horizon stretching up to the north.

As we came up to the runway the pilot had to make a last minute dip to the left to stay aligned which created that unnerving experience of watching the wing lean down to touch the water. This is more typical of the smaller planes, the larger ones have too much inertia for a manuvure like that. We touched down and the airport terminal whizzed by as it only can at DCA where the airport is so small.

The small plane stopped and we had to climb down the stairs to the little bus to take us into the terminal. The little plane was too small to be given a jetway, so there's a parking lot for them away from the terminal. I like getting off the planes like this as you get to stretch your legs on the tarmac and enjoy the smells and sounds of the airport in operation.

Not a bad day, with a good meeting with nice people and two nice little plane rides.

Traveling by Rail

One of the advantages of living on the east coast is that traveling by rail is a real option for some cities. Amtrak runs a very busy city-to-city service from Boston down to Washington, which is priced somewhat competitively with air travel. DC to NYC by rail and by air are both somewhere around $200, although there are tremendous fluctuations with air travel prices.

But, a comparison between the two is interesting.

Comfort is no comparison; rail is far superior to air in comfort. The seats are much more spacious, there is way more storage space, the seats are far more comfortable. You can get up and stretch or walk around any time you want, and if you need to use the rest room it is far larger and even accommodates wheel chairs if needed. The noise level for rail is lower, the ventilation is better, and you don't twist your neck trying to look through a little tiny airplane porthole.

As a business traveler, there also is no comparison - rail kills air. Comedians don't joke about airplane food anymore because there's no such thing. On the train you can walk to the dining car where there are a lot of options, hot or cold. You can sit at a table or have a big pull out tray for your work. There's a 110 volt outlet next to the seat to keep your batteries charged. Odds are pretty good that you'll have a solid cell phone connection the whole way. You can annoy your neighbors as you pretend you have very important calls to make, or keep your computer attached to the Internet as you roll along. Air is working on solving this; Internet access and cell phone access in the sky, power at your seat sometimes if you have the right cable. Maybe if there was enough room to open up your computer you could take advantage of this, but its pretty hard in a center coach seat to open up a laptop these days.

The time it takes to travel has been similar for me between rail and air in some cases on the east coast. While a plane is way faster than a train (about 450 MPH airspeed vs. 90 MPH ground speed), when you consider the time delays with airports and their security vs. walking onto a train minutes before it pulls out - plus the train leaves you downtown where air leaves you facing a 30 minute or more cab ride - not much difference. Of course, the further you go the less they are even. DC to Boston the plane wins; DC to Philadelphia or NYC the train wins.

One big difference is style. It's not not really a win for either side, but there is a huge difference in the perspective on the planet you get between the two modes. A plane ride at 30,000 feet is an amazing experience. You have a view of the planet, weather, and how humans exist which is so different than everyday life from the ground. A sight like Manhattan or the Grand Canyon from the air is almost surreal.

A train ride is sitting behind a picture window as you zip along water, land, people, forest, buildings, that you normally don't see. You'll pass over rivers with people rowing and riding bicycles, followed in a minute or two by building covered with graffiti long abandoned. It's hard to not hum "Ain't That America" in your head as you cross through all sections of life.


I've really enjoyed traveling by rail when it makes sense. It can also be very nice with colleagues since you can sit across from each other at a table while you travel. It's a shame the rail system doesn't connect more cities than it does for me, as most of my travel is by air.

More on Tripit

I wrote before that I'm using Tripit.com to help with travel, and its a great service. As a way of simplifying my life, Tripit lets me stop keeping track of my trips on a spreadsheet since it does a better job of this.

One of the neat things it does it keep a map of all my travels. You can zoom in and out, as its all based on Google maps. Even though I only started using Tripit about 2 or 3 years ago, you can go in and enter older trips if there's anything you wish wasn't missing.

Tripit is a really nice application for anyone that does a moderate amount of travel, and the free version is amazingly full featured.

Tripit

I've been using Tripit.com for a while. This is a great service for organizing your travel. Tripit receives your Email notifications of e-tickets, hotel reservations, etc. and organizes them into one nicely formatted itinerary document with maps, weather, and links for check in. You simply forward your reservations and its sends you a notification when its done.

Some added functionality is that you can create a network of fellow travelers with whom you would like to share this information - great for your colleagues. It sends notifications and alerts as you are going to be in the same city.

Because Tripit keeps track of all your flights I'm going to remove the flight records here that have no details and move them to Tripit. I'll leave the ones where I provide some descriptive information.