September 15, 2005

On Travel...

Well, here I am in Washington DC, on a brief business trip. Flew in to Reagan National Airport on one of those American Eagle "regional jets," a 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135 with an aisle ceiling too low for me to stand up. A decent ride, though, and the seats are surprisingly wide for such a narrow jet. Unrelated factoid: Wynonna Judd was one of the passengers who deplaned from the jet in Nashville before I boarded.

Even when you leave Nashville, it follows you. I stopped in an airport gift shop upon arrival here in DC and Kenny Chesney was playing on the store's music system.

Blogging will be nil tomorrow until after 2 p.m. central. Then I'll have about five hours to kill in Arlington, Va., before flying back home.

Here's a photo of the inside of the Reagan National terminal. It's one of those wonderful airport terminals that makes you feel like you're flying even though you haven't yet left the ground. You can click the image for a much-larger version.

President Bush just started his televised speech from Jackson Square in New Orleans with that beautiful cathedral as a backdrop. I am at a loss to understand why his staff thinks a speech with no audience is a good idea. Still, Bush is proposing the largest rebuilding effort in the nation's history, and that's entirely appropriate as Katrina is one of the largest natural disasters in the nation's history.

UPDATE: I watched part of the the DVD of Friday Night Lights, the story of the Odessa-Permian High School football team during the 1988 season, on the flight, and finished it in the hotel. Excellent film. I enjoyed seeing shots of Abilene's Shotwell Stadium in the film - it's not only where Abilene-Cooper HS and Abilene HS play their games, it's also where my alma mater, Abilene Christian University, has played its football games for the past 46 years.

But mostly I loved seeing the gorgeous shots of West Texas - if a flat, arid, nearly treeless and unrelentingly brown landscape covered by a huge arc of high blue sky can be described as gorgeous. When I'm there, I feel simultaneously at home and as if I'm an alien in a strange land.

There's a complete lack of pretense about West Texas - it is what it is, and the people are wonderful. I miss it even though I can't imagine ever living there again.

As for the movie, it's excellent. And I loved the definition that Coach Gary Gaines (played by Billy Bob Thornton) gave for what it means to "be perfect."

Watch the movie. He's right.