Hello, Indianapolis Motor Speedway

September 5, 2021, 8:33 PM PDT by Parkzer • Face, Tourism

This post is over 5 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.

My second tourist activity of Indianapolis was visiting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the race track best known for hosting the Indianapolis 500, or just the “Indy 500.” I wasn’t too interested in seeing a live race (and was too late for it anyway), but I want to see the notable points of interest that each of my road trip cities are known for, so I wanted to at least check out the track and the museum.

My tour started with a guided lap ride around the race track.

The race track used to be made out of brick, but has since been covered with multiple layers of asphalt. However, there is one strip of the original brick still visible near the starting point of the race. Apparently, professional race car drivers kiss this portion of the race track, so the tourists were also allowed to swoop down and kiss the brick for photos. I personally thought that concept was repulsive, so instead, I just asked Ed to take a photo of me sitting next to the brick.

After the tour, we went back into the museum for the self-guided portion of our trip.

I usually don’t really have pictures of myself when I go to tourist attractions, but seeing as Ed was here with me, he took a few shots of me sitting inside the race cars designed for photos.

I’m one of the people who have always thought the Indy 500, and every other professional racing event, was fairly boring, because I didn’t really see the appeal of watching a bunch of people drive their cars in a circle and continue turning left over and over again.

After visiting the Motor Speedway, I still wouldn’t consider myself a racing fan, but I did have two takeaways that changed my view of the sport:

Racing is just another outlet for the drivers and their teams to showcase their skill. It takes a lot of top-tier science, engineering, intellect, talent, and control to be able to drive at racecar speeds. It is also a perfectionist’s sport, because a single unnoticeable error could result in catastrophic disaster for the driver.
A lot of fans like the Indianapolis 500 as an observer’s sport, but that’s just a portion of it—a lot of the fans love it more for the heritage and tradition, as well as the strong patriotism that the Indy 500 represents.

Hello, Newfields: The Indianapolis Museum of Art

September 4, 2021, 10:42 PM PDT by Parkzer • Face, Tourism

For my first real tourist activity of Indianapolis, I went to Newfields: The Indianapolis Museum of Art. Newfields is 152 acres and contains over 50,000 items in their collection. I noticed that Newfields is also one of the most highly-rated art museums in general across the United States.

Throughout my road trip, when I go to a tourist attraction, I usually go in the late morning or early afternoon so I will have a good chunk of time to explore before the exhibits close, then I can pick up food on the way back to my hotel. However, for Newfields, I went with Ed, so unfortunately, I had to do some schedule coordination and didn’t make it into the museum until 5 PM. The museum closed at 8 PM, which meant we only had three hours to view everything; usually, three hours would be enough for a museum, but due to the sheer size of this museum (and because of the fact that it was drizzling rain), we missed out on all of the outdoor gardens and exhibits.

Here are some highlights from my trip from the various different sections on display:

Yes, that is me in the final photo standing in front of a really big cloud thingy. Unfortunately, the cloud was a little bright and the rest of the museum was dark at that point because there was dim lighting by the entrance, the sun had set, and it was almost closing time… so even with a lot of editing in post, I still look sort of like a silhouette.

Hello, Provision in Indianapolis

September 3, 2021, 9:27 PM PDT by Parkzer • Food

For my first stop of my continued road trip after visiting my parents, I’m visiting Indianapolis, Indiana, to which my childhood best friend (you may know him as Ed Lam or “Grainyrice”) and his mom moved not too long ago. Today is Ed’s mom’s birthday, so I treated her and Ed to dinner at Provision, a highly-rated restaurant in the Ironworks Hotel.

Our meal started with a pre-appetizer while we were browsing the menus and deciding what to eat. I don’t recall what exactly was in the dish, but it was very tart and sour.

For our main appetizer, we ordered and split one crab hashbrown with spinach, candied jalapeño, fried egg, and jalapeño hollandaise.

For my meal, I opted for the chef’s tasting menu, a six-course dinner with a soup, four various meat dishes, and dessert.

The opening course was chilled English pea soup drizzled with crème fraîche and topped with smoked sea salt, and a side of crispy Serrano ham. Upon the first bite, the flavor was overwhelmingly peas, but after I mixed in the crème fraîche and sea salt and nibbled on the ham along with it, it had a much better taste. The blandness of the pea soup was well-complemented with the saltiness and savoriness of the ham.

The next dish was hamachi (better known as Japanese amberjack or yellowtail) with Shiso oil, cucumber chutney, pickled strawberry, fried caper, tobiko, and rice emulsion.

I’d say this was my least favorite dish for a few reasons. First, I’m a sushi enthusiast, and I immediately noticed that the yellowtail didn’t really taste much like yellowtail. This may tie in with the second point, which is that everything was extremely sour, probably because the strong flavor of the pickled strawberries and capers got on the other ingredients. I’m not sure if this affected how the yellowtail tasted, but I’d say this tasted more like an extremely sour salad more than it did a fish dish.

Third was lobster risotto with Fresno chile salad and lemon oil. This might have been bland for some other people, but this was perfect for my taste, and was my second favorite dish. There was lobster both in shreds and in small chunks, and the risotto had a smooth yet satisfying texture. This is also the first dish where I noticed the chef did a good job at maintaining the optimal serving temperature of the dish by heating the plate up; the top of the risotto was warm, but after digging in a bit, the innards were nice and hot.

The next course was quail with sage, apple and celery root purée, and fig demi. This was my first time eating quail, and I thought it was fairly underwhelming—it tasted mostly like turkey. The preparation was nice—it was crispy on the outside but juicy on the inside. However, I think quail just might not have the highest-quality cuts available, so it just tasted like generic meat. It wasn’t bad, but I’d say this was my second least favorite dish.

Fifth in line was Japanese A5 Wagyu seared in olive oil and surrounded by pink peppercorn and sea salt. As you may have guessed, this was my favorite dish.

The Japanese use A, B, and C to grade their meat’s cutability, which represents the amount of meat taken from a carcass as calculated by a particular formula. “A” means it has higher yield than standard, “B” means it has standard yield, and “C” means it has lower yield than standard. After the letter, you’ll see a number from 1 to 5; this represents meat quality as based on things like marbling, coloring, and texture. A score of “1” is the lowest and “5” is the highest.

This dish was a perfect example of the melt-in-your-mouth quality of beef I would expect from A5 Wagyu. I accidentally overdid it with the sea salt a bit for my first bite, which I was disappointed about, but after realizing that the crystals on the side were literally pure salt, I used it in moderation for future bites, and the rest was amazing. The sear on the outside added a perfect amount of crisp to the otherwise buttery soft inside.

The waiter let me know that they usually sell this for $25 per ounce, so a standard 8-ounce steak would cost $200. The portion I received was 2.5 ounces, so I realized that the chef’s tasting menu was actually a pretty amazing deal (I’ll do an overall price breakdown at the end).

The final course was dessert: ricotta donuts with maple cream, bacon crumble, banana ice cream, two cuts of strawberry, and a blackberry. This ended up being a fairly stereotypical dessert dish. The main thing I liked about it was that it wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet, and the banana ice cream had a unique taste profile where it tasted like vanilla first, but once you leave it in your mouth for a few seconds, the banana flavor emerges.

Instead of the full-blown chef’s tasting menu, Ed’s mom opted for a “miniature” version of it, called the Devour Summerfest. Apparently this is a thing in which over 100 restaurants participate by offering value-priced three-course meals.

Her first dish was an appetizer, for which she picked shrimp and chicken gyoza with pineapple ponzu, spicy sauce, and pickled Fresno. I tried a small piece of the edge of one of them, and it tasted like fairly generic fried dumplings.

For her main course, she got salmon with plantain curry, cucumber, pickled onion, harissa raita, and lentil.

Ed was probably extremely bored the entire time, because, while I got a six-course meal and his mom had a three-course meal, he just got a normal menu item. He had the short rib with herb spaetzle, asparagus, corn, fennel, potato, and smoked onion demi.

And finally, for Ed’s mom’s dessert, she got a cheesecake with cherry preserves and pistachio. Usually when you make a reservation to a high-end restaurant, they’ll ask you whether you’re just visiting for a regular meal, or if there is a special occasion; I marked down that it was her birthday, so they turned her cheesecake into a miniature birthday cake.

Ed also had dessert—an Indiana sugar cream pie with a candied orange slice and Turkish coffee ice cream. Unfortunately, I only took one photo of his dessert, and it ended up out of focus, so I don’t have a picture to share.

Here is the breakdown of what I paid:

Chef’s tasting menu	$ 95.00
Devour Summerfest	$ 40.00
Short rib	$ 38.00
Indiana sugar cream pie	$ 10.00
Soft drink	$ 2.75
Occasion dessert discount	–$ 10.00
Taxes (9%)	$ 17.62
Gratuity (20%)	$ 42.67
Total	$ 256.04

I thought this was a great deal. I recently went to Nonesuch in Oklahoma City, a similar tasting menu restaurant, which cost just shy of $440 for two people. Although Nonesuch had 11 courses while Provision only had 6, the portion sizes at Provision were proportionally larger. Although Nonesuch was much better at food presentation, I think I would say that the taste was better at Provision, and to me, that’s the more important part.

The waiter comped Ed’s mom’s dessert for her birthday, so we ended up getting a $10 discount.

I enjoyed my meal, and Ed’s mom appeared to have had a good time as well, so I’d say this was overall a good dinner. If you’re ever in the northeast Indianapolis suburbs and this restaurant is within your price range for a meal, I’d definitely recommend giving it a visit.

I’ve decided to continue my homelessness

August 28, 2021, 8:46 PM PDT by Parkzer • Travel

In case you’re late to the party, I decided back in May 2021 that I would become voluntarily homeless and go on a road trip to travel the country. Since then, I’ve visited Long Beach, California; Lake Las Vegas, Nevada; St. George, Utah; Salt Lake City, Utah; Rawlins, Wyoming; Denver, Colorado; Wichita, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas/Missouri; and Springfield, Illinois. You can filter my blog to just show travel posts by using the “Travel” category.

At the time that I decided to start this journey, I left things very open-ended. I knew that my first destination was going to be my parents’ house in the Chicagoland suburbs, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do after that—whether I would continue east, or just drive straight back home to Las Vegas and sign a new lease. Well, after almost three months of being homeless, I have decided that I want to continue my journey and extend my adventure for as long as possible.

Of course, this wouldn’t be an Adam Parkzer blog post without a breakdown and some in-depth analysis, so here are the things that I like and dislike so far about being a nomad.

Things I like:

I feel an even stronger sense of freedom than I did before.

With my job being remote (even prior to the pandemic) and having flexible scheduling with no set working hours, I already had a lot of freedom when it came to what I wanted to do with my life. But, now that I’m literally roaming the country and never staying in one location for more than a week at a time (except for visiting my parents for a month), I feel an elevated sense of freedom. I hate feeling constrained or confined, so this is probably the happiest I’ve been in a while.

Previously, even though I’ve been able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, there wasn’t actually really that much that I wanted to do, so I would mostly just stay indoors and work. However, now that I’m surrounded by so many new things, there are a lot of things that I do actually want to do… and it is liberating knowing that I can just go and do them if I feel like it. I’ve already been very thankful of my current working arrangement, but traveling like this makes me double down on the appreciation.

Similarly, if I want to work, I know that I can get uninterrupted work done whenever I want to. I pass on daily housekeeping and keep the “do not disturb” indicator on my door at all times, so that means nobody ever bothers me in my hotel room.
The fact that I no longer have to pay rent in an unoccupied apartment or condo during travel is very satisfying to the efficiency part of my brain.

One thing I hated about traveling in the past is that I would be paying rent in an apartment or condo that would remain vacant while I was gone. The worst part is that I actually traveled quite a bit for work, so sometimes, I would only actually be at home half the time, yet I would still be paying full price in rent.

Now that I am no longer committed to a lease agreement, I am happy to fly to Las Vegas, Southern California, or any other location for work and spend as long as I need to in those areas. The only additional expense would be parking my pickup truck at the airport of whatever city I happen to be in at the time, but the magic of living out of hotel rooms is that I don’t have to continue paying for hotel rooms if I’m at the company team house (or, if I do pay for hotel rooms for work at those work-related locations, those are reimbursable, while my rent would not have been).
I’m learning a lot.

Traveling and exploring new areas obviously exposes me to many new experiences that let me learn about how other areas of the country live. But, there’s another aspect to this as well—by traveling through smaller “middle of nowhere” towns, I am learning a lot more about different cultures.

When you get very deep in your own world, it’s sometimes easy to lose touch with the rest of reality. This is especially true in the Internet industry because of how unique the Internet ecosystem is.

This is also especially true in the video gaming and entertainment industry, which is heavily centralized around the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. People in big cities mind their own business and generally don’t care about other people. It’s normal for you to walk past thousands of people on a daily basis and never talk with any of them.

I first noticed the stark difference between big city culture and small town culture when I made a trip to Oklahoma City and everyone seemed interested to talk with me. I saw this was also the case in other smaller towns throughout my road trip. It definitely gave me a different perspective about the social aspect of human life, and how there is some merit to talking with random people on the street for “no reason,” then uncovering something unexpected that you can learn from them.
Hotel life is actually pretty nice.

If you’re living out of hotel rooms and commit to a specific hospitality brand, it’s very easy to max out their loyalty program. My hotel chain of choice is the Marriott, and I am a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium Elite member.

This comes with a wealth of perks and benefits. Based on availability, I automatically get upgraded to the best suite available, which is nice if I’m going to be living in one for a week at a time in each city. I get lounge access if one is available, which means I usually get free snacks, water, and other beverages. I get a welcome gift upon arriving at the hotel, which is usually just some extra loyalty points that I can redeem for future travel, but one hotel went as far as to give me a custom-baked cookie with my name on it. I also get guaranteed 4 PM late checkout, which is useful if I plan on leaving the hotel later in the afternoon or evening (as opposed to the normal check-out time, which is usually in the morning).

The hotel lifestyle is also nice even without the special elite perks. If I need help with anything, even if it’s not something hotel-related, someone is always available at the front desk to assist. All the hotels have fitness centers, so a workout is always just a short walk away. If I ever run out of stuff like shampoo, toilet paper, or other bath amenities, I can call the front desk and someone will bring some for me to my door.

Marriott also does a great job with housekeeping, so my rooms have always been clean upon arrival (except for the one hotel I stayed at in St. George, which had an air conditioning unit that smelled like moldy sneakers). In a similar vein, I personally never have to clean anything; I tidy up my room prior to departure to help out the maids a bit, but apart from that, the staff handle all the cleaning, so I never have to wipe another toilet for as long as I am living in hotels.
I have something to blog about.

This one is a little silly, but this nomad lifestyle gives me something to blog about. I enjoy blogging and writing in general, but sometimes, I just don’t really know what to write about; always being exposed to something new makes it much easier for me to continue doing what I enjoy.
I like driving my truck.

This one is also a little bit silly, but I actually enjoy driving my pickup truck around to places. I still think the modern-day mid-size pickup truck is the perfect size for a dynamic person who needs versatility and capability. It is narrow enough that it can easily navigate through dense cities, it is high up enough that I get a good view of the road, and it has enough cargo space that I can carry all my essential belongings in the back seats and bed.

I appreciated the fact that I had a pickup truck when I was driving through the Rocky Mountain states with a lot of elevation change. Even though my truck has a V6 engine instead of a V8, it is still plenty of power to blast up mountain roads. I especially appreciated the fact that I had a pickup truck when I was in Wyoming, where half the roads seemed to either be unpaved, or damaged so badly by weather that they might as well have been unpaved.

To put things simply, it is very satisfying and liberating to know I can conquer pretty much any road situation I encounter.

Things I dislike:

The Internet can sometimes be unreliable.

Marriott has been doing a great job with improving Internet connectivity in their properties. Surprisingly, about half of my hotel rooms had working Ethernet ports so I could plug my computer directly to a wired Internet connection. The Element Overland Park had the best Internet speed out of all the hotels I stayed at, with speeds reaching nearly parallel gigabit.

However, there are still some hotels where the connection isn’t really the best. Especially with wireless, my connection can drop easily from stuff like if someone is using a microwave in a neighboring room, or if there is too much metal in the way and the wireless signal doesn’t reach my room well.

It doesn’t really make too much of a difference if I’m just browsing or watching buffered videos, but it can get annoying if I’m constantly editing a spreadsheet on the cloud for work, or if I’m trying to play a game. In these situations, I end up plugging my phone into my computer and using a USB tethered 4G LTE connection.
It can get annoying unpacking and packing all my belongings every week.

One of the things I mentioned before I started traveling was that I did not want this to affect the quality of my work at all. Being the head of corporate operations at Tempo, a lot of work I do involves large electronic documents and spreadsheets that aren’t the best to work on using a small laptop screen. Thus, I have been traveling with my desktop computer with two full-size monitors and setting up my entire workstation at every single hotel that I’ve stayed at.

I’ve streamlined this process pretty well so it only takes about half an hour to move all my boxes into the hotel room and get everything set up now, but after doing it over and over and over again, it starts getting a little bit annoying.
If I’m in the East of the country, flying back to the West monthly for errands and work can still be tiring with long travel days.

Another aspect of making sure my road trip doesn’t affect my work is making sure that I’m still able to travel to the company headquarters in Southern California during my routine interval of around once a month. While I fly over to SoCal, I stop by Las Vegas as well to get a haircut, check my PO box, and do other errands.

Back in 2016, one of the reasons I moved from Illinois to California was because it was getting annoying flying back and forth so much to go to esports events for work. Travel is much more comfortable now and I don’t mind planes anymore, but it can still get sort of tiring having long travel days and going back and forth the country in transcontinental flights.
There has been a growing thought in my mind that I might suffer from lifestyle inflation.

When it’s finally time to settle down, get married, and have children, I’m hoping that I will look back on these travels and remember them fondly, as opposed to feeling stuck in my future situation and wanting to become a nomad again.

So, what’s next? My current plan is to head off to Indiana on September 1 and continue my journey east. I had previously been considering visiting some family members in the northeast, but with the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the new emerging variants, I figured I would travel on my own for now and potentially visit them later, seeing as many of them are older and classified as high-risk individuals.

After Indiana, I’m parking my truck at the airport and making another air trip to the West Coast for work purposes, then flying back to Indiana. Afterwards, I have a route planned out for driving through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. This will land me in mid-October, at which point I will take yet again another flight to the West Coast for work, fly back, and continue my journey through Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the route of which is currently unplanned.

When brand loyalty goes a little bit too far

August 22, 2021, 11:39 PM PDT by Parkzer • Highlights, Travel

I am extremely loyal to brands. I study and analyze all the available options, then I pick the best one and commit to their services. For brands that are extra favorites of mine, I even go as far as to purchase their publicly-traded stock. The most obvious brand I’ve committed to that is apparent from my recent cross-country road trip is Marriott. I stay only in Marriott hotels, I am Titanium Elite in their Bonvoy loyalty program, and I own thousands of dollars’ worth of stock of Marriott International, Inc.

Delta has recently become one of these brands too. I also own thousands of dollars’ worth of stock of Delta Air Lines, Inc., and if possible, I always take a Delta flight instead of a flight with a different airline. For my recent trip from LAX to ORD, I had the option of flying non-stop via American Airlines. Instead, I chose to fly Delta Flight 937 from LAX to MSP, take a layover, and fly Delta Flight 3582 from MSP to ORD.

The connection was a little bit tight, but I was fairly confident I could make it. Flight 937 would arrive at MSP at 6:44 PM CDT. Flight 3582 departs MSP at 7:25 PM CDT. Boarding doors generally close 15 minutes prior to take-off. That would mean I have a 26-minute window to deplane, go to the next gate, and board my next flight. Hashtag doable.

That is, unless the crew is late, and then the pilot decides to take a very strange flight path. A 1:05 PM PDT on-time departure turned into a 1:14 PM PDT late departure, and a 6:44 PM CDT on-time arrival turned into a 7:04 PM CDT late arrival. Instead of taking a nice, smooth arc from LAX to MSP (or a straight line, if you’re a flat-earther, I guess), the pilot started flying due east out of LAX, presumably to avoid some California wildfires, then went off-angle for a bit, decided to add a nipple to his flight path (probably to avoid a storm in Iowa), then approached MSP from the wrong side and did a circle around the airport.

We deplaned out of the D gates, and my connecting flight was boarding from Gate C20. With a 20-minute arrival delay, that gave me a 6-minute window to make it to my next gate before boarding doors closed. I’ve pulled off some pretty incredible feats at airports, like running two-thirds of a mile with a backpack and luggage in six minutes at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The unlucky part is that, you’d expect the D gates to start when the C gates end, i.e., it goes from C1 to C25, then D is after C25… but that’s not the case. The D gates are before Gate C1, so getting to C20 is a bit of a trek.

But I wasn’t discouraged. This was still doable.

… My entire six minutes was used up by the flight crew opening the doors and letting us out. We arrived at the gate at 7:04 PM, but the doors didn’t actually open until a few minutes afterwards, and I wasn’t off the plane until a few more minutes on top of that. I checked the Delta app hoping for a delay on my connecting flight, but it showed an on-time departure. There was no way I was going to make this one. I didn’t even bother running.

I made it to Gate C20 by 7:24 PM CDT, just in time for the gate agent to tell me that the plane had already left several minutes ago for an on-time departure. I sort of shrugged it off and asked her where the closest Delta customer support desk was, but others didn’t handle it as well as I did. A couple showed up moments after me; they clearly didn’t understand that boarding doors close prior to the scheduled departure time, and were infuriated that they had made it “just in time,” but the plane was already gone. In their rage, they pulled off their face coverings and started yelling at the gate agent. Did you know that the COVID-19 pandemic stops existing if you’re mad about missing your connecting flight?

Anyway, I managed to find my way to a Delta customer support desk between Gates C1 and C2. There was no representative at the desk so I used the support phones to get my replacement flight booked and sorted; by the time I was done with that, a representative had shown up, so I asked her for a hotel voucher and a toiletry/amenity baggie. I made my way downstairs to ground transportation and hopped on a hotel shuttle bus to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Bloomington – Minneapolis South, my assigned complimentary hotel.

It was a packed shuttle going to the DoubleTree. After about 20 minutes (a bit longer than expected because we went to the other terminal too to pick up more passengers), a group of ~8-10 parties exited the shuttle and walked into the hotel with vouchers for check-in. Ahead of this group were a few guests who had already checked in and needed assistance with their stay.

One of these guests was a man who went up to the counter with two ice cream bars. He had apparently just purchased them for $4 each, but noticed on his receipt that he was overcharged and wasn’t quite sure where (I imagine the receipt wasn’t itemized). The Hilton representative looked up the transaction and let him know that, although the sign said the ice cream bars were $4 each, one of them was actually $5 and the other was $8 (even though they were both the exact same ice cream bar).

The guest requested a refund of the difference in price, and justifiably so—if the ice cream bars are labeled as $4 on the refrigerator, it would make sense that he should only pay $4. The representative tapped on his keyboard a bit, then said “I will refund you $1.52.”

That clearly was not enough to make up for the difference in price, so the guest sort of stood there in confusion and didn’t say anything. Moments later, the representative said “you have been provided with a full refund, please return the ice cream bars back to the refrigerator” … which is obviously not what he just said he would do, and is not what was requested.

The guest clearly had enough. He had mentioned earlier that he was down here to check on the price because he was sick of getting screwed over by this hotel, so I imagine this was not his first incident with the Hilton. I don’t necessarily agree with his methodology, but I definitely don’t blame him for what he did next. In a fury of rage, he crushed the ice cream bars, walked over to the refrigerator, threw them back in, slammed the door, tore off the “$4 each” sign, and slammed it on the check-in desk, pointing out that it was false advertising. He then went to the elevators and returned to his room.

The Hilton representative’s bald head began shining with sweat and his panic ensued. The representative paced back and forth for a bit, then grabbed the phone and called who I presume to be the security office. He acted like there was an active threat, even though the guest had already left. He hung up, picked up the phone again, and made some more calls. Eventually, a few more Hilton staff members, one of whom appeared to be dressed the part for being a manager, came out from the back to see what was going on.

The representative who was involved in the incident pulled up the irate guest’s personal information on file and started reading it aloud in front of the 8-10 parties still awaiting check-in—the ones who had just gotten off the shuttle with me—presumably so another employee could write it down. He then began explaining to the manager what was going on, pointing out that he had basically been assaulted by this guest.

I couldn’t help myself.

I, as the witness closest to the incident, informed the manager that the representative effectively provoked the guest by overcharging him for his purchase, then literally saying he would do one thing to resolve the problem (which wasn’t even an appropriate resolution) and then proceeding to do something completely different. Needless to say, the representative was not happy.

Things eventually settled down. After the manager deescalated the situation (and by “the situation,” I mean “the representative,” because the angry guest had been long gone by this point, and there wasn’t really a situation to deescalate anymore), I was next in line to check in.

Seeing as I had just ratted out this representative to his boss, I wasn’t expecting much. I let him know that I’m Titanium Elite with Marriott Bonvoy, and asked if he would be able to do a status match in benefits for this stay, to which he said “no.” I asked him if I could at least get a complimentary bottle of water or something, to which he replied “no.”

My response was, “this is why I stay at Marriotts.”

With an ever-so-barely visible scowl on his face, he put me on the lowest guest room floor of a 22-story building with a nice view of concrete.

After a passable night’s rest, I woke up in time to catch the 8:30 AM shuttle to the airport. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was full, and it was on a first-come, first-served basis, so I was out of luck. My rebooked flight was at 10:30 AM; the hotel’s airport shuttles operated once every hour, and I didn’t want to take the risk of waiting for the 9:30 AM shuttle, so I just called an Uber.

Five minutes into my Uber ride, I got an email from Delta saying that my flight was delayed, with a new departure time of 11:37 AM. That obviously would’ve been nice to know before I had already left the hotel, but it was fine. I’d just spend an extra hour at the airport eating some breakfast and people-watching. … Shortly after I arrived at the airport, I got another email saying the departure had been delayed again, this time to 12:09 PM.

I bought a protein shake and went to an empty gate with nobody around so I could take off my mask and enjoy my drink. I got very lucky with my gate selection, because I happened to pick one where they were running training exercises for the airport bomb-sniffing dogs.

Upon the conclusion of my entertaining dog show, Delta emailed me yet again informing me that my flight had been delayed to a 1:07 PM departure. I looked up the inbound flight for the plane that was supposed to take us to ORD, and apparently it was still grounded at OKC, hours after it was supposed to take off. I assumed it was some sort of mechanical problem with the aircraft (which I later confirmed was correct), so I walked around MSP until I found a power outlet, pulled out my laptop, plugged in, and started getting some work done.

Delta must have thought that this was a great idea, because they delayed the flight again to 2:16 PM.

As the time approached closer to 1 PM, I took another look at the status of the inbound flight and saw that it was en route. I realized that this is likely going to end up being the last delay, and I will finally make it to Chicago. At 1:46 PM, I packed up my laptop and made my way to Gate C14 for boarding. I scanned my boarding pass and got on the plane. Everyone else boarded, the flight attendants closed the boarding doors, the airport crew retracted the jet bridge, and we were ready to leave. My travel day was finally coming to an end.

Then the pilot announced that ORD was grounding all inbound flights at their origin until at least 3 PM due to severe thunderstorms.

Honestly, it would be more surprising if I was surprised.

I pulled out my tablet, opened my Kindle app, loaded up a Stephen King book that I’m in the process of reading, and reclined all the way back in my seat, thankful that I got upgraded to first class.

I was fully prepared and expecting to be told that ORD extended the postponement of inbound flights, but we were actually cleared to depart at 3 PM. We set off, and in under an hour of air time, we arrived safely at ORD. I’m sure you can guess how excited everyone was when we flew into Chicago and saw no trace of the thunderstorms that delayed us for an additional 44 minutes on the Minnesotan tarmac.

Delta is still my favorite airline, and if possible, I will continue to always fly Delta Air Lines. Prior to the past two days, Delta has provided me with notably smooth and high-quality service for years.

However, after this experience… I may possibly consider taking American Airlines in the future if they have a non-stop flight available while Delta does not. 🙂

Reunited

August 12, 2021, 4:01 PM PDT by Parkzer • Cats

Yes, I am still alive. If you’re one of the few people who have actually been deeply invested in my nomadic travels so far, I understand that it can be a bit jarring to see a new blog post once every few days, then suddenly see nothing for a month… but the simple answer for that is because I’ve just had nothing interesting to blog about.

On July 12, I arrived in the Chicagoland suburbs at my parents’ house where I grew up. They live in a very small village where there isn’t really much to do nearby, and I’ve mostly just been working, playing games, and helping my parents catch up on errands and appointments that they never got around to doing on their own.

Two days ago was just shy of the two month and two week mark of transferring my portion of my condo lease to someone else and voluntarily becoming homeless to travel the country. Seeing as I still consider Las Vegas my home (and it is still officially my home in the eyes of the government), I parked my truck at a nearby airport and made an air trip back to Las Vegas take care of some errands that were piling up while I was gone—getting a haircut, going to the chiropractor, picking up my vehicle registration renewal sticker, picking up insurance renewal documents and cards, picking up new membership cards, and other various similar tasks.

But, the most important task of all… was visiting and being reunited with my former roommate Winnie’s cats.

My parents have a Yorkshire Terrier that is a typical overenthusiastic dog with way too much energy, but also isn’t very well trained. She’s the type of dog that barks at seemingly nothing, and then proceeds to bark at herself barking because she’s confused why she’s barking. She also has some of the worst separation anxiety I have ever seen in an animal.

After having lived with Winnie and her cats for over half a year, untrained and unsocialized dogs (like my parents’) became a bit overwhelming for me. The difference was made even more dramatic after staying with my parents for a month, then coming back to visit the cats again. Winnie’s cats are actually very well-trained, and I’m sure that has a lot to do with it, but cats are undeniably more angelic and loving (at least in my eyes).

I also got to see Tyson again, Mochi and Pumpkin’s son. I didn’t get to spend much time with Tyson prior to going off on my adventure, so he’s still fairly shy around me, but he still let me give him some head and back scratches.

And finally, for the first time, I got to meet Melon, Mochi and Pudding’s son.

At first, Melon was extremely shy, but after I crouched down onto the floor, blinked slowly, let him boop my knuckles, and scratched his chin and the base of his ears a bit when he approached, he got instantly attached. He started headbutting and rubbing himself up against my legs and arms, which is a Pudding trait. When I pet him, he would push his head harder into my hand, which is a Mochi trait. When I would pause petting him, he would go hunting for my hand and force his head under my palm, presumably under the philosophy that, if I don’t pet him, then he will pet himself using my hand.

This literally meant that I couldn’t actually get a good picture of him, because every time I would try and snap a photo, he would move and try to pet himself with my hand. The best I could do was to take a shot with one hand while my other was giving him ear scratches.

Melon also has some of the softest hair I’ve ever felt. His coat reminded me of some of those synthetic furs that are scientifically designed to be extremely soft to the touch… except Melon’s is actually real hair.

Visiting the cats was more or less the only particularly interesting and eventful thing I’ve done in Las Vegas, with the rest of my time here mostly just being productive. Tomorrow, I head out to California to visit Tempo’s team house and meet some of our new employees; more blog posts of that in the coming week.