Friday, April 21, 2006
Guest of the Day in Des Moines, Iowa
I went to Des Moines, Iowa this week. I know what you think: "Boy, I wish I could go to Des Moines one day...". But hey, it wasn't that bad! I was picked as the guest of the day at the Mariott we stayed at, which meant I got a free upgrade to a pretty nice suite, as well as m&m's and roasted peanuts. So there!
Asides from that, there was some other noteworthy stuff going on. OK, nothing super-exciting, but still! On the way in, we flew through some serious thunderstorms. It was quite spectacular. Thunderstorms as seen from an airplane are always exciting. And it was even more exciting when we went straight into one for landing. So much for the predicted smooth ride!
Here's one thing I have never seen before: The airport in Des Moines is used as a civilian airport as well as a base for the national guard. So we actually landed right next to a bunch of F16s. I have never seen F16s "in the wild before". I visited a few aircraft carriers and such where they were on display, but I never saw one in its natural "habitat". When I flew out the next day, they were actually zipping around. Boy, that was pretty interesting actually.
So that was cool and something I had not seen before. Another thing I had not done before was go through a drive-through in a taxi. When we got there, it was too late and nothing else was open anymore, so we went through the McDonald's drive through in the cab. I thought that was pretty humorous. Maybe I am just easily entertained...
Posted @ 6:46 PM by Egger, Markus (markus@code-magazine.com)