Palm Springs, dried up and dusty.

I’m in the Palm Springs Airport, Sonny Bono Terminal, and it is an interesting building. This is the only airport I’ve ever been to where you can sit outside in the open air and where there is an atrium area with a fountain that you can sit around and enjoy the sunshine. And it is protected so if you end up having a rainy day then you will be dry.

Speaking of dry, it is dry and dusty all over this place. It is of course a desert so it will most likely be dry but there is dust blowing all over the place. I got engulfed in a cloud of it on my way to the airport. Staying out in San Bernardino wasn’t that bad but I would have rather have stayed in Palm Springs proper. I really wanted to find something to do there but instead I spent extra time at the hotel and then drove to the airport. Big excitement for my day. Now I have about 5 hours of flights ahead of me. First stop Houston. From there I head to Monroe Louisiana. This will be my first trip to Louisiana. Of course I am blowing in tonight at 8:00pm and heading out at 3:45pm tomorrow.

I am now forced to rent my cars from National Car rental. They suck. When I started we rented cars from Budget and then moved to Hertz and now to National. Did I mention that they suck? I had a Chevy Impala and it was a terrible car. Who puts the shift on the steering column anymore and it was easy enough to blow past Drive and get into D3. Does anyone actually drive in D1, D2, or D3? I have never had the need for that. It is just something to ponder.

When I returned my car, which by the way bounced and vibrated all over the highway, the rental return line was stopped completely. There were two cars without drivers and one woman moving them. Then all the car companies had their own lanes that were packed in together. I was in the National/Alamo line and then was directed to the Avis line. I pulled around and they blamed me for paring in the wrong line. Hello, you just directed me to the wrong line. Then the person who comes to scan your car and give you your receipt could not come to my car for some reason and so I had to go in to the airport to stand in line and get my receipt. That is always fun because they only have one person behind the counter. And let me give you two guesses on the speed with which they do their job. Fast and efficient isn’t one of them.

I finally got my receipt and made my wait to the Continental ticket counter. This is the first time in 5 years that I have had to fly Continental. I didn’t realize that they still existed. But they do exist and I was able to get my tickets and switch my frequent flyer miles to Delta. At least I’ll get something fairly useful for this flight. And it looks like I’m going to be on a little jet for the flight so at least I shouldn’t be totally crammed next to anyone. But that remains to be seen.

At the Palm Springs Airport they have two painted big horn sheep. I took a picture of each one of them. I liked how they had very nice paint jobs with a desert motif. I tried to get some good pictures in Palm Springs but there was nowhere to stop and the air was really crappy so the mountain pictures were not going to come out. I did snap a shot of the windmill farms that are all over the highway. They are really impressive to see when the wind is blowing.

Here is a shot of the windmill farms from the car…

And here is one from the air…

The one thing I do not like about the Palm Springs airport is that they have only one restaurant and it was jammed with people. There was no way to get a seat or to get to a counter to order something. Say all the bad things you like about McDonalds but at least you can get something to eat there in a reasonable amount of time. Since I wasn’t able to get anything at the restaurant I’m making do with some Cheez-Its and peanuts and water. Maybe I can snap something in Houston before my next flight, but that will be tight.

I ended up grabbing some McDonalds before my next flight. With 3 minutes to spare to eat my makeshift dinner. Food kharma got me because I am feeling a little sick right now. I got to Monroe. I finished my book and I found my hotel in the driving rain. And that included taking my car through what could only be considered a small lake in the parking lot of a Shoney’s or something like that. I am at my hotel now and have my high speed internet and blogger is down. What a day.