Back from Buffalo or bust

Going through the security at the airport I realized we brought more electronic devices than clothes.  The night before I spent 2 hours going through all the wires and making sure we have all the cables to supply the miriad of devices we felt were necessar.  Power cables for the two laptops, USB cables for both Ipods, and seperate usb cables for the GPS, the Sprint Aircard (cable and instruction CD), Camera, batteries, and Power cables for the phones, not to mention a IPOD to RCA cord in case we have a tv with auxillary inputs.  We looked like we were getting ready to plan a strike on Iraq at the security desk, so of course they just waived us through.

 

That's a lot of shit, and the last two weeks prior to this I spent a lot of grey matter trying to figure out if there was some device that would remove a couple of these.  Almost bought an Ipod for the simple fact it came with GPS and a good enough web browser to maybe let me leave my laptop at home.  No deal, those service plans are stupid ridiculous.  I could justify it if you could use all that data you're paying for to tether a regular laptop to and get broadband, but no, so I found an aircard rental place and rented Broadband for the 13 days we are going to be gone, $157.00, OUCH.

 

So we sit there with two packed to the gils computer bags waiting for our flight, taking laptops and ipods out, syncing up songs and movies we didn't have a chance to yet.  All the while looking utterly ridiculous as we find one of the only electrical outlets in the terminal, our week+ adventure kicking off strong and easy with the flight being on time and we even took advantage of some more leg room on our long flight from San Francisco to Washington DC.  I should know that nothing is easy.

 

All we really wanted was to be able to get a little sleep on the redeye, we proved that even under ideal circumstances sleeping on the plane is not something that's going to work for me, at least this time.  I had the middle seat and a veteran flyer came in and sat on the outside seat right next to me, within 5 minutes he was dozed off and without me even noticing I realized the had snagged control of the armrest, leaving me to try and prop up my soulder or do something else to relax that part of my body.  NOthing workded and I couldnt seem to get control of the armrest again.  Fortunately Kari saw how uncomfortable I was and offered to switch for th window and I was able to get aobut 3 hours sleep all told, of course Kari wasn't able to get any.

 

Finally we arrive in Buffalo and get ahold of Sayed, a gentleman I had talked to earlier about buying his 1999 Toyota Tercel for the drive back home.  First we had to drop by the bank, I had previously checked for Wells Fargo's but after getting the rental and trying to use the GPS I was unable to because the GPS was stuck in download ing from the computer mode.  Matter of fact, ultimately the best electronic device we had was the Sprint Aircard as expensive as it was, Kari was able to navigate through google maps, find banks and make transactions right over the internet.  A few searches later and we were walking out of B of A with the money for the car, unfortunately Sayed wasn't as ready as he lead on to selling the car.  His father the title owner wouldn't be back until the next night, so we had to start all over againlooking for a car.

 

Things are different here though, the economy here is incredibly depressed, 1/3 of the homes we drove by in the poorer area of Buffalo were boarded up, the rest except for a spotty few were completely run down.  But it all has this very down home atmosphere.  When I went to get cash from the bank the armored truck pulled up to deliver the cash for the day, not only was he by himself but he also just brought the cash and change in in clear plastic where you could totally see all the money, that's just insane.  I really don't like this place, even Niagra Falls is unatractive except for the actual falls.

 

More next time sooooo tired, hopefully i'll have a car.