There are things I learn from traveling, and things I re-learn.
Learned: MIA — never good at the best of times — has managed to get worse. In order to serve the herding needs of the security services, you now have to walk three times as far to get to low-numbered “C” gates … which is where the flights to NY leave from. It now feels even more like Laguardia at its worst.
Re-Learned: When we’re having lovely weather in Miami, the rest of the country, is having seriously crummy weather. Example: my flight to NY started its decent to JFK, only to abort rather suddenly. Seems the winds were gusting at 70 MPH, which is too much. So we got diverted to Baltimore to re-fuel before trying again.
Re-learned: NY streets are a lot cleaner than the NY of my childhood memories.
Learned: The conference hotel looks out onto the site of the World Trade Center. It’s even more depressing that I would have thought. It feels very odd to look down from the 52nd floor onto the small crowd milling about outside the fence.