Road to Rhode Island

And we're off! Although we had a slightly groggy start at 3 A.M. , we made it to Rhode Island alive and well.

The Brown 1 Cohorts (At 3 A.M.)

The travel itself went a lot better than I expected. The shuttle was quick and on-time, and the plane was not the inefficient mess I usually have to deal with. In fact I was pleasantly surprised by the practices used by Southwest Airlines.

Usually when I travel, the plane trip involves waiting in line to check-in, waiting in line for security, waiting in line to board, and then waiting in line to sit down.  Everyone is in a mad rush to be the first ones on the plane. This results in a line of passengers that are in no particular order. The first man in line might have a seat up front, and take 60 seconds to store his bag, making everyone else wait. Why airlines don't board back to front is beyond me. Southwest had some commonsense, and made everyone line up in a predetermined order, so that we could board in a quick and efficient fashion. 

Southwest's Efficiency

United needs to take a leaf from Southwest's book. Another pet-peeve I have with airlines are those no-smoking lights that are next to the seat-belt lights. I always wondered why they would make it an on/off light if its a constant rule. Well, Southwest had me covered on that too. The no smoking symbol was a permanent plaque, and not a light.

Thanks Southwest.

I'll move on, as this is starting to sound like I'm advertising the airline. Overall the flight was great, and although I struggled to stay awake, I was able to stay on East Coast time. 

Our first experience in Rhode Island involved us getting lost in Providence on the way to the hotel. I for one enjoyed  this small mistake, because we were able to see the back-roads and the urban parts of the state before we entered the downtown city. We did manage to get to the hotel finally, but we were exhausted from the flights and lengthy car rides.

Duncan After a Long Day

After settling in, we walked to a wonderful burger restaurant where we discovered the "Frankenstein" burger. It was huge, containing 4 patties, 2 hot-dogs, chili, and numerous other ingredients. Apparently, the restaurant challenges customers to just finish the monster burger. We weren't up to the challenge tonight, but I have a feeling we'll be going back to the restaurant before we leave.

Tomorrow we get to visit Harvard and MIT. I'm particularly interested in MIT, so I'll be sure to get a lot of sleep. I'll need my mind fresh so that I can ask lots of questions.