Rough Trip

It was a pretty rough trip to Atlanta.  There was a completely unnecessary delay at the airport leaving (basically they couldn't get the crew over to unload the plane that came in, and thus they were stuck on the plane for close to 45 minutes!).  Instead of making up any of that time in the air, we actually got to Atlanta another 20 minutes late (and there was quite a bit of turbulence towards the end).  After I was in the airport and trying to get onto the Marta train, the internal train system at the airport broke down, so everyone had to walk between the widely spaced terminals.  Taken together, this made it impossible for me to get to the post office before it closed on Friday.

I did manage to get to the High Museum of Art for basically 2 hours on Friday and I went several times through the Bearden exhibit.  This was basically my only real reason for going, so mission accomplished.

Then I walked over to the Target.  It was quite a long walk, but I finally found the place.  There was virtually nothing open nearby (I probably should have gone over to Buckhead for dinner), but I did stumble across a Thai restaurant that billed itself as a fine dining establishment.  While they did have a dress code, then let me in.

I got up fairly early and waited and waited and waited on the bus to take me to North St. (to find one of the only post offices in Atlanta with Saturday hours!).  It finally showed up, and the driver waved us on without paying our fares (quite possibly because he didn't want it tracked how far off he was from the official time points on the route). While the Marta train isn't too bad, the buses seem unreliable and generally unpleasant, and walking in Atlanta is not feasible for most destinations.  I was definitely underwhelmed and generally unhappy to be in Atlanta, pretty much all the way around.  I'd say this was by far the worst impression I've ever had of Atlanta (my third visit), and I found it really upsetting to be there.

While the clerk at the post office wasn't exactly friendly, I did manage to get my business done.  Then I looked around for a place to eat breakfast, and there really was nothing open in Midtown.  I finally had to settle for a scone at a coffee shop...

I went to the airport early to see if I could get out on an earlier flight.  It turned out there was not a single earlier flight on Air Canada, and because it was hours away, they didn't even staff the counters, and there were no self-service kiosks!  That meant that I was stuck outside security for about two hours with all the restaurants on the other side.  This was kind of the last straw.  I have decided I will never go to Atlanta again under any circumstances.  If I had known absolutely everything, I probably would not have bothered to go to the Bearden exhibit, as this trip really was kind of a nightmare.  Maybe I will recall the highlights (literally only going to the exhibit) a bit more fondly in a few more days, but I will not change my mind about avoiding Atlanta in the future.

P.S. I guess it could have been worse.  A "joker" on the flight could have declared he had coronavirus and had the flight turn around.  I'm glad that they arrested this guy and hope he ends up with some serious jail time (the penalty can go as high as two years), but he most likely won't.  It's really hard to fathom how stupid and selfish some people are.