I've had the weekend and a few days to recover from my trip to New Orleans. I had last been to New Orleans in March 2000 at Pittcon when I was about to graduate from Clemson and was actively seeking a job.
The French Quarter hasn't seemed to change much from what I remember from 2000. Of course, I wasn't there as a sightseer seven years ago. My goal in March 2000 was to spend as little time as possible in New Orleans and get back to Clemson to finish my research and dissertation writing.
About the only place that I saw direct evidence of the Katrina destruction was along the Interstate (I-10) where some of the sound barriers had a clear demarcation of how high the water went. Indirect evidence was seen in parts of the town outside of the French Quarter where many shops and stores were shuttered. What were once active neighborhoods seemed to have their lifeblood sucked out of them.
I did not see the Lower 9th Ward, which is where the majority of the devastation happened in 2005. There were guides offering tours of the afflicted areas, but we did not partake.
One fun thing that we did do was ride the Steamer Natchez on the Mississippi. The entire Thermo Fisher Scientific group enjoyed dinner and a relaxing cruise after a long day of meetings.
Speaking of meeting with people, I also got a chance to sit down with Tulane EMS. It had been seven years since I stopped by. Considering that the group's recruitment cycle was set back by a full semester as a result of Katrina, TEMS continues to be a strong campus EMS organization with lots of promise. They tell me they are looking to replace one of their ambulances, which was practically new when I visited in 2000. That makes me feel sorta old. Thanks to Shaun, Chris, Danny, Austin, and Diana for a fun dinner and great conversation.
No Savett trip would be complete without a major travel hassle. It doesn't matter which airline, I recently seem to have a problem in at least one direction (if not both). Thanks to USAirways for the latest misadventure. My direct flight from New Orleans to Philadelphia on Friday afternoon was canceled due to mechanical issues with the plane. The next direct flight, which was scheduled to depart just 90 minutes after mine, was consequently swamped with people from my flight. It seems that it didn't really matter where people were heading, the airline felt compelled to put them on that plane. For example, I was told by a highly reliable source (my colleague, Ian) that at least one of the passengers on that flight was trying to get to Charlotte (not Philly). Since he arrived in Philadelphia after the last flight to Charlotte had already left, the airline had to put him up in a hotel for the night. On the other hand, I was trying to get to Philadelphia, but was re-booked on a flight to Charlotte, where I had to connect to a flight to Philadelphia. Now I'm not a logistical planner, but I would think that the airline should have swapped our tickets. Everybody would have been happier, and I would have been forced to sit in Terminal A of the New Orleans Airport for 5 hours. By the way, there is no wireless broadband Internet in Terminal A at the New Orleans Airport. Perhaps Web access would have made the time pass more quickly.
Labels: travel
