Multi-modal Transportation

On Tuesday, I didn't commute by car. The first half of the day was spent interfacing several modern forms of transportation.

My son and his wife were headed back to Germany and had made arrangements to ship their car, so we started the day heading down Texas-146 toward Galveston. Highway 146 follows the western edge of Galveston Bay, so we passed several port facilities and container terminals along the way, but for shipping personal vehicles, the nearest place was on Galveston Island, about a 50 mile drive from our house. We followed them down there, and he was escorted into the terminal, parking his car in line. It'll sit there a week or so and then be put onto a ship. I expected it would be crated, but they actually drive the cars right onto the ship. We had to wait outside the gate; when he returned he was interested in a couple of other cars waiting there, including a Dodge Viper and an old Mercedes Benz in immaculate condition. I suppose the Viper owner just wants to drive his supercar in Europe. According to the port employee, the Mercedes had been sold for a good sum of money to a museum in Switzerland; the man had tears in his eyes as he left the car there.

Yes, we can love our possessions: They have meaning to us, and we can be attached to them because of the joy they bring us. Is it any wonder that some like me actually enjoy our daily commute, especially on days like today, between Christmas and New Year's Day, when there are few other cars on the road to interfere with the process?

After an enjoyable breakfast at IHOP, we headed up Broadway, which turns into I-45, and aimed for Bush Intercontinental Airport north of Houston. This was about a 62 mile trip up 45, making the interchange to US-59, and then to Beltway 8 and JFK Blvd. I must be a nerd, but I have to admit that I enjoy dropping people off at the airport. As you approach you find the sign that directs you to your airline's terminal, then you wind your way around to the passenger drop-off area. There's something about the hand-off from automobile transportation to air transportation that makes me feel like the future has arrived. It took nearly an hour to travel from Galveston to the airport, and they would wait nearly 5-hours before their flight actually left, but then they were merely 9 hours away from Frankfurt, Germany on the other side of the Atlantic. (They won't see their car for a month!)

Yes, I'm still a kid in some ways, just fascinated by the ways we're able to do things today. I'm sure that the Wright Brothers, 106 years ago this month, and the builders of the DC-3 which first flew 75 years ago this month, all envisioned this future, but it's here, and it's still amazing.

Then I had to go home and "telecommute" the rest of the day.