Far South of I-10

[this is edited from the original post, orbitz saw this post and commented, then responded by email with a voucher and an apology, which was nice of them] Orbitz.com is crap and should be shunned. (what's the hypertext for shunning?) They added travel insurance to a ticket I bought ($40!), it must have been opt in because I certainly didn't click no travel insurance (sic). Then, the return ticket is non-changeable after flying the first leg. If I were an honest person and writing the fare rules, I'd put that first, before the "changeable with a fee" line. screw them, I break with thee, here's some dog poopoo for your shoes. Continental.com's website was written by teenagers. it blows up when I use a credit card with an italy address, when I used a card that still has an american address it appeared that it bought the ticket, giving a message that the return leg hasn't been ticketed because it's on a partner, but in reality none of it was ticke...

We're in the New Orleans area for a few days and it's the 5th anniversary of Katrina. We didn't see much riding through town, it looks like NO east is still pretty beat up looking though. Watching the coverage of Katrina from a local news perspective made me go back to see what I wrote at the time, and it made me think I would have done a better job as governor or mayor than those dodos did. Mayor Nagin just ordered a mandatory evacuation, by reading the legaleze version of the order instead of saying more plainly it is time to leave, and if you don't leave no one will come rescue you. Hopefully it wasn't poorly executed and too late. Governor blanco just mentioned that President Bush called to make sure there was a mandatory evactuation. She keeps mentioning being blessed, and she keeps repeating herself and mentioning flying in and looking at the traffic. Instead of a governor she is really just a traffic reporter and a bad one at that. I voted for Bobby Jindal,...

I'm traveling from europe back to the western hemisphere and my laptop's battery died. There are power plugs in one of the houston terminal b corridors of despair, but non are near a chair so I must sit indian style on the ground, looking like an unjolly budda. I did miss a flight yesterday and get stuck in Rome. The other option was waiting six hours then flying standby to spend the night in Newark. I skipped the standby and stayed in Rome. I did a nice hike from the Vatican to the Pantheon, then through all the fori and all the way south to somebody's bath (caracella? pretty impressive ruins of a giant bathhouse)