This week I spent three days in Portland, OR for the first time. That would be the 54th airport I’ve had the pleasure of visiting. Also seven weeks out of the last eight on the road.

I flew out Monday morning, booked on the 5:50am flight. I’ve flown out of DIA on Monday morning flights in the neighborhood of 80 times. I normally arrive at the gate as they start boarding or a few minutes before. This time I got there 6 minutes before departure. They close the doors at 10 minutes.

This week’s rental car was a Nissan Altima. It doesn’t have a key, just a fob. Push a button on the dash to start. But what do you do with the fob? I guess you’d pocket it once you unlock the door, but I just threw it on the passenger seat. I had to wait at the counter a few minutes for the car to be cleaned. It was either wait, or drive a minivan. So while I was waiting I leafed through a hiking guide to trails along the Columbia River. If I get to take another trip there in summer I’ll have to make sure I get out for a short hike. It also occurs to me that if I stayed an extra day I could hike to some glaciers on Mt. Hood.

When I went out to eat the first night, I learned they don’t have sales tax there. I had heard there are no self service gas stations by law, but the sales tax was a surprise to me. At the gas station, I was the only one who got out of his car and I chatted with the two attendants. They both mentioned the local slogan – “Keep Oregon Weird”.

Had dinner at McMenamins – John Barleycorn a nice little brew pub a half mile from the office. I had the chicken sandwich. The combination of the nicely toasted bun, half inch thick slices of tomato, and the “secret sauce” made it a messy, tasty eat. I had their amber, the Hammerhead. Probably should have considered their Ruby, a raspberry beer.

I flew US Airways, so I took the shortcut through Phoenix. It felt very familiar when we deplaned on the return trip when you get that blast furnace effect at the end of the jetway. Welcome to Phoenix! I had about an hour between flights, which left me thirty minutes to find some food and the right gate. We arrived at A17, and I’d leave on A18. Sweet. Except that all the restaurants in both A concourses were closed. Had to go all the way to the B concourse for a hot meal.

At Pizza Hut I grabbed a pepperoni pizza and a soda. It’s bigger than a personal pan pizza and it’s not their pan dough. The pie and the drink, over $11. Head all the way back to my gate, using six moving sidewalks each way. Are these movers for people in a hurry, or are they for people who are lazy? It can’t be both. The lazy ones make it impossible for anybody to hurry.

Back at the gate nearly half the seats are empty. The sun is streaming in nearly horizontally; anybody sitting facing the window gets it right in the face. Some opportunists have taken the seats behind pillars. Silly me, I’d have aligned the rows normal to the windows rather than perpendicular.

Ah, the glamour of business travel!