So long, peach state

After a very eventful week here in the Atlanta area, it's time to bid farewell to this fine city. The last full day of work here proved to be rather hectic as I ran about trying to tie up loose ends and meet a bunch of people that I've only known via conference calls. Kinda sad, kinda happy... I wish I had more time in the day to do everything I wanted. But I'm very much looking forward to coming home.

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Traffic in this area sucks. The city and it's suburbs form a huge hub and spoke of sprawling highways and toll roads, all of them underbuilt to handle the tremendous growth in the region. During non stop-n-go traffic situations, the freeways flow at 85+ easily. Not once did I see a state trooper or speed trap. The side roads and main arterials are agonizingly stupid in their timing and synchronization. It almost seems like the intersections are lacking in sensors. Definitely poorly planned. It took me over 20 minutes just to take a round trip to a local Starbucks (gotta have a bit of home), a route which should easily be only 5 minutes of total road time if there was any semblence of traffic planning. At least there's a very decent online traffic map of the area.

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I did manage to score a couple of vendor meals today. Vendor C took me to a Max & Erma's for lunch. Vendor E took me to the Buckhead Colorado Steakhouse for dinner. [At dinner, I did watch the Univ. of Washington men's basketball team lose to a very good Louisville team. The Huskies played like crap. Better luck next year] Give me credit for choosing something (fairly) light to eat both times. :) Not feeling overly bloated today.

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Sweet Tea is very popular down here. It's just Iced Tea with sugar already mixed in...no big deal. But many people order it, it seems. BTW, the Max & Erma's restaurant is one of the few places in Atlanta that serves Pepsi instead of Coke. Blasphemy I say!

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I will finish The DaVinci Code tomorrow. The flight home will be longer (headwind going west), so I should have plenty of time.