2003.07.03 The Super Secret Roadshow

I got to the airport way too early. I was all alone at the terminal.

I started to get creeped out when folks didn't show up. Of course, they all did but I still worried.

My first trip in a New York cab and they stick me up front. Ok, introductions are in order. On the left, that's Andrea. She smiles a lot and is really funny. To your right is El Jefe. He's the leader of this little outing. He walks really fast and is a funny guy.

That's Gait. No, that's not her real name, but it's what I've always called her. We worked together like four years ago on the very first version of AOL Search. She's a good person to bring along to a fight. Or a big argument, or out to lunch.

That is Radio City Music Hall. I apologize for the blurriness, but El Jefe was walking really fast and I hate to get lost in cities I'm unfamiliar with.

There, better? You'll see a couple more of these. Radio City's right across the street from the Time Life Building, a story I'll get to in a minute.e

This is the Time Life Building. This was not the right building. Thanks, El Jefe.

We ended up on the eleventh floor of the Time Life Building, where there are a lot of people crammed in tiny cubicles surrounded by books and boxes of documents. Our quarry was not here.

Fearless Leader El Jefe, leading the way across much traffic to our REAL destination - 75 Rock (what the locals call it).

You people walk too fast. Doesn't this look like a scene from a disaster movie?

See, the right building, says Andrea with her ever-present camera grin.

Gratuitous shot of cab and NY street. Forgive me.

The aftermath. If you look real careful, you can see some peoples' waists. Who did we meet with? If you read the post, you'd know the answer to that question. Ok, I'll tell you. The guy in the grey pants? That's Anil. He's well-known in the blogging world. Don't I feel special now?

I told you Andrea smiles a lot. Whenever cameras come out, so does the grin.

Ahhhhh, big freakin' buildings!!

El Jefe, communicating all mobile-like. I think he's trying to figure out where his meeting is.

I'm only keeping this one so you can see how cool my shirt is. It's my "leave an impression, and don't get lost" shirt.

Andrea got tired of me taking pictures of her and El Jefe (Gait's smart enough to walk BEHIND me). She stole my camera and got Gait and I.

Give it a rest, El Jefe, we get it. You're a big manly mobile WARRIOR.

This was totally staged. "Geez, look at them huge bildin's Do people actually go aaaa-aaall the way up there?" I have actually seen skyscapers before. Really, I swear.

El Jefe, never one to let a joke die, indulges me.

People, there were people everywhere. Stupid celebrity sightings... Ollie North was in first class on our flight to NYC, and I saw film critic Elvis Mitchell walk in front of some big building too. That was it other than them well-known folks in the meeting.

Andrea is smart. She helps me out with my mobile warrior joke by joining in the communicating in a mobile-way fun.

That is the CNN Studio where Paula Zahn sits with the old guy and the anchor I like to call "junior". The cop was just there. He didn't look all that imposing to me.

I like fountains. Don't know why, just do.

Me, hailing my first cab. I did a fine job too. It only took ten minutes. Gait took the picture.

I tried to hail the bus. Gait told me you can't hail busses after she stopped laughing.

More gosh-darn big buildings.

I swear to you that Elvis Mitchell is behind that Land Rover. Really. I had another picture where you could see him, but it was so blurry he looked like a woman. Not that he's womanly. It's because I take crappy pictures.

I think that's St. Bart's. It was the only interesting thing I could see from the cab window.

Hey ma! Did you know that they have little tiny Mack Donald's in New Yord City? They're SMALL!

This is a bridge. I really like this picture for some reason.

The Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia is the weirdest airport terminal I've ever been in. Who is that guy? Why is there a giant bust of him in the round entry way? It's puzzling. It looks like a bus station they converted (and hastily) into an air terminal.

This is Reagan National. Thank goodness I didn't check any bags or I'd still be there. "But Kevin, you left from Dulles, right?" you may ask yourself, and thanks for paying attention. Yes I did. Why we came back through Reagan I don't know. But I got the pictures on the computer on the shuttle ride back to Dulles to get my car.