One Hundred Seventy-Four

Welcome to Las Vegas

Getting to Vegas was an adventure in itself. I wasted several hours Tuesday preparing color copies of various pages from my website. In the end, I only handed out one of the packets. The business cards worked much better. Everyone is so busy at Interbike. No one really wants a bunch of handouts from some pesky Working Media guy like me. Tuesday night I was busy making last minute hotel reservations and figuring out how I was going to get to the airport. I didn't go to bed until 2 AM Wednesday morning, and my flight left PDX a few hours later at 6:05 AM. This email thread explains one of my multiple transportation dilemmas:

John,

Thanks for the e-mail. I hope you ride tomorrow!

You can park your bike in an enclosed and covered bike parking area at PDX. While this area is not locked, it is in a visible area near the terminal and next to our employee bike parking area. You also have the option of using one of the ribbon racks near the MAX platform. These are adjacent to the building.

Feedback from the bikeportland.org site led us to leave the main public bike parking area open to all and without a locking mechanism. Most respondents felt this was secure for them because of it's location near the Terminal, Concourse E and the employee parking area.

If you choose to park there, it is on the opposite end of the lower roadway from the MAX platform (MAX is on the south end and the main bike parking area is on the north, underneath the ramp leading to the upper roadway)

Jason A. Gately
Senior Aviation Planner and Project Manager
Port of Portland
7000 NE Airport Way
Portland, OR 97218

From: John Spurgeon
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2006 12:30 AM
To: Gately, Jason
Subject: Airport Bike Parking

Jason,

I got your email address from http://bikeportland.org/2005/12/13/airport-bike-parking-for-employees-only. I would love to be able to park my bicycle in a secure location at the airport. I live in Hillsboro and my flight for Las Vegas (to attend Interbike) leaves at 6:05 AM tomorrow. The earliest MAX train from the closest station to my house (Quatama) gets me to the airport by 5:41 AM. If I ride my bike to the Beaverton Transit Center, I can catch a Red line train that gets me to the airport by 5:26 AM. If I knew there was secure bike parking at the airport, I would ride to Beaverton, take my bike on the train, and park at the airport.

John Spurgeon

I won't bore you with all the details, but here's some advice if you're ever at the Las Vegas airport looking for a cab ride to the Strip: bring cash. I had $5. A cab costs $5.50. I ended up spending $30 on a limo. I probably should have begged someone for the 50 cents.

On the bright side, my flights on United and Ted were all on time; I had plenty of space in "Economy Plus" (or whatever they call it); my seats were all at the front of the plane; and the service was great. The pilots on one of the flights were a former B52 pilot and a Navy pilot. That was cool.