After my first, failed attempt, I was invited again to
interview at the company in Vermont.
This time I had an easier time of it. The US Airways flight to
Philadelphia was jammed, but on time, and I had time to connect to my commuter
flight to Burlington.
What I didn’t understand was Terminal F.
The main terminals at PHL are A through D. F is the commuter terminal, and you get there
via a shuttle bus. I had a boarding pass
that identified my gate, so when I got to the terminal I went straight there, all
the way to the end of the terminal. They
were making continual announcements, and it was very crowded and
confusing. I realized as I got closer to
departure time that my flight must have changed gates, but there were no
displays anywhere I could check. I asked
a US Airways person behind the counter where the Burlington flight was, and it
was at the opposite end of the terminal.
I had to hustle but I made it. At the boarding gate there were three or four
gates close together, with flights being called simultaneously, and basically
enough seats for about a fifth of the people waiting.
Frequent flyers often use another word that begins with F to
describe your experience in terminal F at PHL.
I just sort of think of the First Circle – more Solzhenitsyn’s than
Dante’s.
The airplane was quite small, a CRJ. It was Air Wisconsin operating as US Airways Express. My small carry-on fit under the seat. The overhead would not accommodate anything
bigger than, say, the New York Times, and I mean daily, not Sunday. The plane flew up the
Jersey shore and then crossed Long Island somewhere around the Queens/Nassau
border. The flight up to Burlington was
quick. It was growing dark as we got near Burlington, and there was a hell of a
lot of snow on the ground.
Once the plane landed in Burlington, I walked to the baggage
claim area where I was met by a driver from the insurance company. He was also
picking up another individual who was on the same plane that I was on. When we
got to the car the other individual jumped into the front of the car, and I had
sit in the back, which I thought was kind of a little bit rude in that I've
never been there before and needed to learn how to find my way. The drive from
Burlington over to Montpelier takes around 30 minutes and I had never seen snow
piled so high in my life. The weather
was actually pretty good, the temperature was not terribly cold, and we got
over to the company in good order. The driver dropped off the other guy who was
whose car had been left in the company parking lot, and took me over to the
guesthouse where, it turns out, they don't have anything to eat for dinner, so he
volunteered to take me into town so I could get some takeout at a restaurant.
The restaurant was called Sarducci’s, and it was very busy, and
they did have some take out and I got some pasta with chicken which was served
in a cardboard container. This is a thing in Vermont: they don't like Styrofoam
and use cardboard were other places would use Styrofoam. I went back to the
guesthouse with the driver and the band they had some utensils in the kitchen and I was able to eat
my dinner. The guesthouse is extremely spartan; the rooms have a queen size bed
and no television. I spent a very fitful
night, mostly because the room heater kept coming on, even though it wasn’t
particularly cold in the room, and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off.
The next day I interviewed all day at the insurance company. This is what it looked like right outside the guest house. They told me half the snow had melted since the big storm that stopped me the first time I tried to get there.
Some of the people I interviewed with I knew from prior work experience, but had never met face to
face. It’s always fun, in that they
never look like how you’d imagined. It happened to be March 17, and I had a
free lunch in the company cafeteria. I ordered corned beef, it was beyond any
doubt the worst corned beef I've ever had. Probably the worst corned beef anyone has ever had. Mind you the cafeteria was actually
quite good, and all the time I went there I never had another bad meal. The
people were friendly and accommodating and I ended up working out the deal to
where I would do some consulting work for them.
The HR lady was particularly impressed that I had my L.L. Bean mug for coffee. They charge extra for cardboard, but you get a price break if you provide your own mug.
After interviewing with six or seven people, another driver
took me back to the airport. What I failed to do was to observe carefully how
to get to the airport because it's really tricky. There are not really big on
signs in Vermont, and at the airport there's just one tiny little sign under a
tree that you really would never see unless you already knew it was there, and
so you can drive around for hours trying to find the airport. You wouldn't
think it would be hard to find an airport.
I caught a 5 o'clock or so flight from Burlington down to
Washington Reagan and all that worked out fine. I was feeling pretty good because things had gone so well. I found a seat at a restaurant and had something to eat. I then connected to the US Airways
flight (actually Republic Airways operating as USAir Express) and got back to DFW
airport in reasonably good shape.
What I did not know is that this was the first, last, and
only time that my travel would be routine.
