The Pony Express was as disruptive as any modern day start-up. It cut by half the time to send a piece of mail from the east coast to California, and ran from St. Joseph in Missouri to Sacramento. Riders used fresh horses placed in 184 stations along the 1840 mile route to ride at full gallop day and night. It was was so fast that it could only be trumped by the telegraph - which happened just two short years later in 1861.
The distance between JFK airport and Austin is approximately the same as that between St. Jo and Sacramento. If I had left by pony express when I arrived at JFK from Abu Dhabi on Friday morning I would be over a third of the way by now - much faster than Jet Blue. I am typing this on my way to Penn Station in New York by Amtrak Acela after spending Sunday at Alu and Michelle's, hoping to try and make it to Austin today. If all goes well, I will be in JFK in an hour after arriving at Penn, on a airplane three hours after that and in a certain white wooden house before the kids get back from Taekwondo this evening.
Alu's was fun. We drove to north Rhode Island across the vast state yesterday to eat amazing baked goods at a dairy farm bakery. Then we drove back and started putting away wine while sitting around the kitchen table and contemplating dinner, which eventually was really good grilled Norwegian salmon. We ate outside on the deck with candles on a mild (by New England standards, not Texas or Hyderabad) fall evening, chased it down with 10 year old Laphroaig, and chatted. Then we slept a bit and before dawn Michelle drove us to Providence where Alu took a train to Boston and I got on this one.
Here's a photo from last night or maybe a bit earlier.
The distance between JFK airport and Austin is approximately the same as that between St. Jo and Sacramento. If I had left by pony express when I arrived at JFK from Abu Dhabi on Friday morning I would be over a third of the way by now - much faster than Jet Blue. I am typing this on my way to Penn Station in New York by Amtrak Acela after spending Sunday at Alu and Michelle's, hoping to try and make it to Austin today. If all goes well, I will be in JFK in an hour after arriving at Penn, on a airplane three hours after that and in a certain white wooden house before the kids get back from Taekwondo this evening.
Alu's was fun. We drove to north Rhode Island across the vast state yesterday to eat amazing baked goods at a dairy farm bakery. Then we drove back and started putting away wine while sitting around the kitchen table and contemplating dinner, which eventually was really good grilled Norwegian salmon. We ate outside on the deck with candles on a mild (by New England standards, not Texas or Hyderabad) fall evening, chased it down with 10 year old Laphroaig, and chatted. Then we slept a bit and before dawn Michelle drove us to Providence where Alu took a train to Boston and I got on this one.
Here's a photo from last night or maybe a bit earlier.
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