Since the rest of the “Oceanic Dozen” is headed to D-town for the A-10 Hoedown this week, I thought I would share some experiences that I’ve had recently, making the very same journey to the Birthplace of Aviation…and a few other places.

— Unbeknownst to either one of us, I sat about 10 feet away from FlyerHoops.net resident head dude Matt Schwade all thru the URI game. We’ve never met and he didn’t realize it was me until he read my column and sent me an IM asking “Were you the guy with the Dell?” Yes, Chris and I was the only one in Press Box North with gray hair, too.

— I stopped by Flanagan’s after the Rhody loss to say hello to Mark Adams and to hear what BG had to say. I walked up and reintroduced myself to the Hometown Coach during a commercial break and we chatted about what else — life on the road. BG was busy meeting and greeting UD fans and I didn’t want to interrupt — I’m sure I’ll get the chance to meet him on some other occasion. Mark leaned over and pointing to BG, said to me “This guy is class…he didn’t have to come here after that loss, but he did.” No, he didn’t and yes, he is.

— It was getting late, so I left Flanny’s and made the very short trek to the Marriott. As I walked into the lobby, there was a guy on his cell phone, cussing up a storm about them being sold out of rooms. As soon as I made it to the front desk, the clerk — her name was Erin and she was from Pittsburgh — began to apologize profusely.

— It seems that two large groups had decided to extend their stay by one more night and by law, the Marriott wasn’t allowed to kick them out. I asked Erin if one of them was the basketball team and sure enuf, it was. I guess Jim Baron decided to reward his Rams for their buzzer-beating victory by allowing them to stay an extra night.

— I quickly surmised that this situation was not Erin’s fault and she had probably gotten a full ration of crap from the guy on his cell and everyone else who got bumped out of their room. So, while she was making alternative arrangements for me, I asked her what part of the ‘Burgh she was from. Turns out she grew up in Upper St. Clair in the South Hills, not far from whence Mrs. Swampy hails. She is a senior at UD and seemed to appreciate the fact that I didn’t drill her a new one about something over which she had absolutely no control.

— I got a free room at the Crowne Plaza downtown (with free high speed internet access) for my troubles. Later, when I checked in to the Marriott for my second night, I received a nice fruit basket. Upon my return home, I got a letter from the GM, apologizing yet again for the inconvenience. Nice touches, all.

— However, I probably won’t stay at the Marriott next time I’m in Dayton and it has nothing to do with any of the above. I discovered that Mrs. Flyer Fanatic (AKA Leslie Gonya) and her husband run a B&B in the Oregon District and rooms with high speed net access are only $65-99 during the week. Sorry, Erin!

— The strangeness didn’t stop there. The next day, I took a client to lunch in Columbus, at a neat little place called First Watch. You pay at the register and I wanted to use my AmEx. The owner was struggling to change the paper in the credit card machine and my client and I stood and watched in bemusement as he tried to figure it out. In frustration, he handed me back my card and said “I’ve wasted enuf of your time, have a nice day.” I told him it was okay, but he insisted. So, in the space of about 12 hours, I got a free hotel room and a complimentary lunch. Go figure.

— Here’s the kicker: I checked in with Mrs. Swampy after lunch and told her the story about the free room and the gratis lunch. She said “You left the waitress a big tip, right?” Oh, *#@%! I forgot to give the server a gratuity — I was gonna put it on my card. The Elder Swampette, a former waitress, would kill me! After my 2:00PM appointment, I hustled back to First Watch. They closed at 2:30, but the wait staff was still there. I got a big smile from our waitress when I handed her a generous tip — she didn’t even realize what had happened. The whole strange experience made her day — and mine.

— Note to John “Mad Dog” Churan: one of my sales calls was in the booming metropolis of Powell, Ohio. I can now die a happy man.

— I usually drive to Columbus, Cincy, or Cleveland and it appears I’m not alone. According to the Bureau of Transportation, only 16% of business trips involve flying — the vast majority of road warriors drive. The average biz trip is 123 miles, one-way.

— What sealed it for me was when Money magazine conducted an experiment a few years back. They had 2 people leave suburban Detroit bound for Cleveland. One drove to Metro and flew; the other stayed on I-75 and headed south, then east to the home of the Rock & Roll Museum. The guy driving won…and this was before 9/11!

— I’m writing this on a flight to Houston, en route to Austin and San Antonio. Guess which great American city our flight path takes us over? Dayton, Ohio, of course! Hi, Cristen!

— Speaking of flying and the Gem City, did you know that the original Air Force One is retired and now rests at WPAFB? It served 7 US presidents.

— I can’t believe that Northwest Airlines has shrunk the size of the bag of braided pretzels that serves as a surrogate meal on the 2+ hour flight to Houston. Any smaller and it will be a bag of pretzel.

— One nice thing about flying into Texas is that every airport I’ve landed at has a barbeque restaurant within steps of the gate. Yeah, it might not be the best and it’s still airport food, but to this BBQ lovin’ Son of Boston, it ain’t all bad.

— My last trip to Texas, I set the new World Record for a single cab fare: $60 from the airport to my hotel and yes, I remembered to tip the cabbie.

That’s it “From the Swamp”