I am traveling with my daughter to Magnolia Springs, Alabama for the Thanksgiving holiday. Chances are that the average reader of this blog has never heard of Magnolia Springs, Alabama. There is a very good reason for that. It is in the middle of nowhere.Well not exactly nowhere. It is about an hour west of Pensacola, Florida. Compared to Magnolia Springs, Pensacola is a big city. Compared to any city I know, Pensacola is hardly a big city. According to a 2006 US Census estimate, Pensacola has a population of around 53,000. That is smaller than Ellicott City (US Census estimate for Ellicott City is 56,000).
What this means to holiday travelers like my daughter and I is that you have to go through Atlanta to get there. In many small southern towns like Pensacola the locals will often quip that to get to heaven or hell you’ll need to go through Atlanta to get there.
Right now my daughter and I are sitting in Atlanta. We arrived here a little after 5:00 PM. Our connection to Pensacola doesn’t leave here until 9:55 PM. This is one brutal layover. I am sitting here wondering why I didn’t just fly here, rent a car and drive to Magnolia Springs. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
We are making the best of it though. Peanut passes the time with her Nintendo DS while I hop on a Boingo wireless connection and work on a blog post. Our seats at the gate are valuable real estate. We watch as others hover around us looking for a spot to drop. We make sure at least one of us always stays with the seats.
Soon we will board another plane for the final leg of our journey.
It can’t come too soon.
