Travel Porn

On the back table of the in the press box of the local minor league stadium, there is a stack of media guides for most of the major league teams. Sometimes they are used for good, such as to seek out information on the players who are playing before you. But mostly they are used for a game I like to call "Travel Porn." That happens when someone pulls out the Chicago White Sox media guide and says, "Gee, there are no long flights if you cover the White Sox." Then everyone sighs ,imagines those quick 3 1/2-hour flights from O'Hare to LAX and pine for the heaven that covering the White Sox must be.

I am currently a member of three frequent flier programs. Between Northwest, Northwest's partner airlines, Jet Blue and Southwest, I get miles for going just about anywhere. The best thing about that is the copious e-mail updates telling me about cheap fares to places like Tulsa and Boise. And while I am curious to see Tulsa and Boise, I am even more curious to see their airports. See, once you start playing "Travel Porn," the next logical step is to talk about airports. I can speak fairly authoritatively about the Twin Cities and Houston, neither of which are all that bad. But clearly I have more traveling to do. Everyone I know has had a bad experience in the Atlanta airport. Therefore I am really looking forward to my stopover on the way back from Detroit this weekend, just so I can complain to my friends.