So I went to the Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness Horse Races this year.  The Black-Eyed Susan is held on the Friday prior to the Preakness.  Both races are held at Pimlico Race Track in northwest Baltimore.

A couple of observations:

The area around the race track is impoverished and I’m surprised that with the amount of money the city must take in on this weekend every year that none of it goes to improve the surrounding area.  At least it appears that way to me.  This year I did see signs about some kind of neighborhood “renewal” that will be taking place, so maybe there will be some improvements. I think each race leading up to the Preakness (~12 races) had around $2,000,000 in total betting per race.  I imagine the track is privately held in which case I would like to see that organization co-invest with the city to support that local area.

The second is what I would call an air of lawlessness.  I thought maybe it was the aftermath of the Freddie Gray incident and subsequent protests, but in talking with a local, they said “that’s Baltimore, that’s kind of the “charm” of the city.”  Baltimore is known as or attempts to be known as The Charm City.

By “lawlessness”, I have these two examples.  On Friday, May 15, when driving from the track, I saw a teenager pushing a motorcycle down the street.  A police car came up behind him, I’m thinking to block traffic so the young man can get the motorcycle started or push it off the street.  The young man then jump started the motorcycle and quickly turned left, the police car got in the left turn lane and as we drove by we saw the man, look back over his shoulder at the police car and then popped a wheelie and revved up the motorcycle and took off.  The police car hit his lights and took off after him.  It was like the kid was saying, “come on, chase me!”  A few blocks away from that, we and about 16 cars were stopped at a traffic light.  The street was 2 lanes going both ways.  Four young men on motorcycles weaved down among the stopped cars and looked for oncoming traffic, saw a break and they all crossed the red light.  We were incredulous.

How charming!

So, at a recent conference, a few of us were talking about business travel and discovered that we all have “traditions” or habits or idiosyncrasies when traveling.  For example:

When checking in at a hotel, I put the paper key holder with the room number and my room key (always ask for 2 keys) in my right rear pocket.  It always goes in my right rear pocket and I always keep the paper key holder with it, because it contains my room number.  At the recent conference, a co-worker asked if he could have the paper container as it had the wifi password and he wasn’t staying there.  I said, absolutely not, I wouldn’t know my room number without it.  I refused to give it to him because I always keep it with the key in my right rear pocket.  So he took a picture of the wifi password on the key holder.  When telling a friend, she said, first thing she does is take a picture of her room number and then throws the paper key holder away – for personal security reasons.  She also takes a picture of where she parks in the parking garage (very smart).

Another thing I do is ask for a hotel room between floors 2 and 7.  Does anyone know why?

On the plane, I prefer aisle seat and if I can’t get exit row, I get a seat within 5 rows of an exit row.  Same reason as above.

I know someone who always goes for a window seat and always on the left side of the plane, because she finds it easier to sleep leaning against the wall with her left shoulder.

As tradition, I also always (if you don’t always do it, it can’t be a tradition is my belief) get a beer at the airport on the flight home.  Okay, sometimes they say “a tall beer for a $1 more?” and I say, “of course” and sometimes they also say, “add a shot for only $2 more?” and I say, “of course”.  It’s always good to take the bargain.  One time, while traveling home from a trip, I did the usual, stopped in the airport bar, ordered the beer, then agreed to the tall beer and the shot.  So I got a tall beer and a shot of tequila and posted a picture of them onto Facebook with the comment: “what is it about airport bars that I like so much?”.  I was rather shocked when a friend responded: “because you can drink at 10:30 in the morning”.  He was right, it was only 10:30 in the morning!  But a tradition is a tradition.