This year nationals was held in Charlotte, North Carolina. The tournament is typically held in places that are hot during the summer. This probably because it is cheaper to do so and Charlotte was definitely hot as well as humid.

I left early Sunday morning, July 10th. We started out by having to sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half before take off. To top it off there was a screeching baby, this child emitted blood curdling sounds for the whole time it was on the plane. Every time I fly I am more convinced children should not be allowed to fly. If you have a child, drive; don't subject the rest of us to your error.

That flight took us to San Francisco where we transferred to a US Airways flight. I thought United was a low end airline. US Air is worse. Very surly flight attendants (whereas United flight attendants are just surly) and my seat was broken. The whole airplane was shabby.

We finally got to Charlotte, made it to the hotel and got our rooms. Then we went looking for food. It was 9 PM on a Sunday night, not the best time to be trying to find an open restaurant in the bible belt. We finally found a sports bar that was open late.

The next day the fun began. We set up the registration area and started working. The registration crew works pretty well together and we tend to hang out together a lot. Most nights we went out to eat together.

Over all the tournament went ok, but it did not seem as dynamic this year.

I found time to visit a coworker that works remotely in Charlotte. It fun to go see an outlier Microsoft office.