Everyone was worried about the crowds coming to central Texas, and elsewhere, for yesterday’s eclipse.  As far as I can tell, none of the problems, notably traffic jams, materialized.  I think the hype, including pre-emptively declaring a state of emergency, scared lots of people off.

This morning, however, I had to take friends and family to the airport.  Not a pleasant experience on a good day.  I braced myself for the worst.

To be fair, the airport in Austin was built for a much smaller city, but very little effort has gone into keeping up.  The pick up / drop off lanes are my vote the most dysfunctional driving experience anywhere, at least in the US.

The signs approaching the airport said you can drop off at the pick up spots and vice versa.  Completely useless and maybe even counter productive.  The airport is basically saying: we give up on even the illusion of some sort of order or control.  It’s a free for all.  Every man for himself.

I was headed for the drop off lanes when the car in front of me, a taxi, swerved into the pick up lane at the last minute.  I boldly followed.  What I saw was something I had never seen before.  The pick up zone was completely empty. I’ve been here many times at all hours and all times of the year and have never seen anything remotely like this.

I parked, unloaded and said goodbye, leisurely.  On the way out I rolled down the passenger side window and asked the crossing guard: where is everybody?  He just shrugged.