I just spent 5,000 miles flying round trip to eat some pancakes at Pancake Pantry in Nashville. Before you pack your bags and head to the airport to follow my stellar example, I need to point out that this wasn’t planned. Don’t get me wrong, if ever there was a breakfast place deserving of hours of flying, it just might be Pancake Pantry, the food was stellar, but I am a bit too frugal to make that kind of trip.

I was scheduled to do a show in Kentucky last night. I caught a midnight flight out of San Francisco, connected in Cincinnati and ended up in Nashville around 9AM. I met up with a friend of mine at PP, sat around talking for a bit, had a most excellent breakfast then got ready to head out. I had checked directions before my trip on g**gle and he punched it up on his iphone to double check that I was going to the right place. The drive time was consistent with what they had told me on the phone so I headed out. Right before I got to my destination, I called the organiser and told her where I was. She paused for a moment and said, “you’re on the other side of Kentucky”. I stopped the car, and asked if she was kidding…no. Now I’m in trouble. It turns out that g**gle sent me to the wrong part of Kentucky and now I’m 4 hours from where I’m supposed to be and the show is supposed to start in 1.5 hours.

Obviously I was sunk with no hope of getting there in time. We tried to work out an alternative for later that night or today, but nothing would work. We decided that it would be best to reschedule for next year. LAME!! I am so embarrassed and feel terrible for all the kids that were coming out on a Saturday night to see the show would be left with a hastily thrown together alternative. Sometimes depending exclusively on technology will come back to bite you, yesterday was that day for me. Thanks g**gle.

I ended up driving back to Nashville, slept and caught a 5:50 flight back to San Fran. All I have from this trip is a lesson learned about directions, and a really good, albeit the most expensive breakfast (thanks to a rental car and flight) I’ve ever had. However, all is not lost, there were 2 interesting things that happened/I noticed while gone.

  1. When I got off the plane in Cincinnati, the pilot was standing there adiosing the passengers when he looked at me and said, “Peter?” I looked at him and thought, man he looks familiar. “I’m on your newsletter, I’m one of the coaches from a team near here.” Suddenly it clicked, I had met him in North Carolina at a camp and had seen him at a few different events over the years. We talked for a minute before I headed off for my connection. What a small world we live in.
  2. The line for Pancake Pantry is longer than the security line at the airport. Yes it’s true, there is a line that takes longer than the TSA. PP is one of the most popular joints I’ve ever been to, I believe that the average wait is over an hour, which I can attest to. The food is good and you should check it out if you’re ever in the area, unless you’ve got the spare dough to make a trip across the country for a great meal. Deep down, maybe that was the real reason for my trip all along.

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