After a delay in Denver, a race to catch my Charlotte flight, and then a half-our delay before we were first to take off, I finally arrive in Jacksonville. It’s quite nice here. As with most American cities, there seems to be this strange intermingling of poverty and development. A bag lady, two overfilled shopping carts parked next to her park bench, sits a block in front of a hollowed out abandoned building, which is itself next to a thriving commercial zone.
There are already things I want to go see here, apart from the APS meeting. We’re right on a river, and the water here is brackish from the inflow of seawater. Bridges cross the river, next to the hotel and east a mile from here. Fireworks are thundering in the sky outside, presumably for the start of the jazz festival. There’s some kind of monument sporting an eternal flame just a block from here, where a couple stood rather mournfully tonight as we pulled up the street in our shuttle.
Tomorrow, however, I start the day with a healthy dose of Gravity Probe B!
