Midnight Conundrum

One topic that came up during my stay in California had not to do with California, but with Texas. One of my classmates was from Austin.

While some conversations had to do with Easter and the elaborate parties this one classmate threw for friends and family, one topic that kept coming up was how on earth it was going to take seven hours to fly from California to the Lone Star State. Surely not!

Her flight was to leave at 5pm. And arrive at midnight.

With a stopover in Las Vegas for an hour. We compared notes. Then, when she had already left for the airport with the three others who were flying, it suddeny dawned on me; having not gotten her phone number, I was at a loss. But I figured that since she was going to be sitting in Oakland's airport terminal for several hours anyway, it stands to reason she'd have plenty of time to figure it out:

Leave Oakland at 5pm.
Figure an hour flight to Las Vegas, arrive at 6pm.
Layover for an hour.
Depart Las Vagas at 7pm.
Three hour flight to Austin, arrive at 10pm.

That's where we were stumped. And went over and over in our minds and in conversation. If anything, it kept up the dialog on our smoke breaks.

Then, when I was daydreaming on the way to Pier 39 for my last shopping trip, it hit me.

The two-hour time difference.

The midnight conundrum was solved.