My Odyssey: Flying with Baer
February 20th, 2008 by Benj EdwardsBenj here reporting from my secret base-like hotel room in rainy San Francisco, CA. My grueling 14 hours of travel time today (from the first airport to the hotel) paid off with an unusual and fortuitous coincidence. During my five hour connecting flight from Chicago to SFO, I sat next to none other than the Father of Video Games, Ralph Baer.
I was planning on meeting up with Ralph at GDC, but I didn’t know he’d be on the same flight as me (he’d come in from New Hampshire). Normally one is wary of whom one might be stuck sitting next to for a long flight. But thanks to Ralph and a nice fella named Jason Graves (a composer, also heading to GDC), I had my most enjoyable flight ever.
Expect more from me after I actually attend the show. For now, I’m tired. Time to hit the sack.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Unbelievable! Was this on Southwest so you could just choose your seat, or were you actually coincidentally assigned this seat on another airline?!
February 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am
Yeah, we could choose our seats. I noticed him pacing from across the room in Chicago while we were waiting for our delayed flight. That’s when I first introduced myself.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:50 am
OMG DUDE HE’S GOING TO EAT YOU! 0_0
February 25th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Awesome! I bet you guys had a great conversation.
April 17th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
omg you are such a lucky guy! i would give anything to sit and have a chat with the father of video games!