First in line at the airport security station. Hot dogs and orange juice at 8:30 am. Stuck between runways on the tarmac in LA after a near perfect trip. A painful reminder that walking ten city blocks is not a good idea for someone who’s totally out of shape. And to top it off, a Queen singalong with thousands of game journalists and “friends.” This was the preview day of E3 2010.

All in all, much better than last year, when travel and hotel problems got us off to a really bad start. Ironically, we almost ended up at the same hotel this year, and we’re staying just five blocks up the street from there. But one positive experience remains from last year: the taco truck is still there!

Monday at E3 is press conference day for all of the major publishers, except for Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft had a separate confab on Sunday night totally devoted to Project Natal, their much-talked-about control scheme that lets you play your games from your couch without a controller in your hands. Microsoft’s primary conference was held Monday morning before we arrived, which is OK, since we didn’t receive an invite. It’s also not OK: everyone who attended the conference left the building with an Xbox Slim. Gotta find a way to get onto Redmond’s good side…

My day really started on Sunday morning. My first flight was scheduled for Monday morning at 6 am, which is much too early for the local airport shuttle buses. So, I left my apartment at 2 am without getting any sleep (I played the Blur multiplayer beta on Xbox Live to make sure I wouldn’t crash in my lounge chair and miss my flight) and drove to the economy parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport. Standing in this huge lot in the very early morning, waiting for a bus to take me to the terminal, was a surreal experience; I kept waiting for the walking dead to stumble in my direction with no help in sight, save for the poor soul driving through the lot recording license-plate numbers.

The trip started out on a high note. Delta Airlines let me do something that United failed to allow last year. I was able to print my boarding passes at home (I assume my common last name was my downfall then, but it didn’t seem to be a problem for Delta, despite their being the only airline whose customer satisfaction scores decreased in 2009). But when I reached the security checkpoint just after 3 am, it was a ghost town, nobody in sight except for a fellow traveler asleep on a bench. They finally opened up around 4, followed by the seemingly endless walk to my departure gate. This, I discovered later, was a preview of things to come.

Flight #1 ended without incident, except that they weren’t serving more than peanuts and drinks, so I was understandably peckish when I arrived at Hartsfield Jackson Airport in Atlanta. At the risk of sounding like the travel noob that I am, Atlanta’s airport is a true wonder of the world. A walk to my connecting flight’s gate that would’ve taken me an hour (at least) only took 10 minutes, thanks to the airport’s very own subway system. This was 9 am or thereabouts, so the food court vendors were all busy – except for the Oscar Mayer hotdog stand, which was looking kind of desolate (not surprisingly for that time of the day). So, there I was with what was described by someone in the departure lounge as the “breakfast of champions,” two huge hot dogs with ketchup and mustard, and a carton of orange juice (had to have something breakfasty, I rationalized).

Flight #2 also left on time, and featured video touch screens built into the seat backs. I spent most of the almost five-hour flight playing interactive trivia games with my fellow passengers, even won a game or three. But, being a cheap bastard, I wasn’t about to spring for the $8 fruit plate or mini-sandwich on the catering menu, settling instead for a free can of diet cola and a package of cookies. We landed on time at LAX, but another plane was having maintenance issues at our arrival gate, so we were stuck parked between runways for almost 20 minutes.