Well, I ordered a chumby about 2 weeks ago now. If you don’t know what it is, go check out their website. For now, let’s just say that I love it even more than I thought I would. The interesting part is how it arrived (via UPS) at my door:

So, the chumby was shipped from Shenzhen, China, presumably where it is manufactured. From there it went to Chep Lap Kok, Hong Kong, which is really close to Shenzhen. It is the closest large airport, according to google maps. From there, it goes to Incheon, Korea. I’m guessing this is the path that UPS flys things from China to the USA. From there, it goes to Anchorage, Alaska. So far so good. From there it goes to Louisville, Kentucky, which is a giant UPS hub.

Now, here is where it gets weird. From Louisville, it goes to Albequerque, New Mexico, then to Long Beach, California. Seems good, we’re in the general area of my house now. From Long Beach, it makes it’s way to Los Angeles. Not too bad. A little out of the way, but I figure that it has to stop at the LA hub on it’s way here. From LA, it makes it’s way to Ontario, CA, which is kinda weird. From Ontario, it flies back to Louisville, Kentucky! What the hell!! Seems they have a loop….

Then, from it’s second time in Louisville, it flies back to Ontario, CA, and then gets delivered the next day. How very weird. The Ontario, Louisville, Ontario thing really screws with my head. Seems like they need to hire a better software engineer to do their routing algorithms. 🙂

To UPS’s credit, though, the package did arrive quickly, 5 days after it was shipped, and undamaged. It was delivered exactly when their website estimated that it would be.