Travels and Travails

As many of you know I left last Friday to go to back to China. This happens to be my first trip across the Pacific while not sitting in business class. The good news was that through some nifty maneuvering, I had been assigned the bulk-head seat - so no worries! I woke at 4:00AM to drive from my home on the border of Louisiana and Texas (Murphy) to make sure that I was on time for my flight to Chicago, where I would get my connection to Shanghai, China, from there. It is extremely important not to miss the connecting flight as there is only 1 flight per day direct. The bad news is that even though I was on-time to the airport, we had a 1 hour delay to our flight to Chicago. The good news is that when we landed in Chicago, we were not late for our next flight, because it had been cancelled!!! After standing in line for 4 hours we were re-booked on a United Flight for the next day – looks like I am partying in Chicago – “what, we can’t get our bags” – looks like I am bunkering down in my hotel room as to not get my clothes more rank than they already are.

Side Note: I saw Ron Jeremy in the airport, he was wearing a shirt that said “rise 2 the occasion” on it. If you don’t know who he is, then count yourself as a quality human and I would not recommend Googling his name. I happen to know who he is from the show on VH1 – not from any of his award winning videos.

Since it was 19 degrees in Chicago and I hadn’t planned on walking anywhere, I was not really dressed to walk around town looking for a place to eat. The very nice hotel/airport shuttle driver “offered” to take us to a local pizza place for an authentic Chicago Pie. After eating we had a nice brisk walk back to the hotel (1.5miles) in the cold. Upon entering the hotel, we were greeted by our kind driver that had dropped us off. She was a bit disappointed that we had not “taken care” of her with a tip for dropping us off at the pizza place. She proceeded to demand a tip for her services – only in Chicago.

Day 2 of our initial 1 day trip and we are on our way. I decided when confirming my seat for my United flight that I would pay $119.00 extra dollars for the 5 extra inches of seat space – that might be the best decision I have made in a long, long time! I get on the plain and wedge myself into my window seat for my 14 hour flight to Shanghai. Miserable. Good thing I have 4 of the best movies to watch and take my mind off of how uncomfortable I am. Stardust, Resurrecting the Champ, Game Plan and December Boys – AWESOME. Also, the route through Chicago goes directly north over the polar icecap, down through Siberia, Mongolia and then into China. All of those rumors you have heard about Siberia…they are true – not much going on there.

I finally made it and am in pretty good spirits. Friday, I get to try and do it all again!