I can't believe it has been 2 months since my last blog.
Well today will be doubleheader blog day!
January 31 we left the Philippines to head home for 2 weeks. I doubt I will ever adjust to the flights. it is essentially a 24-26 hour event and 18 hours of that is in the air. EACH WAY. With time adjustments, It makes the trip there a 38 hour day essentially (14 hour difference) with leaving at 7:30 AM and landing at 2:30 pm same day and the trip home a 10 hour day with leaving at 7 am on thursday and arriving at 12:05 AM Saturday.
Flying to DSM-- 4 hours from Manila to Tokyo. Not a bad flight. Good breakfast meal. I watched We're the Millers. Funny. Tokyo airport Narita is nice. They also have the best bathrooms ever. Heated toilet seats, full service bidets. Nice. Then the flight to Minneapolis. It was not as crowded but 11.5 hours is nuts. I like tracking the flight to see where we are... at one point we were going 647 MPH with the wind behind us at like 90 MPH. CRAZY.
My plan on a flight of that length is to get up at least 3 times. We are usually near the back of the plane so it an easy feat to get to the back and stretch. I only got up once in that flight due to the food service... everytime I wanted to move, a cart was in my way.
We got to Minneapolis and it was noon AND WAY COLD. I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt and a smile.Weird to think how we have flown 16 hours and the clock is only 4 hours later.
Then a puddle jumper to DSM. HOME! We went to Dollar where we reserved a car for 2 weeks. The lady there (Alex) was super cool and enjoyed that our story. She then let us choose our car-- we went with a Fords Fusion. They had a brand new taurus, but she said it was rear wheel and didnt want us in that. fair enough. We love Ford Fusions.
We stayed at the Extended stay on Douglas. I liked having a kitchen ... Before that we did stop at wal mart for hoodies, hats and gloves. Warmth. Well after one day of the Fusion, we found out that the windshield washer pump was broken so we had to trade our nice car in for an ok Mitsubishi mirage... Not the same.
Des Moines was great. Great seeing all the people I did. Weather did not disappoint. It snowed and was cold. Thank you, Mother Nature.
after 5 days in DSM, we were off to Columbus, Nebraska, to see Suzy's parents. Columbus is a nice town and we had a great time. After 4 days there... We were off to Colorado, time to stay at Suzy's brother and see my parents. Colorado was great. I like visiting there very much. Although I have a lot of friends in the denver area, I don't think I could ever live there, but its nice to visit. Went to my 1st brewery tour and got to see how beer is made.
--Driving in the US vs. Driving in the Philippines.
Now I have not yet driven here. Probably won't. But its different. People use their horns in America as a way to voice displeasure. They flip people off and have severe road rage. In the Philippines, horns are used as a communication device. "Hey, Im going to cut you off!" "I am on your left"... etc. etc... They will drive 5 wide on a three lane road. Cutting someone off is a way of life on the roads. That could never happen in America. American drivers take everything personal, I am learning from being over here... it isnt personal at all. I hate getting cut in front of, but it isn't personal here. In America a lady was cutting inadvertently ahead of me, and said-- oops sorry-- I am not trying to cut in front of you... I said, "No worries... I live in the Philippines. It happens all the time. I am used to it."
--Flying home
Due to the storms in the South, it affected our flights out. We were supposed to go Denver-Seattle-Tokyo-Manila. Well the first flight was delayed so we had to re-route. Denver-Detroit-Japan-Manila. That added a few hours to our trip. It made the long stretch 13 hours instead of 9 from seattle. The cool part from Detroit was that we went up and over to japan. We went over the North Pole. it was cool looking out the window and seeing that area. No Santa... but potentially saw his workshop...
On that flight I did get up often. One, I needed to stretch. Two, I was on the left aisle of a 3-4-3 rows of seats plane. the two to my left was a guy and 3 year old son from North Dakota. He was of Filipino descent, on his way back to Manila for his Dad's funeral and they had to get up a few times. Three, there were these ladies from Japan behind me who were kicking my seat and being very vocal. After one time I got up -- the lady behind me started acting all crazy-- the one glass of wine she had must have affected her. Well the staff tried to help but she would not be helped. so I stayed back and stood for an hour. There was a tall guy back there and he stood by me most of that time and just read his bible.
We landed in Japan and it was just a short layover to Manila. I had the same seat by the same people on that flight but since there was considerably fewer people, I moved back to an open seat to give them more room.
Someday I will figure out how to sleep on a plane. 40 or so hours on a plane this trip anmd maybe I slept for an hour total. It leaves me a little loopy, which leads to my next blog...
Take care of yourselves everyone and appreciate each day we have. I sure appreciate all of you.
Chuck
No comments:
Post a Comment