141 AND ANOTHER

After the lengthy, and I mean lengthy walk to get to customs and then downstairs to find myself outside, there was the long 5 or 10 minute bus ride.  This got me to a spot where I embarked on another lengthy walk.  I finally got to the gate just about 5 minutes before they started boarding.  I knew my bags had been checked through to Vancouver, but I had to make sure that they would be on my new flight.  They assured me that they were, and so I’ll have to trust them.

My seat was listed as 10G.  I was originally booked on 1A, but I suppose beggars can’t be choosers since I was joining an already existing flight.  As I walked through the doorway, I got a big surprise in that the aircraft I was boarding was a 787 instead of an A320.  Which meant that I was now flying back in the pods again.  What an awesome surprise.  Even more so, because the flight was stopping in Vancouver and going on to Australia, so our meals were being prepared by an onboard chef.

The flight left 10 minutes early and shortly after takeoff, the crew was coming around with snacks and drinks.  The cool part is that there’s no limit on how much and pretty much anything you want.  It almost made me wish I was a drinker.  Shortly after, they came around again with menus for dinner.  The appetiser was shrimp and was it ever good.

I had a choice between two dinner entrees, so I chose the lamb.  It was amazing.  Afterwards, desert was a choice between ice-cream and a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie and fresh fruit.  I didn’t want to risk the ice cream, so I opted for the fruit and asked if I could have the cookie too.  She said of course I could.  So that’s what I had.  Again, it was amazing.

I flipped on the entertainment center and discovered that Bohemian Rhapsody was on the menu.  So that’s what I watched.  Even though I have seen it before, it was better the second time around.  I have never not sat in a window seat and was worried about the potential for, motion sickness.  I’ve also never been able to read in a moving vehicle, so I wondered about watching a movie for the first time.  It went fine.

With all the drinks, between tomato juice and Perrier, I ended up having to hit the bathroom a couple of times.  Boy, even in a big airplane like a 787, those bathrooms are just not built for a guy my size.  But I got through it unscathed.

Before I knew it, we were landing in Vancouver. We arrived almost 40 minutes early.  Partly because of the 10-minute early departure and then they made up time in the air.  Again, it was a long walk, but nowhere near the lengthy walks in Orlando and Toronto.  By this point though, my foot was killing me, and I was limping badly.  I was also soaked because I was sweating so badly from lugging all my luggage and gear around as well as my badly hurting body.

I finally got to the shuttle bus for Jet Set parking after a couple of wrong turns.  But when I got on board, I could not remember where I had parked.  I sort of remembered that I was parked in Row C.  I took a chance, and sure enough, there it was, frozen over.  I had no idea how cold it was because I was still sweating.

The truck almost didn’t start but I lucked out and got it going.  After 10 minutes, it had thawed enough that I went to exit.  I had prepaid over $200 for parking for the 3 weeks and the machine was telling me I owed $391.  Thankfully there was someone in the kiosk who apologized and fixed it for me.  I wonder how many people end up paying twice.

The GPS started giving me directions o the old house, but I was able to circumvent that, once I got to somewhere that I knew I was going.  It was a long drive, because I was already tired and for some reason never managed to sleep on either plane.  I had been up since 6:00 AM EST, it was 1:30 AM PST by the time I got into bed, or the equivalent of 4:30 AM EST.  22 hours I had been up.  My head hit the pillow and I was gone.  I slept until 7:30 AM PST, but I’m still bagged.  I guess that’s what jet lag is all about.