Today will be thirty eight hours long as we race across time zones and head home. We will leave Tokyo (scheduled) at 5:10 PM on 8 November and arrive at Hopkins (scheduled) at 6:33 PM 8 November.
We slept in and had Starbucks for breakfast. After Bernie FaceTimed with Aunt Rita and Uncle Ro, we went walking. We were going to be on a plane for fourteen hours so it made total sense. Daniel Boone returned his party safely to the hotel by using dead reckoning and a keen sense of direction. We were back shortly before pickup and surprise, a transfer to another hotel, before being transferred to the bus to take us to Narita which is a long long way from Tokyo.
We left almost an hour late which when I wrote this back on that day, I noted that it would make catching our connection to Cleveland very interesting.
The flight was fine once it left. Customs at SFO was fine. Recheck your baggage was fine. But then the fun started. I have been to SFO three times in my life and both times when leaving, the wonderful people from the TSA made it a miserable experience. It's not like everybody flies from SFO every day of their lives. It's not like every air passenger knows your airport and how to navigate it. I know they only pay the fine people at the TSA minimum wage but come on; it is often a visitor's first impression of the USA. And they failed. After a month of helpful courteous people who at best knew a few words of English, it only took the TSA a few moments to let us know we were back in the USA. Capricious, maniacal little Napoleons, and that's probably an insult to Napoleon. Each of us, Debbie, Bernie, and I, was treated differently by the inspectors and even though we had been screened at Narita we had to be screened again. We arrived at the same time as another JUMBO jet from Mexico City and the TSA was totally unprepared. All I heard was people saying, 'I'm going to miss my connection.' and they were often right. We had forty-five minutes from when we got to Security to departure and were through with less than five minutes to spare in a strange airport. I made the gate first and a kind lady held the door for all of us as they had already had final boarding. Yes, they took a guy out in handcuffs as we got to security but what a f$%&()g joke. Not an ounce of customer relation skills.
I also have to fault United for scheduling us two flights with so little time in between. NO one was there to expedite anything. No golf cart. No flight personnel. Nothing.
Final insult. Our seats were taken by two passengers who were too weak to walk all the way to the back of the plane. Until they had to pee. I have to call bullshit on that.
BUT, I refuse to let the last few hours color the trip or the two tiered security system. We traveled over 23,000 miles by air and only in the US is it a pain in the ass.
The entire trip, which has been over for six weeks by the time this is posted was an incredible experience. We would never have said that Asia was a bucket list thing. Certainly not like a trip to the Pyramids, or Rome, but having been there, none of us can doubt the wisdom of seeing the things we saw and having the experiences that we did. Thirty two wonderful days out of one suitcase with excellent traveling partners.
Where to? Who knows. Maybe South America and Machu Pichu before we are too old to climb. Maybe Ireland. The world is out there waiting for us.
That's it. If you read this, thanks. If you looked at the pictures on Facebook, thanks for that, too.
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