Day-01: The Journey Begins

Date: Sunday, February 2, 2014              

Packed & Ready

Starting Location: Kitty Hawk, NC
Interim Locations: Norfolk, VA, Chicago, IL
Final Location: Airborne somewhere over the Pacific



So begins our journey; the packing was completed late last night just in time for a few, very few hours of sleep.




Sheila's internal alarm rang sometime around 0230, so our day began early by anyone's standards. By 0400 the Tahoe was packed and we were out the door. Carrie was kind enough to also arise in the middle of the night and take us to Norfolk for our morning flight.



In that eastern North Carolina is snow covered and the Currituck and Albemarle Sounds are ice covered, with last night's relatively warm temperatures the countryside was shrouded in heavy fog this morning, making for an eerie drive into Virginia. Around 0630, we pulled up in front of the United Airlines departure area to unload our bags and check-in for the day's flights. After minor clashes with an overly eager airport traffic control officer, we headed inside and Carrie, after one more clash with the traffic control officer, turned toward home, likely to resume her night's sleep. Though we had plenty of time, I think the traffic control officer incident changed what had been a relatively relaxed pace to a more hurried pace as we proceeded into the terminal.

DJ Kitty Headed Home to China

At the check-in kiosk we entered our airline codes and had our passports scanned; interestingly an agent was surprised to see our kiosk in service as it had been causing problems. This may seem trivial, but the temperamental kiosk did impact our travel, in a positive way. So after paging through the check-in process we hefted our four bags onto the scales and they were appropriately tagged for our final destination, Singapore. Sheila started carting off the bags to the adjacent TSA area while I finalized our travel documents. No issue today on bag numbers or weight as our allowance was 3 bags up to 70 lb./bag for each of us (we could have brought more stuff).  With bags checked and transferred to the TSA we headed for the gate. As we approached the security check-in we both realized that we didn't have boarding passes; not to worry, we still had plenty of time. Upon returning to the check-in area we dutifully waited our turn to speak with an agent about the boarding passes. As we stood there, Sheila noticed that near the kiosk was a bag that looked similar to one of ours, as a matter of fact the bright orange tag with the word "DeMai" written on it looked remarkably like ours. Upon closer review, Sheila confirmed that yes that was our bag, we had delivered three of four bags to the TSA and left the fourth one standing by the kiosk. In the end, it was not a problem, the "nearly lost" bag was taken to the TSA and it went on it's way to find the other three. We received boarding passes from the agent and were once again on our way to the gate.

So, in hindsight, I believe the entire baggage incident relates back to the traffic officer; she had unwittingly added stress to an non-stress situation. At check-in Sheila and I instead of casually keeping things together, allowed ourselves to multi-task, not necessarily a good idea at our ages. Thankfully, the faulty kiosk failed to spit-out boarding passes resulting in our return to the Untied check-in counter and the discovery of the "nearly lost bag".

With the morning's drama over, we proceeded through TSA security where as TSA PreScreened fliers we could whisk through the security and scanning process. Well, not so fast, seems that at Norfolk the special orange prescreen sticker doesn't get you anything but the sticker. We still had to unload computers, liquids and be body-scanned and as often occurs, Sheila's knees rang true. Nevertheless, TSA security has become relatively routine and we were soon headed to gate B30. At 0640 we boarded United Flight #3499, an Embraer J170 aircraft and proceeded to our seats 1C & 1D; at 0700, as scheduled, we were outbound for Chicago.

Will Be Traveling From Far Right To Far Left

Observed Sunrise

During the morning's flight I observed sunrise, we both slept for 30-40 minutes, we were served a box breakfast and after all was done, we arrived in Chicago at 0810 (CT) about 15 minutes early.

"Breakfast Box"

"Rhapsody in Blue"

We proceed from the arrival B Terminal and headed for our departure C Terminal. It had been many years since I had traversed United's B to C underground walkway, but the sequential neon lights tuned to the sounds of George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" brought back memories of many air miles traversing through O'Hare, some of those miles funding today's flight.



We soon arrived at and availed ourselves of the services and comforts offered by the United Global First Lounge located adjacent to our gate.

The Menu

Spanakopita & Cheese Plate

Way Too Early

Our Home For The Next 24 Hours

Won't be much more happening today other than boarding our flight to Singapore. We'll leave Chicago on Untied Flight #895, a Boeing 777-200 at 1305 (CT). Our flight has one stop in Hong Kong where we gas up to continue on to Singapore where we will arrive at 0130 (Singapore local) on Tuesday. If I have my clocks right, that would be 1130 (US ET) on Monday. We're hoping for TV service during the flight so we can tune in to the Super Bowl. Looks like Sheila will be on the Seattle side of the plane and I'll be on the Denver side. One last thought on our seat assignments, Sheila will be on the "right" and I'll be on the "left"; don't if that is irony, coincidence, fate or whatever but interesting just the same.

Next stop, Singapore!