Up at 4 AM and off to the airport in the early morning drizzle and darkness. The rains are starting to begin in the northwest and the fall salmon run is over. After over 60 days without measurable precipitation and hundreds of hours salmon fishing in the boat on the Columbia,it is now time to experience new places, people, cultures, sights.
At the check in counter I am often amazed by traveler behavior. This time it was the Chinese guy with the upright suitcase with the 4 roller wheels. His bag was half the size of a steamer trunk. My first thought was "I bet that is heavy". He struggled mightily to put it on the luggage scale and was promptly told that the bag was 20 pounds over the maximum. What was he thinking? That you could cram 70 pounds of crap in a giant suitcase and get it on an airplane? Did he read anything during the ticketing process?
He was told by the ticket agent that he would need to make two pieces of luggage - that baggage handlers could not lift, move and heft 70 pound luggage. He was told that he would be given a box to put 20 pounds of stuff in and then be charged a fee of $100.00 for the second 20 pound piece of luggage. He argued with his wife/girlfriend - there was lots of hand waving, finger pointing, heated words were exchanged. He had no options - either cough up $100 and make 2 pieces of luggage - or not travel. I chuckled and continued to watch with amusement. More consultation with the traveling companion and the agent. Finally he was given two boxes - 2 boxes because he could not fit 20 pounds of crap in one box - and the agent said she would tape them together to make 1 box. He was handed the two smallish cardboard boxes and several other Chinese travelers in his traveling party grabbed the bag from the scale and the two boxes and then cracked open the trunk - right in front of the ticket counter, thus effectively blocking those behind him (me) from using the ticketing kiosk until the task was completed. He slowed everything down even more at check in. The suitcase when folded open took up about 20 square feet of floor space and the two boxes and all the clothes being sorted and laid out to find the heaviest stuff took up another 20 square feet of floor space. The 4 or 5 Chinese pouring over the mess took up even more floor space and effectively blocked other check in kiosks. I should have taken a picture.
At the kiosk I inserted my credit card and was prompted for the first 3 letters of my destination. I typed "ank" and the automated check in kiosk spit out this message "no flights in next 12 hours for B Johnson". Panic. Heart pounding increase in blood pressure. My mind started racing. Was/is my flight yesterday/tomorrow.? Was there a booking problem? What time is it? Flight cancelled? I took a deep breath and confidently said to myself "must have typed "ank" incorrectly. Retried the process and was rewarded with my 3 flights - to Washington DC, Munich and Ankara. The first of many instances of travelers panic I will endure and hopefully resolve favorably.
Finally was able to get boarding passes and bag check my backpack off to Ankara - it has just 30.5 pounds of stuff for my 101 days of travel in 5 countries. One pair of shoes for 101 days of travel. OMG.
I grabbed my carry on day sack and left for the gate.
Walkabout time, I thought. I am ready.
Flight was completely full. Not an enpty seat. Listened to a little Bob Seger - Beautiful Looser which contains "Kathmandu", some Michael Martin Murphy - Cowboy Songs, NeilYoung - Living With War, Mark Knopfler - Cal and poof, like that, I was in DC.
An uneventful change of flights and then I was on the Boeing 767-400 to Munich. Found my seat - an aisle seat on an outside row with two seats. There are 4 seats in the middle row and another row of two on the other side.
The flight was delayed about 40 minutes and all the while the seat next to me - the window seat - was vacant. I thought I might have hit the lottery for the 8.5 hour flight with an empty seat next to me and as it turned out, I did. The gentleman that had the window seat was about the size of a fullback on a professional football team. He stopped, checked his seat assignment and said "I was told there are empty seats in the rear of the plane, I am going to find one so we both will have more room". I replied "Works for me". And it did. I was able to fold up the armrest between the window seat and the aisle seat and have plenty of room for the entire flight. A good omen, me thinks
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