The first leg was on American. What was cool was that there was Wi-Fi on the plane so I could make some contacts and updates on Facebook. The flight was full but the adrenaline hadn’t worn off yet and the three hours flew buy.
In Chicago, I had to switch terminals, after walking the extra ¾ mile to terminal 2 to get on a train back to terminal 5, to see that I turned when I should have went straight and just passed where I left. I had to laugh. This trip was not going to be easy, but adventures never are at the least the ones worth having.
Had enough time to finally shave (wonder why I can’t bring a razor through security but I can buy one once I am past security? Maybe the same genius who advises the Homeland boys advises the economy boys? Now it is starting to feel like a new world. The international terminal is full of people from everywhere, so many different languages, dress and smells! Stand in line for security for 20 + minutes to be told I have to go check in at Royal Jordanian’s counter first. Seems the boarding passes I got in Phoenix are no longer valid, new line went fast. Check-in went faster this time. Smiled and thanked the guy for helping me out last time. I had to show my passport 7 times to various security and law enforcement officials while in the tunnel to the plane. I am guessing they are looking for someone but no issues and we are on the plane.
The seats are small and my wide posterior is a tight squeeze, 14 hours of this and I will be one sore dude! Luckily no one is in the seat next to me so I have some wiggle room once we are airborne.
Can’t sleep on the flight, they have quite a large variety of in-flight entertainment available, I watch Thor, Win-Win, Arthur and an Indian Movie I can’t pronounce, didn’t understand a word of it (all subtitles were in Arabic) but it had a lot of Kung Fu action so I could kind of follow the plot!
Sun came up over the Atlantic and according to the flight tracker we are just south of Greenland, the ocean is a grey green color from this altitude and the clouds look like snow. Amazing!!!
I again look out the window as we are off the coast of Ireland, again over France and then Rome. Too high to see much detail but we were there! The Mediterranean was so deep blue. I didn’t see land again until we entered Israeli air space. Saw Jerusalem and the Dead Sea as we made our descent in Amman Jordan. The ground is an orange colored barren looking desert. Hot, sveltely and a little dirty.
The people here aren’t quite as friendly and don’t seem to care if they help you or not. Internet worked for about 6 minutes and quit. Hard uncomfortable seats and a 2 hour wait. Check in was fast and furious, screening was sending everything through at once keep your shoes on and keep moving, worked for me. The plane was nicer then the long flight. Got another window seat, Nice in that I don't have to lean on the person next to me and get up every time they do. The announcements and instructions were in Arabic, then a short summation in English. For the first time I started to feel a little concerned that knowing what is going on will be a little more difficult until I master the language. New goal priority level one. Learn the language!
This time I was seated next to a young Arab girl (16-19 yrs. old) who would turn away if I looked in her direction and was very timid and attempted to avoid any contact with me. Made for a long uncomfortable flight on the social level, but I did notice that her cell phone and typing text messages was just like home! Some human behavior is just universal! 2 ½ hours later we landed in Abu Dhabi. Now the adventure started to feel very real. Again my eyes teared up and I said a little thank you prayer for the opportunity. I also again realized I was 8000 miles from my wife and babies, lucky it was very short termed. I was in the front of the plane. So I was off first. Off the plane, ONWARD!
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