Day 1- The beginning

First day under my belt. The day was a long one and pretty slow moving but that was the risk of the Buddy Pass. Sorry everybody, not much to report yet… at this moment my goal was to not even be able to blog to you all because I would be smack dab in the middle of the Pacific. But here I am. Today started early- got to the airport just after 7:00 (had to stop for some McD’s breakfast first- I mean… it was quite possibly my last American meal). But not quite. After arriving at the airport my first task was producing proof of entering and exiting Vietnam within the constraints of my visa. I hadn’t yet bought a bus pass to and from Bangkok, and Delta required proof that I wasn’t going to immigrate illegally so the majority of my morning was spent on the trusty comp nailing that down. DIA’s wifi was tortoise-like and by mid morning I was finally on my way. 10:05- Bid farewell to my good buddy Jana at the ticket counter. 10:23- Cruised through security. 11:16- Watched the first Minneapolis plane take off without me. All full. 2:05- Same story. 3:30- Third time was not the charm. It was starting to feel less and less like I was trying to board a plane and more like I was just hanging out with a lot of people with a lot of bags who would all ditch me all of a sudden. Gate C38 was becoming my arch nemesis..

But 5:50 rolled around and just when I thought I might have to spend the night back at home and head for the summit in the morning, I caught the last Minneapolis plane out of Denver. It all worked out well.. I scored a emergency exit aisle seat (#christmasmiracle) which is amazingly more comfortable than normal seats. And now I get to spend the night with Lauren and take a mini-Minneapolis tour tomorrow morning. If all goes according to plan I’ll hop on a 1:30 flight toward Tokyo and then the trip really gets underway.

Double D