Picking up where I was left off…

Arrived back at the lovely Columbia airport 12 hours after arriving there for the first time. Used our lunch voucher for dinner and moved over to the gate to await the arrival of our flight to Charlotte.  Which was delayed for “mechanical reasons”.  At least this time the only thing I was missing was some sleep in Charlotte.  Quite a few other passengers were not so lucky and had to be re-booked.  I could relate to their pain.

Got into Charlotte around 10:00 and went looking for a place to spend our dinner voucher. Everyone was closing up, so we settled for a couple of Papa John’s mini pizzas to go. Then we headed out to wait for the hotel shuttle to pick us up.  It proved to be a pretty long wait.  There were “no smoking” placards posted throughout the vicinity but I was surreptitiously sneaking a vape now and again.  And then a blonde woman showed up with two female police officers standing with her.  Made me too uncomfortable to vape in the presence of the law.  Observing this intruder piqued my curiosity.  She was not under arrest, that much was clear.  So I figured she must be some sort of celebrity getting police protection from the unwashed masses.  But then I thought, what kind of celebrity takes the freakin’ hotel shuttle bus?  She looked a little familiar, but too rough around the edges to really be a star.

Well, about then the Baymont Suites shuttle arrived and I lost interest in the faded flower. Until she loaded into the bus in the seat directly behind me.  Whereupon she loudly announced “this is the first time I’ve taken public transportation”.  Everyone on board ignored her.  Then she said “can I borrow a phone?  Someone stole mine.  I really need to call Charlie Sheen.”  I figured maybe she was crazy or worried about HIV.  Or both.  She then asked the driver if he could take somewhere to by a burner phone.  He said he would after he dropped us all off.  Next the wayward lass professed to being hungry and offered to treat all of us if the driver would stop for fast food.  No one cared much for that idea and she continued mumbling about having not eaten all day long, so I offered her my pizza and she happily accepted.  Next she was thirsty so I gave her my diet Pepsi.  She went on for awhile about how nice and generous we had been and thanked us profusely. Truthfully, I just wanted to shut her up.

Shortly thereafter we arrived at our hotel.  Curiosity got the best of me and I asked the damsel in distress her name. Brooke Mueller was her response.  I didn’t recognize the name (which was probably disappointing for her) so I just said nice to meet you and good luck and then I exited the bus.  Once I got to the room I Googled her and saw that she was in fact a B-list actress and Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife (or more precisely, one of them).

She’s much prettier in this pic than in real life. Or at least her life now. Frankly, she looked like an old prostitute who had been ridden hard and put up wet. Kind of felt sorry for her.

There wasn’t much sweet about the Baymont Suites, except the room was gratis.  And we were only going to be there for 5 hours.  I took a shower and hit the sheets, woke promptly at 0400, dressed and headed downstairs for the ride back to the airport.  I noticed Brooke wondering aimlessly around the lobby, couldn’t help but pity her situation.  Hope whatever trouble she’s having in life works itself out.

So, we arrived at the airport right at 0430 in anticipation of our flight to Dallas boarding at 0530.  Our bags had been checked through from Columbia to Incheon which was nice except for the not having a change of clothes thing.  Heh, it was sort of like camping! TSA was just making final preparations to open for business and our boarding pass said we were “PRECHK”.  So we waltzed right on through wearing our shoes and everything!

Used our breakfast voucher for coffee and bagels and I noted our plane was parked at the departure gate.  I took that as a good sign we wouldn’t suffer a mechanical delay on this fine morning.  Sure enough, we boarded and departed on time and landed in Dallas with 2 hours to kill before our connection to Seoul.

We spent part of the time sharing a French toast breakfast (that’s my half). Then Jee Yeun went off to spend money in the duty free stores whilst I tried and failed at finding decent WiFi.

As I dawdled over my coffee, I saw a thick flume of black smoke rising up behind our ride to Seoul.

Smoke and fire on airport grounds can’t be a good thing, right? Well, whatever it was it didn’t impact our flight which left on time.

Ah, but American Airlines I had one more surprise for me this trip:

A pleasant one for a change!

First time in Business Class for an International flight.  Jee Yeun was upgraded as well, but our seats were on opposite sides of the plane.  So a stranger had to endure my snoring and flatulence.  Man, those seats are amazing though.  You can go from upright to lay down flat and everywhere in between.  Food was pretty damn fine as well.

The freaking entertainment system offered the same sorry list of crappy movies that they had on the outbound journey.  I actually tried to watch three of them, but couldn’t make it to the end on any.  Too lame, too predictable, lousy acting–you name it.  Oh well, never slept better on a plane ride, that’s for sure.  And of course, I’m ruined for life now.  Coach will only seem more oppressive and uncomfortable in the future.

And now I’m finally back home in Seoul.  Just in time for tomorrow’s predicted 2-6 inches of snow.  Ain’t life grand?