Departed my house in South Carolina at 8 Wednesday morning and arrived in Korea at 8 Thursday night.  Here’s how it all went down.

Alarm went off at 0600.  I lazed in bed thinking random thoughts while the coffee brewed. Then one of those random thoughts evolved into a question: had I done the math right when I weighed the suitcases?  Well, of course I had.  But while I showered I couldn’t quite remember just how things had added up, so I did the prudent thing and weighed the suitcases again.  My math had in fact been wrong.   Three of the four bags were overweight.  So, it was back to the fourth carry-on.  And some additional creative shifting between bags.  I’m proud to report that through the aforementioned efforts the only item left behind was a large bottle of baby oil.

Then we drove to the daughter’s house for our lift to the airport in Charlotte.  Arrived 2 1/2 hours before our flight and settled in as comfortably as one might expect to be in an airport.  I actually found a plug-in for the laptop and whiled away the time playing some Civilization.  But in the back of my mind I held a growing sense of foreboding.

See the weather was bad today (yesterday) in Detroit.  And any delay of more than two hours or so in getting to Detroit was bound to wreak havoc with my travel plans.  There was some light rain in Charlotte but nothing to be overly concerned about.  Until I learned that my plane to Detroit was coming from Detroit.  And it arrived an hour late.  But we boarded quick and were ready for departure in about 30 minutes, so I was thinking we’d make the connection.  Until the Captain announced we were being held in Charlotte for 40 minutes while the runways in Detroit were being cleared and such.

Still, I held out some hope that if we actually landed in Detroit before the scheduled departure of our flight to Seoul they might hold up for us to arrive at the gate.  Alas, by the time we reached the gate it was fifteen minutes after the tune our flight to Seoul was supposed to leave.  And sure enough, when I checked the departure board it said our connection had “closed”.  English being her second language and all, Jee Yeun wasn’t taking “closed” for an answer.  We arrived at gate A-7 and the Seoul flight was leaving from A-29.  I reckon that distance to be around 6 city blocks give or take.  But we hoofed as quick as we could being encumbered with 2 carry-on each, and miracles of miracles they flight to Seoul and had not yet departed and we were allowed to board.  And there was even room in the overhead for our bags!

We spent over an hour being de-iced and another 30 minutes waiting to take off after achieving ice-free status.  They kept us in our seats that entire time and I came to regret not using the under seat space for my backpack.  I was stuck in the window seat and had no access to my headphones for the on-demand entertainment and more importantly, no access to my snacks.  I was starving!

We were finally up and on our way for the 13 hour hop to Incheon/Seoul.  I don’t know why but my tailbone was SCREAMING at me the entire flight.  And by screaming I mean excruciating pain every time I moved or shifted in my seat.  When I didn’t move or shift, it was just a dull throb.  I have no idea what’s up with that but unless you like the feeling of being stabbed in the back it made those 13 hours seem even longer than it sounds.

To distract myself from the pain I watched some movies: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Gravity, Nebraska, and some Korean movie I forget the name of.  None were outstanding, but they all kept me entertained, more or less.  I did enjoy Bruce Dern in Nebraska, he reminded me of my father in his final months.

And so we came to land in this land called Korea two hours later than our scheduled arrival of 6:30 p.m.  I zipped through immigration and then waited impatiently at the baggage carousel for my fears to be confirmed–our luggage didn’t make it to Korea with us.  I guess it’s no big deal, they’ll eventually deliver it to the apartment which saves me  rasslin’ 4 fifty pound bags around town.  Except in one of those bags are my darts.  Which are a key component of my plans for Friday night.  Alas.

We took the Airport Limo (bus) and arrived at Gireum-dong at 10:30 p.m.  We were greeted by Jee Yeuns’ mom, sister, daughter, and daughter’s boyfriend along with a nice spread of take out/delivery Korean food, 3 bottles of Soju, and some beer.  Having now consumed all of the above, I’m writing this post.

The family…

…the food.

And now I am bringing this long assed day to a close.