Traveling should be fun!

I did not sleep last night. I got in my taxi at 4 AM EST. Arrived at the Airport at 4:30 AM. I was told to arrive two hours before the flight leaves, I made it with two and a half hours to spare. I decided to hang outside for the extra half an hour and have a smoke a little since I thought you can't smoke in the airport until the only bar opens. At about 5 AM I went inside and walked up to the United Airlines and checked in, or tried too. Turns out that United handled my flight, but US airlines took care of everything... after finding this out I decided it best to smoke again. Once I smoked I headed to the US Airlines and checked in, checked my baggage, gave it to the security officer and headed to the security check point so I can get to the boarding gates. The officer there said I need a boarding pass... Whats that? handed her everything I had, and I did not have a boarding pass. Turns out the self check in machine did not print this piece of information. Frustration levels rising, I headed back outside for a smoke. At this point I am dead tired, and still have one and a half hours to go till lift off, I just want some coffee. I headed to the checking again, this time got the boarding pass, and headed to security again. I got through security with no issues, hopped the tram to the boarding gates, got coffee, breakfast and sat down to wait a bit for the plane to be boarded, its now 6 AM.

I started to get a bit ancy, as I was nervous about flying alone. So I decided to see if the bar was open. To my luck it was. However, you can't smoke in it anymore... The only way to get a smoke is to head outside. Crap. That means I have to ride the Tram outside, have a smoke, go through security and then ride the tram back. I decided I can wait until we land. At 7 AM the flight was boarded and we lifted off. I sat by the window and looked outsie hoping to see the city. I was wrong. The sky was all overcast with clouds. The entire 6 hour flight was nothing but a white floor under the plane. It wasn't even that cool, above the fluffy clouds look. More like a game that didn't render the ground with the right texture and you have a solid whit floor. It was odd. Almost like the world wasn't real. I then went ahead and watched the dark knght and horton hears a whoo on my Ipod for the remainder of the flight.

I landed in Arizona at 11 am Mountian time, thats two hours behind the Eastern Time zone. This makes it 1 PM back home. Turns out my flight from Arizona to LA left 30 minutes before I had landed. Thats good news to tell someone that hasn't smoked in over 7 hours. I went ballistic screaming at the lady in front of the boarding gate. She calmed me down by calling security, and then issued me a new boarding pass that would get me to LA at 2 PM central time. that's about 4 pm EST.

The Pheonix airport is very nice. It has a huge food court before the security check point, as well as all kinds of mall shops. I didn't shop any, but I did have lunch at a pizza parlor there. It was kinda neat to say "I had breakfast in Pittsburgh, then flew to Arizona for lunch.". A few hours later and a few smoke breaks later I realized I was timing my self on the wrong clock. I was watching the LA clock I had added to my Ipod, not realizing that Arizona and LA are in separate timezones. If I hadn't looked at the flight delays and saw the current time, I would never had left. I rushed to the boarding gate, hopped on the plane, and was sat next to a young couple with their 1 year old son. Yes this is as bad as it sounds. The trip was only 55 minutes from Phoenix to LA, but it felt like hours. The kid did nothing but scream in my ear the whole time. I did get a good view out the plane window and took a pic.


Once the plane touched down I went to call home and let everyone know I had made it. It was 3 PM PST, 6 PM EST. Turns out all the roaming minutes I added to my phone means nothing in LA.... I got no signal. With all that has happened in the last 10 or so hours, I felt like something worse was about to happen. I just knew that the airline had lost my luggage or something. I went outside and had a cigarette, then headed to the baggage claim. After ten minutes I was able to grab my bag and leave! Hopped a cab and gave him the address of my hotel. OK, this is where I should get screwed. This guy is gong to take the longest route to the hotel. Not the case. I rode in the taxi for an hour on the freeway, but it cost me less than it cost me to get to the airport back in Pittsburgh. I tipped the guy the 15 dollar difference.

Alright, I am at the Hotel! My Journey is over for the day! Oh wait... Murphies Law. What ever can go wrong will go wrong. I started assuming the worst. My reservations where given away because of my absence during the check in time. Something had to have gone wrong. I walk in, mention my Reservation, and boom, I get a key. Headed upstairs and got in my room.

All in all, the trip was very frustrating, but I feel rewarded. I feel like I did something that I would never even thought of doing before. Tomorrow I plan on going into Downtown LA, and take some photos of everything, everybody I see. Hopefully I can get a hold of my rinds out here in LA and meet up with them as well. Maybe I will get one of those track phones with like 25 minutes to use while I am hear as well. Enjoy some of the pics from today.

2008-12-18 LA Day one