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Trip Start Oct 22, 2008 Trip End Nov 23, 2008 Next
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  Denton, Texas, United States
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

DAY 1: DENTON TO LONDON

11 Hours on a Plane-How Bad Can It Be?

Nothing terribly eventful today, which is a good thing, I always think, when it comes to travel.

I made it to the airport a bit early, which again is a good thing. I took advantage of an upgrade opportunity, so I ended up flying first class to Philadelphia and then business (or "Envoy" as US Air calls it, probably because it is not typical business class caliber-it's more like what I would imagine Aeroflot's business class might be, poor things) to London. As I say, it was not impressive, but it made me all the more relieved I wasn't back in coach, which must have been torture

Rove

.

On the flight to Philadelphia I sat next to a man who had been attending a "metals convention." I asked if he was a metallurgist, but he was in sales. Still a nice fellow, though, and he was lamenting budget cuts and how they had been forced to have roommates at the meeting, so together we thought of ways that he might be able to get out of that requirement. We decided that a rumor around the office that he has MRSA might keep him in a single room. He has kids in college and one more headed that way, and he and his wife are worried about the economy, about paying for their kids' educations, about paying off student loans. I told him I thought it was going to get worse for a while, and he asked me if I really thought so. That's what the economists are saying--Paul Krugman, for example--I told him. I don't think he felt better after talking to me. I'm glad my girls are home schooled.

On the way to London I sat next to a young man (meaning under 50) who "made" golf shoes and lives in China. Apparently all, or almost all, of the golf shoes in the world are made in southern China. His family is in North Carolina, where he had been visiting, but his parents were missionaries and he'd spent much of his life in other countries. I decided it would be best not to pick up on the missionary direction of conversation, given my "position on missionaries" and proselytizing in general. So I tried to find out what I don't know about golf shoes. He, of course, doesn't actually make the shoes (they're not made in China by expatriate tarheels). It's a highly specialized field, apparently, and yet I didn't get anything from this guy that I might use later in a story or anything. Although, come to think of it, he was kind of cagey about these golf shoes, and with the perpetual traveling and unlikely missionary parents story, I'm beginning to think he might have been a spy,. Unfortunately, he was more of a Matt Damon scrunchy-faced spy rather than a debonair Daniel Craig.

I've never been able to sleep on those transatlantic red-eyes, and the tradition continues. I watched some really bad movies, though I have to admit that Baby Mamma wasn't as offensive as I thought it would be, though it was as predictable and implausible as anyone might expect. I watched parts of a few other movies, and I watched the end of Made of Honor over my seat mate's shoulder, just to see if this male version of My Best Friend's Wedding would end with the cliché . Well of course it did!
I tried to sleep using the music option on our TV screens, and just as I might have drifted off to some Brahms, the flight attendant thought I was asleep and turned off my unit, which of course perked me right up.

Anyway, things still were moving on smoothly, and we arrived a bit early in London, which means I'm overdue for shifting to Day 2 of the trip, since it is now tomorrow in London. Just a final note that will crack up some of you who know my sleep habit: since when we arrived at 8 am in London it was 2 am in Denton, so it was time for me to go to sleep just about the time we touched ground.

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