Dave's Travels on the US Mainland - The Flight Back

I think I am a pretty good flyer, but this trip was an unusual one for me. Usually I jet lag worse going to the West Coast and have a pretty easy time on the return trip to Guam. This trip was just the opposite. When I got to California I seemed to have very little problem and got right into what I needed to do. Today is my 4th day back on Guam now and I am just starting to feel human again. One of the odd things that happened on the trip was that when I arrived in LA and tried to board for San Diego it seemed that my reservation was lost. I've never had that happen before. United did a good job getting me on another flight and I was in San Diego only a half hour late.

The return flight was a little weirder. First, because I had not boarded the proper San Diego flight two weeks before, all my other flights had been canceled. Continental was able to get me on another flight when I called them, but I had to fly from Houston to Guam through Tokyo instead of Honolulu. My day started with getting stuck in the parking toll booth for a few minutes when their computers froze up and the parking bar arm would not go up. That was another first for me. I then flew from Dallas to Houston. The Houston to Tokyo flight is over 13 hours long. Fortunately, the Continental service on the flight is very good  We got three meals and several snacks. Also, since few people are wanting to go to Japan right now, I had row 17 all to myself and I could spread out, sleep and not have anyone else to worry about.

I had over 2 hours in Narita airport and had an opportunity to look around. It is a beautiful airport with many things to look at and all kinds of stores. The airport also had the best restrooms I have ever seen in an airport. Since there were not very many people there in the Tokyo airport I also had a whole row to myself again for the 4-hour flight from Tokyo to Guam. They served some pasta soon after takeoff and I spent the rest of the flight horizontal and sound asleep across three seats. The flight attendant woke me up to prepare for landing. All told I spent 24 hours from takeoff in Dallas to touchdown in Guam. It was a long flight but I am glad to be home.