Journalism Research and Random Meanderings

Monday, May 10, 2004

The Highway, TheAirway 

8/5/04 6:01 am EDT

The sun is rising behind me like it wants to chase me out of Toronto as I head west to the airport. My sidebrain chatters about pre-trip issues. Have I got everything? Is customs going to give me a hard time? I'm keeping the speed down even though the side chatter is getting neurotic and niggly. Will I be able to park close to check-in? What if I miss Keiko and can't given her the parking stub to get the car out?

We're doing one of these tightly coordinated dual-career with kid things where I park the car at the airport meet her at the boarding gate and pass her the parking stub and a quick kiss.

Luckily her work schedule as a tour guide and my departure coincide nicely. I dropped her off at the Sheraton Centre at 04:45 this morning so she could shepherd her group of Japanese tourists on to their plane. Then she met me at terminal 3 and did the same thing for me. She had to I had the parking stub.

/5/04 9:01 am EDT

I am sitting aboard an American Airlines Boeing S80 most of the way to Dallas. We just crossed over a huge, winding river that meandered back and forth across the land like a dark dragon drawn on a green background. A peaceful image even though I'm so twitchy from sleep deprivation, caffeine and U.S. customs stress I jump every time the guy in the row behind me sneezes, which he's done three times so far. I feel like forcefully introducing him to the wonders of my $9 battery-operated nose hair trimmer.

The pilot just drawled out the pre-landing announcement. I am about to descend into a 2-hour layover in Dallas before offering myself up to nearly 15 straight hours of Korean Airways in-flight hospitality and then a week in the soul of Korea.

8/5/04 11:30 am DFW Airport is dull but efficient with friendly airport staff. They do have some cool birds so I grabbed some ambient audio and pix.

The Internet hot point costs US$3.00 per minute so I think I'll pass.

The DFW Airport Korean Airways passenger lounge is nothing special but the lemon spice tea and toast-flavoured (!) frito-lay peanut butter and crackers hit the spot.

8/5/04 1:26 pm Sitting quite comfortably, thank you very much, in Prestige Class with nmy feet up and watching the flight go by on my personal pop-up video screen. That's how I know I just shot a couple of pix of the Canadian River in Oklahoma. My favourite show so far is watching the flight stats.

I found a secondary use for the headphones they block out the noise of the other passengers and I can hear the announcements much clearer. We're flying a Boeing 777-200. It holds 245 passengers so I was glad to hear it had rolls-Royce engines.

Lunch will be a steak. There's Korean food on the menu but I will have plenty of opportunities for that in the next week. I realised that I can practice my Korean phrases from the Berlitz Palm phrasebook on the hostess because she has to be nice to me. Kamsahamnida (thank you) gets a big smile and a head bow. I am going to have to learn the etiquette of greeting, bowing and handing over business cards with two hands.

The clouds have cleared as we cross the Kansas-Colorado border and there's amazingly little to see. The only places that are green are the circles that show where they giant irrigation sprinklers are placed.



This is what Siberia looks like from 32,000 feet when you go by at over 500 miles per hour. I shot several pix out the window but this is definitely the most successful. Considering I'm using a Kodak PalmPix attachment on my trusty Palm IIIxe it's pretty good.