Enroute

Enroute

We had originally planned on getting up at 4:30 AM, but since we were both wide awake at 4:00, we decided to get up and get underway. It is very cold out this morning, -6 degrees celcius, so it is nice that we are heading for warmer climes.

Found the Park N Fly lot with no problem and dropped the truck off there. The shuttle was there quickly and we boarded with several other passengers and headed to the terminal. Once inside we started looking around for our check in counter and quickly found the Harmony Airways spot. Free water and leis, which was nice. I got a pink one for Caitlin and a purple one for Tamara. The people there were very nice and friendly. We got checked in with no troubles.

On to our next stop which was U.S. Customs. The agent on duty was a miserable old cuss. He scanned my passport and immediately got even more surly. He asked me the question, and with the noise it sounded like he said “how long have you been in Hawaii?”. Without thinking I just said “we are just on the way”. He looked at me as if I was a complete idiot and growled “how long are you going to be there”. I said “one week”. Renee had come up to the counter with me, since we are traveling together. Again he looked at me like I was a complete idiot, and barked “only one person at the counter at a time, you go wait over there for her”. He was apparently quite nice to Renee, but asked her a ton of questions.

Our next stop was the security gate. Renee stopped to take some video and the three customs agents on duty advised her there was no filming allowed. Then one of them said, “you can have him take video of you and me though”. Those three were very friendly and made up for the last guy.

Now on to the x-ray table. I emptied out my pockets and things and while I was doing it, one of the guys saw my retired badge and asked if I knew Dan Dureau. Dan had actually been in my academy class and we retired at the same time. The fellow who asked turned out to be Dan’s nephew.

Finally we were through all the security checkpoints and made a stop at Starbucks for some much needed coffee and a scone. Now it’s time to sit at the gate and wait for boarding. We grabbed a few pictures along the way, including Renee posing with a Grizzly Bear. There are nine wi-fi networks in range but I can’t connect to any except the Telus site, and they want $25 to do so. Not a panic, I will type this up in Word and upload it later.