Day 13: Travel Day - Vancouver to Denver
Nau mai
Yesterday we completed the second part of our journey to the United States of America.
It’s usually best to try and ignore the timezone change for this kind of journey but this late afternoon flight had the potential to really mess you up. We would take off from Narita at 4:30pm and after nine hours in the air we would land in Vancouver at a 9:30am that would feel like 1am. A lifetime in the elite forces had given me the ability to fall asleep on command and so I used this invaluable skill, closing my eyes the second I sat down on the plane and forcing myself straight into deep REM cycles seven hours before my normal bedtime.
Our aircraft touched down into a fresh Vancouver morning and I instantly woke up feeling perfectly refreshed. We disembarked and went through a frustrating transit security checkpoint where a vengeful air transport security officer threw away most of the contents of Liz’s toilet bag, despite them having traveled safely on the many other aeroplanes of this tour.
We went through US immigration and I gave a fine performance in my fingerprint scan. Then we headed into the terminal and made our way to Air Canada lounge to see what the buffet could offer up.
I like to think that I made the best from the offerings that were available. In these situations the best course of action is to try and do the least amount of harm to your body. I had a bowl of melon pieces with a sweet vanilla yoghurt. The other creation is an oatmeal porridge with chocolate chips, coconut flakes, and sliced almond.
A few hours later we boarded our second flight for Denver. I sat next to Annie and she showed me how to use her in-flight pillow.
By the time we had landed and retrieved our baggage we were shattered. We caught a transport to the hotel and gratefully accepted the opportunity to retreat to our rooms for the night.