Arrived in Kona OK

Got to LAX two hours early, had only one bag to check (at $25 each way, and no, it wasn't oversize/overweight!), so flew through that, and then went through the usual Thousands Standing Around drills.

Went to the gate, and began the wait......


We saw our aircraft arrive from Houstan and deplane, and then watched them clean it, fuel it, and swap out the crew.

Then they told us that we'd be boarding late because the catering truck had not arrived......D'OH!

The catering truck arrived, but because they did their unpacking and stocking the galley using the First Class seating area, they let us peons in Economy Class board first!

The flight had DirecTV with "100's of Channels!!", BUT only over the CONUS. Once we flew out of the SoCal spot beam(s), it reverted to a 10-movie DVR. I watched the flight map for about 25 minutes or so as we climbed at around 1500'/min to our cruising altitude of 36,500' and 550MPH, and then that stopped working. Since I don't know where the displayed info comes from, I'm clueless as to why it froze the display and popped up a "The Flight Map Application Is Not Available".

So, I started watching the Avengers: Age Of Ultron about 30 minutes in from the start. Had more than enough "flight time" to watch it from that point, and then the complete movie, start to finish.

Not a bad movie, but they're starting to get pretty formulaic.

1) Introduce the characters
2) Set up the plot
3) Bad Guy triumphs at first, and things look bleak
4)Apocalyptic battle, and the Good Guys win

yawn.........

ANYWHO........arrived in Kona at KOA about 30 minutes early, waited for our (well....mine, really) bags, took the shuttle to the rent-a-car place, got the car, got my Garmin RoadMate up and running, and drove to the timeshare my wife's friend "owns", where they informed us the unit wouldn't be ready until 1600 local, but they'd call us if it was ready sooner.

And I'm learning all about "Island Time", as NOBODY is in a hurry to do anything!

I'm kicking back right now, and the wimmens are out doing some grocery shopping. This is a pretty sweet timeshare, and we have a full-sized kitchen with "all the major appliances", our own washer/dryer and vacuum cleaner, and the kitchen even came stoked with a decent supply of coffee, creamer, sugar and sweetener.

I couldn't bring my full-size DSLR and lenses, as it was just too big and too heavy to stuff into my duffle, so I'll either borrow my wife's little camera, or use the GoPro in single-shot mode when we go to the Arizona Memorial and the Missouri on Tuesday.

And I'm beat and dehydrated from a six hour flight. I shudder when I think of the globe trotting Old_NFO does!