Missouri!

Wow, talk about extreme changes and challenging environments…

I left Barbados at 4:00 a.m. this past Sunday enroute to my next secret destination (hint…it’s the title of this blog), and it was one of the toughest travel days I’ve ever had.  I had three flights in front of me that day, and the one from Barbados was the easiest.   It was a balmy 85 degrees at the Barbados airport (they only have one airport down there) and we left on time, but it was an exciting flight.   A woman took ill on the flight (seriously ill, apparently…it was one of those “is there a doctor on board?” situations).   Turns out there was, and whatever the medical condition was, the pilot put the pedal to the metal and told us we were going to make a “rapid descent.”   We dropped from our 38,000 ft cruising altitude to the runway in what felt like three minutes.   You could feel and see the airplane’s nose-down attitude.  It was wild, and we were 30 minutes early rolling into Miami.

My next flight was from Miami to Charlotte, and I could tell getting out of Miami was going to be a problem when I saw this board…

Lots of flights were cancelled and lots of flights were late.   I wasn’t too worried because I had a two-hour layover in Charlotte before I had to be on the plane to Kansas City, Missouri.   I did get a tiny bit nervous when we were about an hour late getting on the little jet in Miami, though, and a bit more nervous when we sat on the runway for another hour.   Wow, that would be cutting it close.

But you know how it goes.  In Charlotte, I found out that my flight to KC had been delayed for an hour.  Then two hours.  Then three hours.   I had my first meeting at 7:00 on Monday morning, and it was 80 miles north of KC.   Hmmm. 

Finally, at midnight, we boarded the flight in Charlotte.  Hmmm.   After 15 minutes, the pilot announced that the airplane’s refueling valve was broke, and they had to power down and start up the airplane’s electrical systems again. Pitch black, and then a slow reboot.   No luck.  These clowns tried that three times before they sent for a new valve.  They said that would take an hour.   Finally, after sitting on the plane for another 45 minutes, they announced that they were getting a new plane for us, but we had to all get off and check in again.   Wow, are these folks for real?

We got off, checked in again, and got on the new airplane.  Finally, we were in the air.  Two hours later, at 4:00 a.m., we were in KC, where it was 23 degrees.  I was dressed like a Barbadian (I even had on a tropical shirt).   The rental car bus didn’t roll around for another 45 minutes.  Talk about cold!

Check out the thermometer on the dash of my rental car!  Folks, I’m a California boy, and I sure didn’t like seeing numbers like that.   When I realized just how cold it was, I also realized there was ice on the road and it was snowing…and after running on empty (from a sleep perspective), I figured I better dial it down a notch…

It was a rough night and a rough drive.   Snow.  Ice.   27 hours with no sleep.  But I made that 7:00 a.m. meeting.   Lots of coffee, a long day, and I sure had no problems falling asleep Monday night!

The cold weather aside, there are a lot of nice things about Missouri.  The people are real and the place is conservative…the nonsense I have to politely listen to in California just doesn’t exist in Missouri.   Surprisingly, the little town I’m in right now has the best little Thai restaurant this side of Bangkok, and last night the chef prepared an absolutely awesome Kao Soi dinner for me.  You just don’t get this kind of cooking in California.  The chef told me she lived in California for a while when she first came to the United States, but when she had kids she didn’t want them to grow up in La La Land.  California’s loss is Missouri’s gain…seriously, I haven’t had Thai food this good since I was in Thailand.

One more good thing…this nice little Missouri town in which I’m conducting clandestine operations has a good old-fashioned Dairy Queen, and they still do soft cones dipped in cherry.  I haven’t had those in 30 years, but I’m having one every night I’m here!

Later, folks…ride safe!