California, Here We Come!

Today's entry has been written by my favorite guest author, Richard B.
Here is what Dick wrote:

After a long travel day, Tom picked us up at the San Diego air port at about 6 Wednesday evening.

It was a fairly typical day for airline hitch hikers (stand by passengers). Our flight from TC to Chicago was scheduled for a 9:30 departure but when we had freezing rain followed by 3-4 inches of heavy wet snow the day before, we knew there might be delays. Our plane was coming in from Marquette as the first flight always does in the winter. Its arrival kept getting pushed back until eventually, the empty aircraft pulled up to the gate at 11.

The flight to Chicago was quick and uneventful but we missed our connection at O'Hare and had to be rebooked on the next flight. That gave us 4 1/2 hours of book reading and people watching in the terminal as we made our way from gate G 12 to K15.
For once we were not the last standbys called for the San Diego flight, our seats were an aisle and a middle, over the wing on a Super 80. After buckling our belts and observing the flight attendant, we settled back to "enjoy" our flight to the coast.

My seat mate on each flight was a young man in the 18 - 21 age group and each was headed for his great adventure. Each is embarking on a journey of three months duration which will, at it's culmination, find them both in San Diego.
On the flight from TC to Chicago, I sat next to a young white kid from Leelanau County who is a student at MSU. This semester he is enrolled in a program through Pitt. that is college on a cruise ship. He is joining 700 other students plus faculty and crew. They sail from the Bahamas down to Brazil, thence to Capetown, on to India, Thailand, Japan, and then across the Pacific to San Diego. There are a variety of classes offered, this young man will be taking 12 credits.

On the flight from Chicago to San Diego, I sat next to a black kid from Chicago. He was fresh out of High School, the oldest child in the family. He was going to Camp Pendleton for three months of boot camp followed by a five year hitch in the Marines. He told me he was going to be placed in the Presidential security detail and therefore would not have to go to Iraq "or nothing' like that".

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Me again:

Tom drove us downtown to the GasLamp District looking for a place to have dinner. There were many lovely looking places to choose from. We went to Wyatt Earp's, which turned out to be a very posh gourmet type of a restaurant. We all ordered sea scallops, and everything was yummy.

Then we went to Tom's lovely home on Tivoli Park Row, and hopped right in to bed. We can unpack in the morning. (yawn)