Day One – Maui to Los Angeles

My American Airlines flight from Maui was aboard my least-favorite aircraft: a Boeing 757 … a long narrow aluminum tube, with a center aisle and three seats on either side. Cramped and claustrophobic. Nevertheless, the five hours en route to Los Angeles passed quickly. Happily, I found myself seated to a nice lady from San Diego who was returning home with her family from a Maui vacation. For whatever reason, most long flights are passed in silence, but we had quite a nice chat.

In anticipation of two long flights and quite a few nights on various trains, I downloaded a number of books into my Kindle before leaving home. One is “Men at Work” by George Will, which is a fascinating study of baseball based on what were clearly many hours spent with outstanding individuals representing the five principle aspects of the game: pitching, catching, fielding, hitting and managing. I detest Will’s politics, but this is a superb, very readable work and a must for anyone wanting to explore the endless mysteries of this amazing game.

Today’s flight to London will also be on American … a non-stop red-eye leaving here at 8:00 p.m. and getting to London at 2:20 Thursday afternoon. Start to finish: 10 hours and twenty minutes. It will also be my first flight on board a Boeing 777 and, from everything I’ve heard, I expect it to be a good experience.