Catching Up - The Flight Over

The flight was long, and at times tedious, the leg from Des Moines to Minneapolis was smooth and ahead of schedule. The next part, from Minneapolis to Tokyo was 11 1/2 hours, and got tedious at times, but was overall a very smooth trip. The seats were good, but the cabin was on the 747 quite warm at times. We flew far enough north to see the icepack on the Arctic Ocean.

The final leg was the exciting one, it took much longer to load the plane, then we were in a long line to take off. Storms all along the route from Tokyo to Beijing caused route changes, and headwinds slowed us as well. Thunderstorms along the final 300 miles made for a very bumpy ride the whole way. We arrived in Beijing 45 minutes late, and finally got to the Poly Plaza Hotel about 11:30pm.