Annual Leave 2011 Epilogue

So I was in Florida and enjoyed visiting my mother and some old high school friends that still live in the area. The weather was on-and-off with a mix of rain and sunshine,It was good smelling the the fresh Gulf of Mexico air and not having to deal with the desert dust. I felt more relaxed than I had in a long time and the days flew by all too quickly. On my final day, I was having some beers with friends and it became time for me to leave for my 9PM flight to Las Vegas. I drove home and packed my things and headed for the airport. I checked in at 7:55PM, checked the rental car in and headed toward the security gauntlet.

Gulf of Mexico

Best Beaches in Florida if not the World

This is where my nightmare started. I went through the x ray and metal detectors but at the end of the line I was confronted by a TSA agent holding a factory sealed package I had bought at a pharmacy earlier. He said there were unknown liquids in there and he would not let me go without a further screening. I was unaware of the liquids and asked what I could do to mitigate the problem. He said he had to throw away the item. I said that since I had spent $40USD for it that I wasn't too keen on that idea. A discussion ensued and the agent's supervisor had to become involved. We all finally came to an agreement that I had to put the liquids into a clear baggie and I was finally free to go. As I walked from the security area, another TSA agent gleefully announced to me that my flight had already left. Bitch!

Security Theater

That left me in a pickle as there was not a flight until the next night which would necessitate razor sharp planning to get to Chicago for my Abu Dhabi flight the next day and I was still stuck in Florida. There are a few things wrong with this. First, I checked in on time with Vision Airlines (who by the way lost my bags on the inbound trip), second, TSA delayed me way too long in the security line. It was a small airport and I was the only passenger in the queue. Thirdly, when a passenger checks in and is known to be delayed in security, the flight is held, this did not happen. I have been in the airline business for over 12 years...I know.. 5 minutes earlier and I would have made the flight. They pushed away from the gate anyway.


The 9/11 guys ended up winning anyway because every US citizen is treated as a felon when attempting to board a flight as a result. Now there are backscatter units that see through clothes and exposes the victim to radiation that would rival Hiroshima doses.

Land of the Free?

.The particular airport I departed Florida from recently had some bad publicity by making a 95 year old woman in a wheelchair take off her adult diapers before she could board her flight. I am all for security and stuff but it has gone too far. If any passenger starts acting hinckey during a flight, they will get their ass whipped by the other passengers. If that fails, there are firearms onboard carried by certain authorized personnel. No one is going to get away with another 9/11 stunt again.

So the next night I boarded my redeye to Las Vegas. All liquids were bagged per orders so I got on the flight. I landed in Vegas around 2 AM and proceeded to drive the 2 1/2 hours through an inky black desert night to St. George where I had to leave for Chicago via Salt Lake City to catch my flight to Abu Dhabi.

I got to St. George just in time to collect some of my stuff I left there and get to the airport. I was already tired from the transcon flight to Vegas and the drive so I slept on the way to Salt Lake City. St. George has a brand spanking new airport.

KDXZ

 

 

US, Utah and St. George flags

I had a 4 hour layover there before my sector to Chicago so I got a few beers. Salt Lake City is a very passenger friendly airport. Time to go to Chicago and I slept most of the way after this sumptuous breakfast.

MMMM...Three or Four Peanuts and a Can of Beer!

 Another grueling 4 hour wait for my 14 hour flight to Abu Dhabi but the Chicago terminal was nice. I fed and watered for the long time enroute and was happy to get a business class seat. The flight went quite quick and I was lucky to meet one of my bosses in duty-free upon arrival in Abu Dhabi, he gave me a lift to my flat.

All in all I spent almost 48 hours in transit that last day. I DO not want to do that any time again soon. I had a good time and felt very relaxed back home and was thrilled to see family and friends.

Saying that, things are bad back there economically. A lot of my friends are in danger of losing assets and savings. The government doesn't seem to care and is doing nothing for the average citizen. I know things are relative and the US is still quite wealthy compared to most parts of the world but stuff seems to be winding down back home. Maybe it is the inevitable ebb and flow of nations and cultures but it is still sad. We have no one to blame but ourselves, however. We had a good thing and we screwed it up.

Annual Leave 2011 Part 1

On the 29th I returned to Abu Dhabi after over 3 weeks in the US. I had a good time and the trip was very productive for a change as I got a lot of business done as well as having some fun along the way. As always, it was great to see friends and family. It was almost like I never left as everyone looked and behaved the same. That was comforting as I need that consistency in my life. Some folks were undergoing changes because of some personal and/or financial reasons but overall things had not changed much.

The places I visited are on this link to Google Maps.

I arrived in New York, New York (the city so nice, they named it twice!) on the 9th and checked into a hotel room near the airport as it was too late to continue out West that night. I turned on the television and was shocked at the amount of advertisements! Ten minutes of content are interrupted by five minutes of commercials for medicines and food. I wondered if this was all people were interested in. One channel had what I consider one of the evils in the USA, the evangelistic, pseudo Christian "snake oil" preachers that sell false hope to people who are experiencing hard times.

Watch Your Wallet!

"Miracle" Spring Water

Wish it Was This Easy!

Anyway, this was entertaining for awhile thinking the Deity could erase my debts just by dripping some water on my noggin. May be worth a try! If it worked, I guarantee I would have a much happier expression on my face than the woman above.

New York was experiencing a record heat wave when I was there. It was 98 degrees F, the hottest since 1933. I was dripping sweat the whole time. I fared better than most as I am acclimated to the harsh UAE climate.

Ther next day I boarded a Delta Airlines flight to Salt Lake City and ultimately to St. George, Utah. The flights went uneventfully except the young lady sitting next to me slept on her tray table most of the way. When the tray tables were ordered up on descent, she slept against the seatback movie screen and I suggested to her friend that we secure a pillow in case of a rough landing so she won't bruise her rather attractive face. Must have been a long previous night!

I arrived in St. George and stayed at a friend's house. I was delighted that his two dogs remembered me and were happy to see me. For the next few days they were my constant companions.

Rayo the Boxer Dog

Bailey the Golden Retriever

Rayo and Bailey Clowning Around

Dogs have no sense of time. I could go outside for 3 minutes but when I came back in it was like I had been gone for ages and they would jump all over me like I was never coming back. I miss my furry buddies!

I flew back up to Salt Lake City to meet another friend and we went to Wendover, Nevada for some gambling and debauchery at the casinos there. Wendover is about 110 miles due west from Salt Lake City. It is where all the Mormons go to be naughty. Border towns in Nevada offer a stark contrast to the straight-laced Utah residents.

The way to Wendover is an arrow-straight interstate highway through some of the most unique lands in the world. It passes through the Bonneville Salt Flats which are well known for land speed record attempts. Every winter it rains and melts the natural salt. In the summer, the water evaporates and leaves a perfectly flat bed of bright white salt which covers hundreds of square miles.Good for racing!

Train on the Original "Gold Spike" Route

Bonneville Salt Flats

Bonneville Salt Flats

Strange Sculpture in the Desert

The ride to Wendover was fun. In addition to the above sights, I saw a weird airship hovering north of the motorway. It looked like a stationary radar blimp but no tethering lines were visible. I am not saying this craft is anything out of the ordinary but it is rumored that since Area 51 north of  Las Vegas got so much publicity, the government moved a lot of clandestine activities to the Dugway Proving Grounds in northwest Utah near where we were driving. As far as I know, the US military has not flown blimps since the 1930's. There are many restricted areas there and it is very remote.

WTF is This?

??????

Aliens?

We got to Wendover successfully without being abducted and probed by Martians. I spent three days there in the Nugget and lost 2 weeks pay. I had fun anyway playing craps and blackjack. Wendover is  home to some very strange people due to the isolation and proliferation of drugs.There is nothing there but gambling.,alcohol and crystal meth which attracts the fringe.

The Nugget

Wendover Casino

Wendover Casino

I flew back to St. George after the junket and had to take care of some business there. I had to get the laptop repaired, new tires on the car, a visit to the bank, a haircut and meeting up with friends, not necessarily in that order.

Back to St. George, Great Salt Lake Below

Snow Still on the Wasatch Mountains

Part 2 will be my journey to Las Vegas and Florida. Much to tell there.

Best Laid Plans II

It is Summer again and that means it is time for my annual leave back to the homeland. It has been over a year since I have graced (or befouled, depending on your political and/or moral leanings) my nation of birth.

The US, Something For Everyone!

I get asked all the time why I don't get back to the USA more often. Due to my vocation, I have the means and time to do so. The simple answer is that the taxman is to blame. He keeps me away from friends and family for all but a mere 30 days a year or he will make claim of a rather large percentage of the income I earn in foreign lands.


I have complained about this before. American citizens living and working overseas are penalized if they dare spend over a month back home during a year. Family emergency, screw you...you pay,  miss a flight, screw you... you pay,  break a leg and need hospital time, screw you...you pay. Get the idea? No other country treats its expatriot citizens this harshly. As a veteran of the US Navy, I am not amused. I served my country and now they hold this sword over my head.

I find this wrong on many levels. As an expat, I put no burden on the US infrastructure and I don't add to the massive debt and deficit. I feel like I am actually doing the government a favor by not living there. They don't have to feed and house me or provide me with medical care. They don't have to worry about policing me or collecting my garbage but for some reason they feel the need to stick me for taxes if I don't follow some lame random rules anyway. Even when I live 8000 miles away and have not earned a penny in the US for years. It is MY money not theirs!

Internal Revenue Service

Anyway, rant over. I am due to fly back home in a couple of days, and I am apprehensive about it. I should be happy and excited, but instead I sense a dark foreboding. I am clueless to why that is.

The first thing that happened is that a good friend/ex- coworker and I planned to meet here 4 days in advance of my departure. She was to fly from the US, we would see some sights then fly back together on my departure date back to JFK and go our own ways from there.

Simple, huh? Not quite. She was standby and got bumped off the flight from JFK to Abu Dhabi in a rare occasion where everyone actually showed up on time for the flight. Not one of the ~300 seats went unfilled.  It was an abort at the last minute. She ended up going back to her home.

I had delayed my departure to the US due to her visit and now have 4 empty days in Abu Dhabi eating into my valuable annual leave time. I could alter my plans and leave Abu Dhabi earlier but it is cost prohibitive to change my employer supplied JFK to Utah discount tickets on Delta airlines. Even if I did eat this cost and go through the gyrations of changing my itinerary (nothing is easy here!), all I would gain is 2 days because the travel center is closed today and the earliest I could possibly leave is the 6th instead of the 8th.

This is a perfect example of the "Butterfly Effect" where it is theorized that the presence or absence of a butterfly flapping its wings in a certain time or place may trigger the presence or absence of a hurricane in another time or place. In other words, series of minor, unrelated events add up to alter the lives of others. If just one passenger was delayed in NYC traffic and couldn't make the flight, my friend could have gotten a seat and my plans would have been realized and theirs would not.

Uh Oh,  Could Be Trouble!

We are not as in control of our existence as we like to think, everything is interconnected and our lives are determined by random things that happen near and far. For example, think about the circumstances surrounding the meeting your significant other. Most likely the meeting was the result of purely random choices, location and timing. Muslims have a good word for this, Inshallah. Loosely translated to, "If God is willing, it will happen". I am not sure about a deity being involved, but I think for the most part, we are just along for the ride with little personal influence in the outcome. There are just too many outside factors beyond our control.

Anyway, I will chronicle my upcoming visit back home in words and photos again as I did last year. Those posts seemed to be very popular and I will try to outdo myself this year. I plan on visits to NYC, Utah, Las Vegas, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Chicago. Even though the start of my holiday was not auspicious with the failure of my friend's trip, I hope to have many adventures and stories to tell, Inshallah!

Count on the USA, Haiti

The USA is maligned sometimes but the world has to understand that my country is ready to come to the aid of innocent people caught up in natural disasters. Anywhere, anytime! We are usually the firstest with the mostest.

And us Americans are all for it.

We will open our hearts and wallets for you all.

You get hurt, we will help you as we have much and are generous.

We have made mistakes but the world is better for our influence overall

Haiti will survive because we are there to help . Many lives will be saved from the US efforts.

Americans are good folks and wish nothing but the best for our friends

On the flip-side, you mess with  us and you will live to regret it

How much aid is the Taliban sending to Haiti?

I am so proud of the humanitarian efforts my government and fellow citizens are making to help our neighbors in Haiti.

Count on us. we will do our best!