June 20, 2017 – Long Day’s Journey Into Night Into Day June 21, 2017
It’s gonna be one of those days. The shuttle to the airport is picking us up at 11 am so we can catch our flight at 3 pm Tana time on the 20th and arrive at the home airport at 11 am local time on the 21st. With the time change, that means we’re looking at a 30 hour travel day… 16 of which is spent from Johannesburg to Atlanta.
Last night at dinner, I overhead a large table next to me talking about their Madagascar tour itinerary.
One person was discussing their trip that morning to the Queen’s Palace. I chuckled silently thinking, “been there, done that.” How quickly we assume an arrogant knowingness about a place. How undeserved that arrogance truly is.
This morning, having slept middlingly (which is I suppose a massive improvement from the prior two nights), we grabbed breakfast from the buffet and sat outside, basking in the last morning of Malagasy.
I had one of my favorite chocolate croissants the world over… then decided, “screw it!” And so I then had cookies for breakfast.
***
Our shuttle bus to the airport, again 6.8 miles away, was scheduled for 11 am and we left right on time.
We arrived at 12:40 pm.
In between we saw the traffic sights one last time…
…and while this isn’t texting and driving it’s reading text and driving. Although maybe not driving. More like crawling…
…Mom was good enough to ask about the KH ovals on the back of vehicles.
I assumed they were like the GB for Great Britain or OB for Outer Banks that people affix to their rear windshields. I figured maybe KH was short for a region in Madagascar or was one of the 19 tribes. Nope. Turns out it’s the speed limit for that vehicle in kilometers per hour. I guess I’ve seen trucks with restricted speeds posted in their trailers. Still, funny to think about having speed limits posted on the cars rather than on the roads.
Perhaps my favorite moment of the trip came when I asked Thom, “this may be a facetious question, but did you have to meet with BOTH joint mayors or how did that work?” And Thom said they were co-mayors but he didn’t quite know how it worked… then he followed it up with, “Did you know “facetious” is one of five English words that has all of the vowels in sequence?”
Me (sincerely): “Wow! That’s a great bar bet, pub trivia question. What are the others?”
Thom (regretfully): I knew you were going to ask me that! I know one is “arsenious.” And I can’t remember the others. But the key is to focus on the “iou” suffix and then think about “a” then “e” prefixes.
Rich, a founder of Marathon Globetrotters, chimed in trying to figure it out. The whole bus started puzzling it out. It got a bit over my head in Latin roots and etymology and after a brief period we all kinda fell out of the discussion. But it was fun hearing these two guys continue to talk words. I told them both they’d be great in that final round of pub trivia.
We passed the US Embassy which I wasn’t supposed to take a photo of… but when something like this goes by, well, you have to take your shot. I mean, if this guy got in accident it wouldn’t matter, right? It’s like when a pillow truck overturns. There can’t be any damage, right? It’s like one huge airbag deployed!
As we crawled along the road, waiting for three lanes of traffic to merge into two, then one… I saw what might have been the most upsetting thing in this world.
This guy was wearing a Duke shirt! I wish I had had a Tar Heels one in my carry on–I could’ve hopped off the bus and given it to him to help right a wrong.
Now that’s facetious.
Say… did you know “facetious” is one of five English words that has the all of the vowels in order?
The others are (and apparently there are at least seven…)
Arsenious
Abstemious – indulging only moderately in food and drink
Acheilous – having one or both lips absent
Anemious – growing in windy situations’, Caesious ‘bluish or greyish green’
Annelidous ‘belonging to the phylum Annelida’.
Source: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/words-with-all-five-vowels-in-order
***
Leg 1 : TNR to JNB. Estimated flight time: 3:22
Despite explicitly asking the gate agent to ensure Mom had an aisle seat, he split up our assignments AND put Mom in a window. You know what isn’t an aisle by any definition when the seats are configured two on the left and three on the right? A window. Sigh. fortunately as an international flight wine was free so Mom had a bit of white wine and seemed ok with things.
I spent the time alternating between a book and a few TV shows I was trying to catch up on.
Oh, and “enjoying” this inflight meal. The quotes are accurate, as only in a mock enthused air-quotes-in-written-form manner could I qualify this unappetizing chicken pasta salad as “enjoyable.” Yeesh.
***
Leg 2 – JNB to ATL. Estimated flight time: 15:54
On top of fighting this head cold, I’m having multiple withdrawal symptoms. I have at least two addictions: running and Diet Coke (delirious 36,000 feet, hour four of sixteen idea – consider buying domain DietCokeKevinDietCoke.com). There’s not enough room on this plane to run and I’m on a window seat so it’s hard to get out into the aisle anyway. But the one big upshot of this flight is they have Diet Coke so I’m trying to get that monkey back on my back. That’s the old saying? When a monkey falls off your back you gotta get that monkey back on up there again?
And because I’m trying to kill some germs I’m having wine whenever offered. That’s a thing too, right? Alcohol is great for killing germs? And it is basically a cure-all for what ails ya?
Food photos of this leg… it’s not food porn, it’s documentation of food abuses:
Dinner
Mid flight snack
Breakfast
Non-Spoiler In-Flight Movie Review: Shin Godzilla was pretty good… even if it had a weird runtime.
***
Leg 3 – ATL to MCO. Estimated Flight Time: 1:01 after a three hour layover… a three hour layover…
There wasn’t enough time to watch anything and to be honest at this point the bags under my eyes could’ve used bellhops to carry them anyway. I spent the hour playing the games on the Delta entertainment system.
I apparently am “terrible.” Thank you, Delta. Thank you so very, very much.
***
An exhausted selfie on home soil at touchdown:
Thanks for putting up with me, Mom!
Now I’m off to see the doctor to try and score some anti-parasite and antibiotics for low grade malaria. As a friend of mine facetiously emailed me recently, “Who would have thought a marathon in Madagascar could have a [health] downside?”
Say, did you know “facetious” is one of only a few English words with all the vowels appearing in alphabetical order?