Nomad Life - Day 78

Today’s the big day - Vacation starts!  I slept a little better last night but still had several interruptions that made my early wake up (with alarm) at 0400 difficult. Regardless, I started teleworking immediately and kept at it until it was time to go to breakfast at 0645.  After checking out the beach on the way back to my room (0700), I continued teleworking.  At 1030, I started to pack up my car and, by 1100, I checked out of my room.  Since my work day wasn’t complete, I continued teleworking in the parking lot of the NAS North Island Navy Lodge until 1130.  After wrapping up my work day, week and month, I went to get gas at the NEX Fuel Station - on the way there, I saw several aircraft carriers at the pier.  The pumps were very busy (long lines) but I was glad to only be paying $4.23 per gallon, rather than the $5+ that was advertised right outside the front gate of the Base.  After topping off my tank (1140), I walked around inside the Exchange and Commissary until I’d gotten about half of my step goal for the day.  Before departing North Island, I did a bit more packing/repacking (including redoing bags, resetting the car and adding to my rooftop storage).  Feeling satisfied that it was time to leave, I made my way off of Coronado Island and got on I-5.  As I drove through San Diego and up the coast, it was great to see that weather was beautiful again (70s, sunny).  I passed the time with audiobooks and ate lunch in the car (sandwiches and chips from previous day).  During my drive north, there were a lot of slow downs but the worst of them seemed to be related to a major Marine Corps exercise that was taking place at Camp Pendleton - wow!  I later used I-405 to reach El Segundo and arrived at my hotel, the Cambria near LAX, at 1545.  Almost immediately, I was able to check in at the front desk for my Park-Sleep-Fly package. I’d considered buying a day use pass but ended up deciding to camp out in the lobby for the next four hours.  While waiting, I had a chance to join Happy Hour for a few beers and then got dinner (3 sliders and garlic fries).  The time passed quickly while I was watching baseball but, by 1730, I was done with my meal and needed to find something new.  I spent the next hour walking in the parking lot until I got my 10K steps and more (prepping for my upcoming lost day).  After that point, I rested in the lobby until it was time to catch my airport shuttle (2000).  Unfortunately, it was then that I began to realize what a busy travel day Friday was for LAX - the shuttle didn’t show up and it took some juggling and a bit of faith to get going.  Fortunately, I finally (after weathering a madhouse of traffic) arrived at the International Terminal and located the airline counter for EVA Airways (Taiwanese airline).  After checking myself in at the kiosk, printing boarding passes and bag tags, I located the bag drop line.  While waiting in the big queue (always "fun"), I saw some other people with Viking bag tags and talked to them - they said they were going from Hong Kong to Bangkok aboard "Viking Orion".  This confused me, since I thought that the cruise was onboard "Viking Venus", but I later learned that there were multiple ships using a similar itinerary but on a different schedule (spaced out a few days).  When I finally weighed my two bags at the counter, I found out that they were around 10 kg (22 pounds) and a bit more than 7 kg (15 pounds) - not a bad job on the packing!  Time seemed to be going slowly but I caught a break with a super fast TSA Pre-Check line.  By the time I made it through to the gate area, I realized it had only taken me one hour from when I got picked up by the shuttle!  That also meant that I had almost three hours to wait for boarding… I passed the time with social media posts, some reading and a review of my cruise itinerary.  During this time, I saw lots of Asian travelers and tried to make sense of several multilingual announcements.  Boarding for my aircraft began at 2340 and I was soon sitting in an aisle seat near the back of the EVA Airways B777.  I'd initially thought (because I'd had to make my own seat selection) that I had a middle seat open next to me - sadly, I didn’t end up that lucky.  As the crew prepared for departure, it became clear that Chinese will definitely be the primary language for the journey.  But that only makes the start of my Southeast Asia Adventure more real.  After more than 78 days, 7500 miles of driving, 23 states and visits with many, many of my friends and relatives, I’ve completed first phase of my Nomad Life.  Far East here I come!