Day 1 – PIE Travelers Arrived

Our experience began at 3:30 AM, Monday, May 15…..it was finally here!  We met at the Raleigh-Durham Airport.  Everyone was very excited to be heading to China.  The early morning arrival and the looming long flight dampened the excitement….ever so slightly.  We made it through security without any issues and spent the rest of the time sleeping in the airport of finding food.  Our first flight departed at 6:45 AM for Newark, NJ.  WE landed in Newark around 9:00 AM and made our way to our terminal….only to find out we were delayed for two hours due to maintenance issues.  Finally, we left Newark at 1:00 PM and were in the air for 15 hours.  The majority of the time on the plane was spent sleeping or watching movies.  Approximataley 140 movies were watched during the duration of the flight.  The inflight entertainment system had to be rebooted twice, this causes some concern because no one could imagine a 15 hour flight without inflight entertainment. We were fed two meals on the plane as well as snacks.  Both flights were fairly smooth.

by guest blogger Bryan Wall and Emily Bohn