Dean's Airport Adventure

What follows is something Dean gave me permission to post. The scooter he's talking about here is a Celebrity X. He just got his TravelScoot this week and promises he'll share his adventures with us.

March, 2010
5:00 AM: Sunday Seoul Korea time. Dean, up, showers and packs bags.

7:45 AM: My driver shows up to take me to the airport. He speaks no English but thinks if you make loud noises you'll understand. I think he told me it was an honor and a privilege to drive me but he could be saying "You sure travel heavy with 2 bags and a 200 pound mobility scooter".  We shook hands and I rolled into the Seoul airport at about...

9:00 AM: The check in people alerted me that they won't let me take my scooter to the gate and insist I be taken in a wheelchair so off I go needlessly. I have learned to not disagree...just do whatever happens.

They take me up to the Business class lounge and I sit and wait.

Finally at 11:00 am they take me to the gate and I walk on.  Everyone seemed to think that I should be skipping or something.......

1:00 PM: Arrive at Tokyo airport. Up rolls my mobility scooter. An older guy, bald with buck teeth, appears and he is to be my guide.  I crank up the speed and we sprint along at 6 miles/hour.  I wondered if he would tire but he was running along happy and not even breathing heavy. He said, "My friends call me Rabbit.. haha.. bald and big teeth and I'm fast."  We literally went a mile and he never cracked a sweat.

When I got to the ANA checkin it then began an amazing thing that only could happen in Japan.  The guy was very concerned about my mobility scooter. I explained it used a dry cell, which is what is required.  I was then taken by Rabbit up to the Business Lounge and I took a shower..... then the ANA guy showed up accompanied by an electrical engineer who took apart my scooter to understand if it presented a threat to the airplane.  Typical Japanese style though; they needed a group decision. So the manager of ANA came up and looked at it.  I think I need to carry a schemetic drawing next time....

4:00 PM: Down to the gate and waited to board. A young stewardess came up to me and it was very obvious she didn't know what to say to me so she looked at me and said, "I like your sunglasses".....damn, I used to make women blush and now they like my sunglasses. Onto the plane I went and my scooter, ever beat up by this trip, went slowly away with all 5 of the technical people from the airlines watching it warily.  I settled into my seat for the 12 hour flight.  Luckily I was sitting next to one of Steve Job's executives from Apple and we spoke about Macintosh and I-Pads and I-pods for hours over good food and drink.

9:00 AM: When we got to San Francisco they had another young person meet me and an old man who informed me he must push me in a wheelchair.... my mobility scooter mysteriously showed up and I cranked it up and headed up to United for my flight to Phx.  The staff there went through the normal "Is that a drycell?".... I got on the plane and gladly flew home. When we landed an obnoxious United person came on and screamed "Get off the plane. We are going to reload the plane." I explained I was waiting for my mobility scooter..... even her fellow stewardesses were offended by her rudeness to me. I was too tired to even respond; possibly would have cried which is sort of embarrasing at 59.  Went down, found my bags, and outside sat my wife..... home at last... I'm HOME.